A little Bonus Post

I know! It's Wednesday! This is a Bonus Post!

Okay, well, let me get this out of the way first. Remember last week when I told y'all about the arrangement between Juno and Pocket regarding my book(s)?

Well...I wasn't entirely honest. Or rather, I was, but I was only telling you what you had already been told; the Amazon listing and S&S page were there, in public, for anyone in the world to see, and judging by the number of emails I received before I made the announcement, a hell of a lot of the world had already seen it.

But NOW I can tell you the best part, which is...it's not just me. Juno Books has in effect become an imprint of Pocket Books. This is the press release:

POCKET BOOKS IN CO-PUBLISHING AGREEMENT WITH JUNO BOOKS
TO PUBLISH CONTEMPORARY FANTASY FICTION

New York, New York (January 19, 2009) – Louise Burke, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Pocket Books, has announced a new co-publishing agreement with Juno Books, best known for contemporary fantasy novels that emphasize strong female protagonists in richly imagined contexts. Juno will become an imprint of Pocket Books, publishing one title per month with the first release, AMAZON INK by Lori Devoti, slated for June 2009.
Juno Books began its publishing program in Fall 2006 and quickly became noted in the fantasy fiction genre for such breakout successes as Carole Nelson Douglas and Stacia Kane and garnering critical acclaim for many of their titles.
“Pocket Books and Juno Books are a great fit,” said Louise Burke. “We’ve seen great growth in this category, are delighted to now have a dedicated line, and look forward to helping to cultivate a wider audience for Juno’s terrific roster of authors.”

Juno Books Editor Paula Guran said: "I'm tremendously excited about the opportunity to help take Juno to the next level through our association with Pocket Books. Both Juno and fantasy readers in general will gain immensely by sales and marketing reach of Pocket Books and Simon & Schuster, while still getting the best of our editorial sensibility."

Pocket Books Senior Editor Jennifer Heddle will work in concert with Juno Books Editor Paula Guran.

So. My Demons books and all Juno books will now be released by Pocket.

Does this make me a Pocket author? Well. Honestly? Not as far as I'm concerned. I signed my deal with Juno; it somehow feels to me as though to run around calling myself a Pocket author is a little grandiose; distasteful. I didn't make a deal with Pocket, I made a deal with Juno. While I am of course absolutely thrilled by this news, and thrilled to be working with Pocket and to have the opportunity, hopefully, to work more with Pocket in future, until I'm offered a contract that says "Simon & Schuster" at the top I'm not going to behave as though I personally dealt with Pocket since the beginning. Nor do I claim that I "write for" Pocket; to date I haven't actually written anything for Pocket. I've written two books for Juno, which Pocket has acquired (not sure what the sitch is for PD but I'm saying "two"; that's not an announcement of any kind). To me to run around saying I "write for" Pocket implies that they have offered me contracts themselves, on new work, and that they have asked for more, and that is not yet the case. Juno acquired me, and that's that. So we'll see what happens, and I'd absolutely love to be able in future to say I am in fact a Pocket author. But my own hatred of pretentiousness forbids it at the moment.

Anyway. I actually started this post because I was going to talk a little about the inauguration and how it's great that we're all so proud again but we should be proud every day simply by virtue of being good people, but I've decided it's too political--even though it's actually not at all political, it could be read as being political--and deep and it's not something I want to get into. So, you'll have to make do with this.

And I'll be back tomorrow. :-)