Okay, my day with Avon was fabulous! I wish I had time to tell you all about it, but I’ll just give you a brief update now and spread the details out over the week, I think.

I started out the day having tea with Ms. Eloisa, which was delightful. She was extremely gracious and gave me some great tips for pitching my book, and we talked about kids and life and her books, and it was just great. Plus, I’ve got a signed ARC of Desperate Duchesses now!

Tessa Woodward squired me around for the rest of the day, and she is just about the nicest person ever. I met people in publicity and marketing and cover art and the publisher (all of which I’ll detail in future posts), and we went to lunch with another of the editors, Esi Sogah, who is extremely fun and witty. Tessa and Esi are the first filter for all queries and manuscripts submitted to Avon, and they had a lot of entertaining ‘cautionary tales’ about bad author etiquette – things none of you would do anyway, but I’ll give you the details in a future post.

I left the building with three bags full of books – and now my challenge is to pack them up before I need to check out of the hotel. So I have to sign off for now! More later.

Oh, I will tell you this – contrary to what many supposed, the Avon editors DID read the Fanlit entries, very closely! The editors took turns each week, and Tessa tells me they read at least the top 25. They dug deep when choosing the editorial pick, and didn’t solely consider winners or finalists. And they met for hours every week to decide how to, ahem, challenge us next, with the pots of chocolate and bold declarations, etc. And I think they’re going to do it again! I also heard rumors there may be a social hour for Fanlitters at RWA in Dallas. Yay!


10 comments to “So … how did it go?”

  1. beverley
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    · April 14th, 2007 at 8:06 am · Link

    Oh how exciting!!! I’ve seen the interview with Eloisa James on romance tv and I thought she was just the sweetest person (her and her husband). Okay, now I’ll waiting patiently while you make your way home and post the cautionary tales of bad author etiquette. Did they tell you when they would be publishing GOTH???

    Glad you had a great time!



  2. Lindsey
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    · April 14th, 2007 at 8:48 am · Link

    Awesome! I kept thinking about you yesterday. I can’t wait to hear all the details!



  3. Alice Audrey
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    3
    · April 14th, 2007 at 10:21 am · Link

    I’m really looking forward to another Avon contest. Did you submit GOTH? I can guess the etiquette stuff, but want to hear anyway. I was wondering about how far into the pile they read. Now I can go back to being horrified over my spelling/typo mistakes.



  4. AprilsMom
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    · April 14th, 2007 at 10:40 am · Link

    I’m so happy your day was fabulous! Looking forward to hearing all about it!



  5. Gillian
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    · April 14th, 2007 at 10:47 am · Link

    Cannot wait to hear all the details!

    Have a safe trip home 🙂



  6. CM
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    · April 14th, 2007 at 11:14 am · Link

    How exciting! And a social hour for fanlitters, too. We should make buttons or badges or something so that we can find each other before then.

    Maybe something that says

    “Kill Patience?”



  7. Sara
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    · April 14th, 2007 at 12:07 pm · Link

    Eve, I can’t wait to hear all about it – we have to go to brunch and celebrate!

    CM, you know you’re just excited about those three bags of books she’s bringing back! 😉 And Aza on the EJ BB has FanLit pins available on her cafepress store. Sadly, there are no pins that say “Belime me!” or “Mildly Retarded.” Perhaps I will have to open up a cafepress store of my own…



  8. Maggie Robinson
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    · April 14th, 2007 at 2:54 pm · Link

    I’ll have to catch up with your scoops once we get back from Florida at the end of next week. I’m so happy things went well—and hell, I believe I’m a bit jealous, too. Eloisa! Books! Inside dirt! Thanks so much for sharing this with us.Avon couldn’t have picked a better person…okay, enough gushing. 🙂



  9. Cynthia Falcon
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    · April 15th, 2007 at 11:33 am · Link

    LOL at CM’s “Kill Patience” idea. You all are going to hate me, but I named a horse in my WIP Patience. Call it retribution, I guess 🙂



  10. India Carolina
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    · April 15th, 2007 at 2:17 pm · Link

    Wow. Meeting the editors and Eloisa must’ve been fabulous. And to realize they were reading our entries! That makes me feel great, to know that they took the time and really cared about their choices. Makes me feel like a winner. You need to spill those cautionary tales fast. I’m pretty sure I could be one of them in the near future.