On Monday (July 22 if you’re reading the archives), it will have been twenty years since I got the book deal to have the first two Enchanted, Inc. books published.

I wrote the first book in the fall of 2003, got an agent in early 2004, then spent some time making revisions that my agent suggested. The book went out on submission to editors in late May. I’d been published before and was used to dealing with publishers, but I still was rather naively optimistic. I was so sure that the idea was clever and perfect for the market, so I had high hopes of the book being eagerly snatched up by publishers.

That wasn’t quite the case. Rejections began trickling in. By the time July rolled around, I was starting to get nervous. There were some positive signs, though. A number of editors loved it and had passed it on to the next level for consideration.

Then in mid July, one publisher announced the intention to make an offer on it. Since it was still with several other publishers, that triggered an auction. That’s when all the editors who are interested in a book have to make offers by a certain time, and then there’s negotiation as the agent lets all the interested parties know what’s on the table. A big part of it is money, but other things can also come into play, like whether they’re willing to go for a multi-book deal, the payment schedule on the advance, what promotion will be involved, and publication date. You might be willing to take a lower advance to get the book published faster, for instance. There might be conference calls with the editors to discuss their vision and plans for the book so the author can figure out which editor they want to deal with.

The auction was originally set for July 21, but there was a schedule conflict, so it was moved to July 22. As soon as the auction was announced, more rejections rolled in as publishers declined to participate. I was beginning to wonder what would happen if you had an auction but nobody came. At least I still had that initial publisher, right? Except they couldn’t make an offer because the executive who needed to sign off on it was out of touch. But then an offer came in from Ballantine Books. My agent didn’t think the other publisher could match it, so we took that offer. I’d sold my book in a two-book deal, so it was guaranteed a sequel.

There have been times when I’ve wondered if maybe we should have waited on that other publisher. They were going to publish it as fantasy, while Ballantine was publishing it on the mainstream side of the house as chick lit. The chick lit market tanked not long after the second book was published (but fortunately after I got another two-book deal for books three and four), but the urban fantasy market was just taking off.

I celebrated the book sale by buying a pair of shoes, the shoes now known as the Infamous Red Stilettos. I’d spotted them when shopping with a friend around the time I landed an agent, and I was drawn to them about the same way Katie was in Once Upon Stilettos. I didn’t have the money for them, but I told my friend that if I sold the book, I’d buy those shoes. When I called her to tell her I’d sold the book, she told me we were going shoe shopping. It was during that shopping trip that I made a quip about the shoes being magical, and that was when I came up with that storyline for the next book (I already had the part about the corporate spy in the proposal I’d sent to the publisher).

The timing of the sale worked out great because there was a big writing conference the next week, so I got to celebrate with my writer friends and meet my agent in person.

I can’t believe it’s been twenty years. Surprisingly, that book is still in print, when a lot of other books that came out around that time (and got more of a publicity push) have gone out of print. It’s been optioned for film/TV twice, though both times the option was allowed to lapse without anything getting done. It’s been published around the world in a number of languages. I have copies on my shelf in Japanese, Dutch, German, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese, to name a few. The series ended up being nine books and a short story collection, which is more than I originally planned. I’d planned it as a five-book series.

I think a celebration is in order for Monday. I won’t buy more shoes, but maybe I’ll get some ice cream when I go to the community band concert in the park that night.