There have been many books written about the Beatles, covering everything from their history to their influences, their gear, their recording sessions or the impact they had on the sixties and beyond.

But what about a historical novel that tells the complete history of the famous band? How about a novel that goes inside their heads and shows us how they interacted with each other, how they viewed their relationships, how they reacted to the many events that occurred throughout their brilliant careers?

This is what I have written—the first in a series of books that would cover their entire history. Accurate like a biography but written as a novel, in which John, Paul, George, Ringo, and many others are characters that speak, think and react to the situations in which they evolve .

This first book is called The Beatles: Some Kind of Innocence. It begins on the day in 1957 when John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the very first time and ends in December of 1960, when the group comes back from their first trip to Hamburg, where they met and played with Ringo for the first time. We witness the ups and down of their beginnings, experiencing the emotions that they experienced as they tried to make it as a rock and roll band in Liverpool.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Where I'm at...

The last few weeks have been a little busy...

A second publisher manifested an interest in my book. I met him in person two weeks ago. His request was basically this: if I do an all French version, he would offer me a contract. He also wanted total control over the cover and the title, because he wants the book to be accessible to a large audience, on sale not only in bookshops but also places like Zellers and Walmart.

I had ten days to decide if I wanted to translate the thing myself. I knew I would do it, but I spent the time before the deadline researching publishing contracts. It's a lot more complicated than it looks. And then I got lucky. A colleague of mine referred me to a friend who had already published a novel that was sold internationally. He gave me a few pointers, but the more I talked with him about my project, the more he wanted to help. So he gave me the number of his literary agent, one of the few in Quebec.

I contacted the agent who also seemed interested in my project. Now he doesn't know if he wants to represent me permanently, but for now, he's more than willing to give me a hand during the negotiations of a first contract. I don't mind giving creative control over the cover and the title, but I want to keep the international rights of my novel, so I can deal with English publishers myself (or thought my eventual agent...). Having an agent helping me negotiate, I feel confident that I won't get screwed too much for my first time!

This morning, I got a call from the publisher. He asked if I was willing to do the translation myself and how much time it would take me. I said a month. So I have until the first of April to come up with the French version, and then he will submit the book to his reading comity. They will decide if they take the project further or not.

As for the first publisher who was interested, he sent me an email last week saying that with a bilingual version, there was not much of a chance it would sell enough to make it worthwhile. Beside, with all the other publications on the Beatles, it would require a lot of marketing, which is something he was not willing to do. I replied that I was working on a French version and that it would be ready very soon. I asked if it was something he'd be interested in and I'm now waiting for an answer.

As you can see, everything is on the open, everything is still possible. I will take the next month to not only translate the book, but also to keep on sending copies of the manuscript to other publishers. As long as I don't have a contract, it's still fair game, no?
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