Pushing through the odds

Nevets is posting a series on his blog, of pearls of wisdom from published authors.

My humble contribution appeared today: how I dealt with the knowledge that agents receive 10,000 submissions a year, from which they might sign one or two.  Doesn't sound good odds, does it?  Hop on over to see why, in fact, those numbers are irrelevant.


I've been very quiet online recently, for a good reason: my sheer desperation to finish the third ms before Christmas, at least to the state where I can give it to others to check.  For the last four weeks I've been saying it'll be finished tomorrow.  Now, I have only two pages left to revise, plus some minor fixes and a few logic problems that surfaced when I wrote the explanation of how the crime was committed.  (I always spot inconsistencies when I write that bit...surprisingly, they're always easy to fix).

So I'm revising my standard chant:  it won't be finished tomorrow; it'll be finished today.

Which is a good thing because our Christmas street party is tonight.

Think your editor is tough? Try this one.

Back in the days when gladiators hacked away at each other, there was always the man who decided whether the defeated should live or die.  The job is usually given to the Emperor in movies, but in fact any senior man could have been the designated thumbs-up-thumbs-down guy.  

The official title for this fellow was...the editor.   (evil laughter in background)

Casting the (nonexistent) movie

I was asked by Marshal Zeringue, how I would cast The Pericles Commission if it were made into a movie. I was allowed to pick any actors I liked throughout time. I took him up on that offer.

My partial cast for The Pericles Commission is on his blog: My Book, The Movie.

It will make more sense if you've read the book. If you have, I'd be fascinated to know your own cast list.

SPOILER ALERT: Discussion of casting inevitably runs the risk of spoilers, if only because it requires listing characters and their relationships. People sensitive to spoilers who haven't read the book yet should not read the comments to this post!

(...and to those making comments, please be sensitive to the problem. Thanks!)

Pericles Commission #16 on Google's ebook bestseller list

Yesterday I got an email from Carolyn Kellogg at the LA Times, asking how it felt to be #16 on Google's ebook bestseller list.

I replied, "What?"

So I checked. Then I went into shock.

(You might need to click the image to see it in all its glory)



Carolyn wrote an article, on how Pericles Commission is the only unexpected entry in the bestseller list. It was certainly unexpected by me! Not that I'm complaining, you understand.

So I've been pondering how this happy event managed to occur, because I'm keeping very, very impressive company on that page.

The sales numbers must be relatively small, since we're looking at only one day of trading since Google's ebookstore went online, but they give the expected result for everyone else, so sales must be sufficiently large to avoid randomness. The only conclusion I can reach is that my readers are more than usually tech-savvy early adopters. But you'd know that better than me. What do you think?

I presume I'll fall off the list after the next update, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts!