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View Doug's Forum Chat - Archived Chat for Info
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YouWriteOn
 16 Aug 2008, 16:54 #42082 Reply To Post
Quote: leighvtwersky, Saturday, 16 Aug 2008 16:44
It's Hibs 3 Falkirk 2 for whoever was interested (wonder who??)
Have one eye on final score


Referee note: Less than ten minutes to go before the final score line in Doug's chat, so add your questions now. The chat will be finishing at 5 but over the next few days Doug will pop in to answer questions asked during this hour and before.

Ted

This post was last edited by YouWriteOn, 16 Aug 2008, 16:55
Callant
 16 Aug 2008, 16:55 #42083 Reply To Post
Quote: howardthomas, Saturday, 16 Aug 2008 16:28
Hi Doug... following on from David's question.... most new products on the market have sales targets. Has your publisher been able to make projections or are sales impossible to predict?


Time's short so I'll keep the answer short Howard. Officially I haven't heard a thing about targets. My rationale is just to keep writing
Callant
 16 Aug 2008, 16:57 #42084 Reply To Post
Quote: leighvtwersky, Saturday, 16 Aug 2008 16:29
Hi Doug, many congratulations on your well-deserved success.
Some of the questions I had have been answered but I would like to know
a) How strict were your publ;ishers with you meeting deadlines??

and

b) will you get copies of your work in translation?? It must be wonderful to see your book in Polish and Italian etc!!??



Hi Leigh, I've been expecting a copy of the Polish book, but it hasn't appeared yet, so I'll have to ask Simon. Re: publisher's deadlines, I don't know how strict they are because I've always been pretty far ahead of the game. It probably won't always be like that!
jillprewett
 16 Aug 2008, 16:57 #42085 Reply To Post
Hey Doug

Congratulations!
It's an amazing book.
Everyone's asked what I wanted to know, but just one thing, how did you celebrate when you discovered you would be getting your story out there?
All the best for the rest

Jill
Callant
 16 Aug 2008, 16:58 #42086 Reply To Post
Quote: Lorraine, Saturday, 16 Aug 2008 16:30
With the experience that you now have, what advice would you give to an aspiring author about to contact an agent in the hope of securing representation?


Make sure youre synopsis is very tight and succinct and your letter is short. Don't be dispirited if you don't get any feedback. Just keep trying!
Rob Ganley
 16 Aug 2008, 16:59 #42087 Reply To Post
Quote: Callant, Saturday, 16 Aug 2008 16:47
Quote: Rob Ganley, Saturday, 16 Aug 2008 16:40
Hi Doug
Many congratulations on your success.
What happens next for you? Is your deal with Random House for follow-up books? And what are you working on now?




Hi Rob, I have a two book deal with Transworld. I've written a follow-up I think of as The War God, about Claudius's invasion of Britain in 43AD, and I'm really pleased with it. I'm working on the editor's suggestions at the moment. He's come up with some good points and it's really making a difference.
That said, The Emperor's Elephant naturally splits into three, and as soon as I wrote Caligula I knew I had at least a trilogy on my hands. It's just a question of how the first two sell, but my gut instinct is that Transworld will want to finish the story. I think the print run for Caligula was originally 9,000 which isn't huge, but it's been high up on Amazon and one of the top historical novels at Waterstones, so it seems to be going well. It's already on sale in Poland, and will be published in Portugal, Russia, Italy and Serbia.

Doug



Well, I'll be getting a copy to help you sell out your first print run.
One last question: did you cut your teeth on short stories and have any joy getting them published in magazines first, or launch straight into a full length novel?
leighvtwersky
 16 Aug 2008, 17:00 #42088 Reply To Post
Another question I have Doug concerns your other book Brothers In Arms, the opening of which I remember I really enjoyed. Have you shown it to your publishers, or have they asked you what else you have written??
YouWriteOn
 16 Aug 2008, 17:00 #42089 Reply To Post
Full-Time

Many thanks to Doug for his time and to everyone for joining in. It's been a really great chat with some great questions and answers and our very first author-forum chat. We all wish Doug every continued success with Caligula, in all good book stores now.

We'll leave the questions and answers here, including adding ones asked before this forum opened that were sent by people who weren't able to be here between 4 and 5 today, and Doug will look at answering any questions we didn't get to in the next few days.

We hope everyone has a great Saturday, and thank you all for such a successful chat.

Ted
Callant
 16 Aug 2008, 17:00 #42090 Reply To Post
Quote: demolinero, Saturday, 16 Aug 2008 16:31
Hi Doug - I posted a question earlier today before the forum opened. Will it pop up at some stage?


Hi Demolinero, there's an enormous difference between my original and the published version. Some of it was improved by the reviews I got on Youwriteon and some of it by my agent and publisher. The big difference was making Caligula a central figure, which I should have thought of, but didn't
Callant
 16 Aug 2008, 17:01 #42091 Reply To Post
Quote: timellis, Saturday, 16 Aug 2008 16:32
Hi Doug

Got the book, but yet to read it. Well done! What do you think was the one thing that got you an agent/published, besides writing a damned good novel?

Tim


Luck
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