I just got an email about my option book

...and it was exactly what I expected 👀

{written 5/14; some of you may have seen my Instagram reel about this same topic—click the link to see my live reaction to this news}

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Hi, my lovelies.

Literally within the last thirty minutes, I got a text from my agent, Lauren. Hey, can you give me a call?

I immediately knew what it would be about: it was a “no” from Mira for my option book.

Quick context: most publishers require an option clause in publishing contracts, which gives them the first look (and option to offer on) the author’s next work. We could go into more detail about how you can limit that clause during negotiations by age group, genre, and timeline (the more limited = the better it is for the author), but suffice it to say, this is my next book, and my editor had to have the chance to offer or reject before we sent it around to anywhere else.

Storytime

We submitted the book, which I’ll call TWB, to my editor in April, and per the contract, they had 45 days to consider and either make an offer or reject it. Today, there are ten days left (yes I’ve been tracking this, why do you ask), so this morning, I started putting together an editor list to share with my agent of who I thought we should send it to when Mira passed.

Yes, I said ‘when.’ I've known from the start that it would be a ‘no.’