This might be of interest to those of you who are writing or trying to sell an sf novel. I've just signed the contracts for a multi-novel deal with HarperCollins that account for my nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first book deals (not counting book club or foreign rights sales), and I have got them all without having an agent pitch and secure an offer. Sometimes, as with this one, I have had an agent negotiate terms after I've received an offer, but I have never yet followed the standard pattern of first get agent, then get deal.
I've done it largely by schmoozing, at cons (at panels and in the dealers room), at writers conferences, via introductions from one writer or editor to another, sometimes through a query letter. Here's how I took my latest step forward:
It began with getting to know Lou Anders, before he was at Pyr. I used to see him at cons and we would schmooze. When I was pitching my three Henghis Hapthorn novels, Lou was interested but my numbers were not good enough to appease the bean counters at Prometheus, which owns Pyr. But at the 2007 World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga, he very kindly introduced me to Marc Gascoigne, then publisher of Solaris Books. I followed up by pitching Marco with an idea for a theologically based fantasy. He was considering it when the game company that owned Solaris decided they could operate it with just a few interns. End of that opportunity.
But a few weeks later, I saw in the trades that HarperCollins UK had very sensibly scooped up Marco to head a new boutique sf imprint called Angry Robot. I renewed the pitch for the theologically based fantasy and, after a very long time, the response from Marco's team was that it sounded a little too literary for their style.
When I got that news I was writing a contemporary fantasy novelette about a man who accidentally causes Hell to go on strike and comes out of it as what he'd always wanted to be: a caped crimefighter. Believing in the "get right back on the horse" rule, I instantly shot the 15,000 words of rough draft to Marco. He got back to me in a couple of days and said he liked it. When it was 21,000 words and polished (and ready to send to Gordon Van Gelder, the editor I'd had in mind when I started writing it), I sent Angry Robot the full version.
Angry Robot liked it a great deal. Could I flesh out where the story would go? I did. More weeks went by. I emailed, and yes they were definitely interested, would work up a few numbers and get back to me. Weeks later, I heard from GVG; he was buying the novelette, so I relayed that news to Marco and said, "I appreciate your interest, but perhaps I should be showing this to other houses."
That rang the bell; Marco said AR would definitely be making a two-book offer with an option for a third. At that point, realizing that this would be a more complex deal than the small press contracts I've been dealing with, I went looking for a UK-based agent. The agent made the deal as three books with an option for a fourth and now the formalities are finished.
The novelette I sent to F&SF , now abridged to 16,000 words and entitled "Hell of a Fix," will be the cover story in the December/January issue.
Now I just have to write the books.
