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10 August 2004
One Door Closes, Two More
Open
Pocket Books, a
division of Simon &
Schuster, owned by Viacom, is closing down both their western
program and their mystery program. So, the first in my Owlhoot Trail
Series,
ABILENE
GUN DOWN, under a 3-book contract, will be the only book published
in that series.
Pocket will return all proposals and manuscripts and pay the full
amount to all authors, which include me,
Robert J. Randisi,
Dusty Richards,
and, perhaps, some others. As the publishing companies are gobbled up by
huge mega-corporations, the bean counters want big numbers, period.
Pocket’s western
program never had a chance. In effect, it was stillborn.
Now, there are only 4 publishers active in producing western novels,
Forge (Tom
Doherty & Associates),
Leisure,
Berkley, and
Harper/Collins, Five, if you count NAL/Signet, which is part of the
Berkley Group (Penguin/Putnam).
I am just completing my second, and last, Ralph Compton Trail Drive
series novel for
NAL/Signet, THE ELLSWORTH TRAIL. I bowed out of writing any more
books in this series, since, for me, it’s a dead end street. Others will
continue writing the series.
Samantha Mandor, the new editor at
Berkley, replacing Kim Lionetti, who left to join her friends at the
Bookends Literary
Agency, just bought 4 books from me, single title, THE SUNDOWN MAN,
and a new series, THE SAVAGE GUN, which carries a 3-book contract. This
is in addition to my other new series at Berkley, THE VIGILANTE, which I
will write this month and next.
The addition of these four books crowds my already crowded schedule, but
I’m glad to have contracts running into 2008. I still have 2 novels to
write in The Baron series for
Forge and
will write one of those after I finish the first Vigilante.
I spoke before the Saturday Writers, in St. Charles, Missouri, on July
31st, having been invited there by Donna Volkennant and Lou Turner. This
group is part of
Missouri Writers Guild and is very active. Lou threw a party the
night before at her lovely home, and Charlotte and I were escorted there
by Donna. We had a most enjoyable evening, and were delighted to see Pat
and Dusty Richards there, along with Bob Randisi and Marthayn
Pelligrimas. They were also at my talk the next day, and Marthayn’s son,
Marcus, also attended. He, too, is a writer. Bob and Marthayn are
presenting a workshop at
Ozarks
Writers League in Branson this month. Bob writes westerns and
mysteries and Marthayn writers mysteries. We’ll be there for that, the
3rd Saturday in August.
My dear friend, Wanda Fincher, recently won first place in a television
writing contest, and her pilot will be produced, she’ll have an agent
for a year, and other perks. I’m very proud of her. And, friend
David Flack, The Accelerator Coach, will speak at an author’s
conference in Atlanta next week, his first as an author. David just
finished co-authoring a book with Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer and Mark
Victor. I’m very proud of David’s accomplishments, as well.
Until next time, write the best you can and don’t worry about a thing.
Jory Sherman
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