In a career spanning more than two decades, historical novelist Catrin Collier has been a best-selling author for the major houses. Now she's signed with an award-winning but small independent - and she believes it's with such presses that the future of publishing lies.
When I signed a contract with agent number five in 2005, after 15 years of writing and publishing books (I'm not fickle, one dropped me, two retired, one ran off to Italy to befriend George Clooney) he commented, "You're a survivor." Until that moment I'd considered myself the new girl on the block. I'd been fortunate to have been published by the major publishers, Random House, Orion, Headline, Carlton Books, Simon & Schuster... plus in translation with foreign publishing houses.
After 41 books, 37 editors, and dozens of publicists, many who've become close personal friends, I can honestly say I've never had a difficult editor, and the only serious problem I've encountered is that once a book becomes a bestseller, publishers demand the author replicate the success by producing a clone. I dreaded the directive: Your next book? More of the same please.
