American setting aren't done these days. Publishers don't believe that readers will buy them. Which is why all the writers who used to write them, myself included, are now all doing other things. But these trends all come in cycles, so it's sure to be back eventually.
Glad that you and Eva Gale both read SIMPLE JESS. That's a story that really means a lot to me. And to a lot of other people too. I created the character as the heroine's brother in MARRYING STONE. But he was such a great guy I wanted to give him his own book. As soon as I'd finished, I proposed that and my editor turned me down. She said that readers wouldn't go for a mentally handicapped hero. So I moved on, wrote something else and then the movie FORREST GUMP came out and was such a splash, my editor called as said, "You know that book you wanted to write..." So I got busy on SIMPLE JESS. Unfortunately, during the time I got the okay and the time the book was completed, my editor left. The new editor was unfamiliar with my work and when SIMPLE JESS showed up on her desk, she was horrified. She didn't think that the relationship as it was written was "appropriate" and she wanted me to rewrite it to make him smarter. I couldn't do that because he was already in print in Marrying Stone. So after lots of upheaval and argument, SIMPLE JESS was released. The number of copies printed was very small, the cover was nondescript. And it went to the sales department with the notation "controversial" which basically means buy at your own risk.
Not a lot of people did buy it at first. Romance readers were as skeptical of a mentally challenged hero as the editor believed they would be. But slowly, slowly, slowly people began to read it. And they began to like it. I've gotten more feedback on that story than any other - - and all of it has been positive. Jess had such a low print run that it was doomed to commercial failure, but it continues to pay and pay in wonderful feedback dividends. The rights reverted to me several years ago, so I’m always thinking that someday somebody will buy it from me for a reprint and this time give it the push that it truly deserved.
In the industry, people thought the story was a career killer. And it did kill my career at that particular publishing house. If I'd had any sense at all about how to get ahead and move up on the lists, I never would have written it. But I guess it goes to show you that sometimes being too stupid to know better leaves us open to achieve some pretty wonderful things.
Simple Jess is one of my favorite Pamela Morsi books and I for one am glad that it finally made it to print.
Most avid readers know romance on a whole is very cyclical, what's hot now wont be in a couple of years, and publishers are going to take advantage of this and continue publishing what's going to have the largest financial return. And yet you can't help but wonder how many great books have never been published because the publishers deemed them not marketable?
9 comments:
It bothers me to think of writers having to pen stories to pay the bills and not the stories they really want to write. We all lose then.
Rosie, exactly, it's very discouraging.
I was one of those few people who bought it when it came out and am glad that I did. It's an unusual story, to be sure, but it's lovely. Simple Jess earned it's place on my keeper shelf.
Lisabea, I so agree with that, I bought SJ new too :)
Simple Jess is one of those stories that just floored me when I first read it and I have re-read it numerous times. It's on my AAR top 100 list. It's a wonder anything so touching and decent ever gets published considering some publishers attitudes. I'm glad Morsi got it published and I hope one day she gets it reprinted. I, for one, will be there to buy a brand new copy.
Simple Jess was such a great story. It's on my keeper shelf, too.
I love supporting authors who dare to write outside the mainstream...
I'm currently reading a somewhat unusual romance, Coinage of Commitment by Rob Costelloe, so once I'm done that, I will definitely go looking for a used copy of Simple Jess. It sounds wonderful...
Foreclosure, a novel by Jacqueline D'Acre
Author of Between Extremities, Jaqueline D'Acre, from Thunder Bay, Canada by way of New Orleans, just had her new novel, Foreclosure, published by Stargazer Press. ISBN: 978-1-897424-00-1.
Per its back cover:
"What do murder, horses and Lila’s creole diner have in common?
"Head down to St. Tremaine Parish near New Orleans and find out. Meet Bryn Wiley, a mild equine writer, who discovers a show horse breeder facing financial ruin, foreclosure and far worse! Then the sheriff fingers a champion stallion as a killer…but Bryn believes otherwise! Wherever there are horses there are money, deception and powerful secrets.
"Can Bryn unmask the real murderer before the stallion gets a lethal injection? In the sultry Louisiana heat, she roams New Orleans seeking a slayer—in a desperate race to save the stallion! The story drips with sweat, Spanish moss, a voodoo queen, blooded horses and quirky Deep South characters."
A horse breeder, columnist, and radio show talk host about horses, Jackie has a whole series of books planned with Bryn Wiley solving mysteries - and all will "swirl within the thrilling world of show horses."
Congratulations, Jackie!
To order Foreclosure: www.stargazerpress.com/foreclosure.html.
Thanks foor a great read
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