Collections #2 – Decisions have to be made? #cat-fight? #NYTimes

2.  Decisions
– should be made by the person in charge as to how many people they want to
have as a part of the group. What type of a collection it will be – full-length
books versus novellas or even short stories – and which genre. And…another
important option is whether all the books should be brand new or already
published work.

One of the positives about being a part of a group
with an organizer is that a lot of the decisions have already been made. I
liked that our lady knew how many people she wanted as a part of the
collection. And when I first understood there were to be 21, I have to admit to
being shocked. I thought the number unmanageable, and hard to control. But I
was wrong. Having that many people just meant that we had a lot more influence
in the social media arena. And since most of us were professional and had
previous experience in collections, we understood our roles. 

On the other hand, she had to make sure that all 21
novellas were submitted in sufficient time for formatting. Unfortunately, one
of the authors wasn’t able to make the deadline which meant a huge amount of
work for the boss. It was now up to her to get the cover changed, make sure the
existing memes were replaced everywhere and the book blurb rewritten for all
the book descriptions on all the different venues, etc. But it was handled and
the rest of us weren’t really affected too much. On the other hand, the boss suffered through this whole situation – bigtime!!

Another decision I admit to feeling relieved about
was the book cover. I’m sure a few of the first girls involved in the set had
some input, but by the time I had signed on, it was a go. And I was utterly
relieved not to have to deal with the numerous e-mails dealing with this
controversial issue. Trust me, authors can get very picky about a book’s cover
– everyone has visions of what they like and it’s often difficult to get each
person on board.

It had also been decided that only new novellas were
to be used. Yes!!! I totally agreed
that that would be a huge selling point. Another issue they had set in place
was the genre. Truthfully, I didn’t understand that the book was to be as “hot”
as it was. I had thought it was to be basically a Contemporary Romance. But, in
the end, many of the stories were spicier than I had expected and… that was
fine with me. My sweet little romance would either be ignored by the lovers of
steam, or if read, might find me a few new readers who enjoy a character-driven
plot with some sexual overtures but a closed bedroom door. And isn’t that what
it’s all about? Getting more people to like your voice and want to read your work.

Once I had joined the group, I pretty well knew what
was expected of me, the dates I needed to meet with my submission were set and there
was someone in place to make sure it would all happen as planned. The fewer
decisions I had to be involved in was fine by me. Even so – we did have
numerous votes on smaller issues and they went by majority. And… I always felt
that if I had any suggestions, they’d be heard and taken into consideration.