May also brought me some writing good news! An Unspeakable Crime won the Gold Medal in the Juvenile-Teens-YA Nonfiction category of the Independent Publisher Book Awards, otherwise known as an IPPY Award. As one of my friends pointed out: how cool is it to win an award that rhymes with Yippee!!
For those who are interested in the business side of the writing life, most publishers pay writers their royalties twice a year: in April and in October. The royalties in April are paid based on sales figures in the second half of the previous year; and the royalties in October are paid based on sales figures in the first half of that year. Some publishers pay writers on 1 April and some publishers pay writers on 30 April, according to their in-house accounting procedures. So by the time the Post Office delivers my mail, I receive a portion of my royalties in May. That means I found out in May 2011 how my sales in the second half of 2010 went. (Not too badly.) But this May I got a surprise!
My royalties include book sales and subrights rights sales (sales of rights to businesses, as opposed to sales of physical or e-books). Some years ago, a movie company optioned one of my books, Counterfeit Son, and since renewed the option. Well, sometimes in the fall of 2010, they decided to exercise the option, and their payment showed up in my April royalty check, which I received in May. That means my book is going to be the basis for a movie!
I think that calls for another May Yippee, even if it is June now.
Wow! Congratulations, Elaine...on the award for An Unspeakable Crime and for the upcoming movie of Counterfeit Son!! Any chance they will hire you to write the screenplay? :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Teresa! I'm pretty excited - unfortunately, they've got some Hollywood screenwriter to write the screenplay. Guess we'll see how that works out!
ReplyDeleteOh. Oh, wow.
ReplyDeleteIt's nervous-making to think what a Hollywood screenwriter will do with Counterfeit Son, but that doesn't affect the money in the bank. I believe Christopher Isherwood never saw *Cabaret* because his friends told him he'd hate it, so he decided to leave the mouths of gift horses alone. Maybe you should get a friend to screen this for you. It could be awhile, anyway. And it could be really good, with a new movie tie-in edition and everything!
An award and a movie deal! Congrats! Counterfeit Son is such a gripping book - it will make a GREAT movie!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Peni and Anastasia - Peni, your comments reflect my own worries, but as you say, that doesn't affect the money in the bank. And it could be a terrific movie! Definitely, May was a great month for good news. : )
ReplyDeleteI loved Counterfeit Son--what a great story and how exciting the movie option. I worked with Unspeakable Crime writing curriculum for Janet Allen's Plugged-in to Reading. It's a core novel in a nonfiction kit of books and teaching materials. I learned so much during the process. Thank you and congratulations on the award!
ReplyDeleteI wish there would be a second book of Counterfeit Son just would love to know his life with the family and dealing with it. Best of luck!
ReplyDelete