Welcome Kylie Ladd!

I am thrilled to have my very good friend and writer extraordinaire, Kylie Ladd, guest blogging this week all about her brilliant debut novel, After The Fall (ATF), which is being released in the US and Canada TODAY!!

A gripping insight into the anatomy of an affair, The Sydney Morning Herald called ATF "a subtle, moving and perceptive story of love, loss and hope."

I was totally enthralled with After The Fall from the very first page and was not surprised when Kylie told me it had been picked up in the USA by Doubleday (an imprint of Random House).

Congratulations Kylie on the release of ATF in North America! This is a massive achievement and deservedly so. How did overseas publication come about?

My Australian agent, Pippa Masson of Curtis Brown, knew there was a large market for commercial fiction (also known as women's fiction, a term I hate) in the US and sent the book to Stephanie Abou, who she had had contact with before, at Foundry Literary and Media Agency in New York. Thankfully, Stephanie liked After The Fall, and was also pleased that the novel had been Cosmopolitan's Book of the Month when it was released in Australia, and agreed to take it on.

Wow! Isn't it almost impossible to get your hands on an American agent, especially one based in New York?

I didn't realise at the time but yes, industry blogs and articles have since suggested that securing a US agent, is a ludicrously difficult, tedious and lengthy task, not to be undertaken by the faint-hearted. I was incredibly lucky I had an in- thank you Pippa! Maybe that's a salutary lesson when looking for an agent in Australia- what are their overseas connections like? Curtis Brown have a multitude of contacts around the globe, including a European office- which sold the Turkish rights of After The Fall for me just recently.

How did Stephanie go about selling After The Fall to publishers?

Stephanie sent After The Fall out to around 40 publishers in the US. Three weeks later she began chasing them all up. Thirty-eight said no. Yep, that sure felt bad, though it is a lesson in the subjectivity of all this, and that you should never take rejection too personally. Some of those publishers sent glowing emails, but passed on the book due to market factors; others hated it outright.

To my delight however, Grand Central (an imprint of industry giant Hachette, who publish the Twilight books) loved it and made an offer. I was thrilled and ready to sign up there and then, but a day later Random House also made an offer.

What a dilemma! Did you do a Tom Cruise and jump up and down on the furniture?

Interestingly, I wasn't actually consulted as to which I'd prefer- the Doubleday offer was significantly higher than that from Grand Central (significantly higher than anything I'd ever dreamed of for a first novel written by an unknown Australia, to be honest) and it was assumed I'd go with that one... I was asleep at the time the decision was made! That said, I have absolutely no complaints- Stephanie was just fabulous with negotiating the contract, and managed to retain audio rights to the book...

Audio Rights? Tell me more.

Two months after the Doubleday sale, Stephanie sold these to audio production company Tantor, who will release the talking-book version of After The Fall in the US this month. Another useful lesson- this made us all some extra money, and isn't something I would have ever thought to negotiate.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty, how did the editing process differ?

The editing process was surprisingly similar to that in Australia... my Australian agent and publisher are in Sydney, while I live in Melbourne (Broome in 2010), so I was already used to doing my edits electronically. The only real difference is that a lot of the language and spelling in After The Fall had to be changed for an American audience... while the Australian setting was retained, most of our colloquialisms weren't. This was quite wrenching at times, watching ‘Mum' turned into ‘Mom' (it just doesn't look right to me!), ‘university' become ‘college' and words such as ‘togs' and ‘footpath' edited out. I had to laugh though when my editor had highlighted a phrase in a section of the book set at the Melbourne Cup: "Having a flutter".

"I don't understand", she wrote, "Are they going to the toilet?"

Hilarious. Will never again say ‘having a flutter' without thinking about bodily functions.

And the cover for After The Fall?

It was a pleasant surprise! The cover Doubleday chose was far lusher and sexier than either of my Australian ones.

Finally, how is After The Fall being marketed in the States and Canada?

Not surprisingly, Random House has a large marketing department, and have been great about keeping me in touch with all their plans. Media reviews won't appear until after the book is released this week, but Random House have also distributed a lot of ARCs (advance reading copies, sent to the reading public, not professional reviewers) which are great for generating buzz and mentions on book blogs, as well as over 25 pre-release reviews/ratings at sites such as Good Reads.

Other things that Random House requested included a brief (300 word) essay on why I wrote the book, with a focus on my background as a psychologist, which has been posted on the Random House site and on Amazon; a reading guide to the book (posted on line for use by book groups); and also that I have a strong online presence, in terms of a website and Facebook and Twitter membership. As yet, I can't tell if any of this has made any impact at all, and will be watching with interest over the next post-release month!

Kylie, I am so thrilled for you and wish After The Fall every success. I'm sure it will be a massive international hit, especially as Amazon has chosen it as a great summer read. Good luck!

Links:

http://www.kylieladd.com/

http://www.allenandunwin.com/

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385532815

http://www.amazon.com/

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written by Fleur, June 15, 2010

Wonderful insight to the US market, Kylie and Lisa. Thank you! Kylie, many congratulations - it's a wonderful achievement. smilies/grin.gif

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written by Allison Tait, June 16, 2010

I found this fascinating - so easy and yet so complex. Thanks for sharing Kylie and Lisa.

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written by Bern, June 16, 2010

Awesome questions and equally fantastic answers.

So interesting too that 38 passed. I do wonder how anyone could "outright hate it" though. They must be a few stubbies short. Bet that would have to be edited out too.

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written by miss ali, June 17, 2010

Excellent blog Lisa and Kylie! Very informative and exciting! Thanks for sharing!
It does bum me out a little that all the Australianism's were cut out- I understand that they are adapting it for the US market but we have to read all their Americanisms (like sweatpants and Mom- that word does hurt) But hey that's the industry and the Australianism's don't make the story, so well done to you for keeping it together and cracking through the market