Virtual Author Visit with Ms. Rosemary McCracken

[Bobbie Crawford-McCoy]

 

A warm welcome to author, Rosemary.

 

Author Bio: Rosemary McCracken is a Canadian journalist. Born and raised in Montreal, she has worked on newspapers across Canada as a reporter, arts reviewer, editorial writer and editor.
She is now a freelance journalist who specializes in personal finance and the financial services industry. She advocates greater investor protection, and improved financial services industry regulation and enforcement.
Rosemary’s short fiction has been published by Room of One’s Own Press and Kaleidoscope Books.
Safe Harbor is her first published novel. It was shortlisted for Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger in 2010.
Rosemary lives in Toronto with her husband, and makes frequent retreats to her stone cottage in Ontario’s Haliburton Highlands.

 

"A funny thing happened on the way to getting published" by Rosemary McCracken

It's a changing literary landscape out there, with more changes happening every day.
Last year, my mystery novel Safe Harbor was shortlisted for Britain's Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger, an award given to the best unpublished novel written in English in the world. I thought it was my ticket to the big times: a high-profile literary agent, and then a contract with Penguin Books or Random House. An international bestseller!
It happened to Canada's Louise Penny, New York Times bestselling mystery writer, and to Dorothy McIntosh, Toronto-based author of The Witch of Babylon.
But the times had changed in the publishing world. Several agents approached me, but they wanted one book that would be a guaranteed bestseller. They wanted a thriller. Safe Harbor is an it-can-happen to you book that's full of suspense and intrigue, but not quite as high up on the thriller scale as agents were looking for.
So I stopped running after agents and started looking at the handful of mid-size publishers and small presses that take unsolicited manuscripts. Most offer somewhere in the range of 10% royalties on the retail price and expect their author to be out marketing their books around the continent, signing books at book stores reading at libraries, you name it. For 10% royalties or 99 cents on a $9.99 novel. That didn't sound very fair.
Yet an author who publishes on Amazon will get 70% on their ebooks after delivery costs. That's $6.99 on a novel that retails for $9.99.
Still, I wasn't ready to go the indie-publishing route. At this point in my career, I needed to the recognition that someone wanted to publish my work — a stamp of approval, if you like, that my book was a good read and a marketable entity.
Then along came Imajin Books, based in Edmonton, Alta. I first heard of them this past winter when Melodie Campbell, Crime Writers' of Canada's executive director, secured a contract for her comic romance, Rowena Through The Wall. She told me a bit about the company and I followed up by checking out its website.
Imajin offers 50% royalties on e-books and 30% on trade paperbacks. An extremely good deal for authors because Imajin doesn't just put books on the Internet. It's a traditional publishing house and its publisher Cheryl Tardif works with her authors. She asks for input all the way along, from ideas about book cover art to jacket copy. She has an editing and artistic team in place. She provides nifty little book trailers, soundbite ads that can be sent online to readers and bloggers anywhere in the world. She's started online marketing forum for Imajin authors. And much more.
It's a bit of a learning curve for me. It means getting up to speed on online marketing. I now have a blog and a website is in the works. I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And I'm learning to use them to promote myself and my book. I'm quickly becoming adept at shameless self-promotion!

 

Rosemary has had two short fiction stories published: “Crazy” in Kaleidoscope Books’ 2003 anthology, Mother Margaret and the Rhinoceros Café; and “Putting Mother in Her Place” in Room of One’s Own, vol. 19:4, winter 1996.

 

Her upcoming release, Safe Harbor, should be available late 2011 or early 2012. Safe Harbor was shortlisted for Britain's Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger in 2010. The Debut Dagger is open to anyone in the world writing in English.

 

Links to visit:

Website: http://rosemarymccracken.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/RCMcCracken

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1253781012

 

Thanks for visiting with us, Rosemary!

[Martha Rodriguez]

Hi Rosemary!
Thank you for sharing your publishing journey. I always love hearing/reading about how authors "got there."

Wishing you all the best!

[Kathleen Kelly]

Great interview!! Thank you!
Happy Holidays!!

[sue brandes]

I always find it interesting to know what an author had to go through to get their book published. Cause as a reader you don't always think about it. You just want to read it. And there are so many different publishings. I just never knew myself. It just amazes me when an author shares their story and what they had to do to accomplish it. Congrats on your book.

[Julie Elizabeth Powell]

I tried every relevant literary agent and publisher with no luck - most said they weren't taking on any new clients - famous or not famous, that is the question? It's the bottom line that counts these days so much so that few 'newcomers' are given a chance.

It'll not stop me writing, however, and I'll just have to try all over again. At least my nine books are 'out there' and maybe one day...

A great article by the way, Rosemary.