Midnight Rhapsody - Rejection

Dear Mr. McLeod:
Thank you for your submission of Midnight Rhapsody to PublishAmerica.
Based on the sales performance of your previously published book(s),
we cannot offer a contract for this work at this time. Please do not
take this as a setback to all your hard work as a writer. We are sure
you will find a publisher to fit your needs for this book.
We wish you the best of luck.
Sincerely,
Acquisitions Department
PublishAmerica

They went through the trouble of asking me for a submission, expressed interest in my proposal. Yet all they had to do was look my name up in their database, check my sales records and reject me based on numbers. They didn't even read the manuscript. Proof positive that in publishing, some companies (or most anyway) consider the bottom line before the story. If the product (story) is worth publishing and marketing, then publish it and market it. If the publishing company wants more profit- advertise, market, put out! Why leave it to the author to assume all the financial and business aspects of a job the producer and distributor and potential retail chains should do? Since when did authors become their own Barnes and Nobles? Since when did publishing companies stop promoting their own products? Or is their product only publishing a book and leaving it to hang?

A Glimmer of Hope for an Old Manuscript

"Midnight Rhapsody", an old manuscript I had written back in December 2002 through February 2005, has attracted the interest of Publish America. I am hoping the interest turns into a publishing contract.

As some of you have heard of this manuscript, "Midnight Rhapsody" is a chilling literary symphony of four indivuals- strangers caught up in the world of immortality- who each offer a series of stories and scenes taken from their experiences. Little do these strangers realize that their lives blend and intertwine with each other like movements in a tragic opera. Little do they see how each of them affects the livelihood and survival of the other. But their lives seem to be on a climatic, crescendo course headlong into each other.

The book is dark, beautiful, magestic, lyrical, and every bit a piece of art. You will glimpse the dance macabre... the dark fantastique... the night vampiric....
Like a pleasant nightmare.

"Running from the Sun" - Update

"Running from the Sun" - Update
Nov. 11th, 2007 03:22 am
The first draft of the new manuscript I am working on, "Running from the Sun" is now at 43,344 words and 78 pages. I am on "Part Two,Chapter Two" now and still not in the real meat and potatoes of the novel yet. Yes, its probably a long set up and back story at this stage... but it will all make sense once you see where I'm going with it. The reader just has to trust me on this one. The journey may be a long one, but it will be the most eye opening and hopefully the most enlightening trip you take with me.What is really exciting is that I have already been invited to speak about this book at a conference being held here at Eastern next semester. I will be asked to talk about how my work as a fiction novelist and writer blended with historical research on this novel and massive project. It will be my 3rd stint as a public speaker touting my books and writing. Instead of speaking before 20-40 Japanese anime fans at Connecticon though, I will be speaking in front of an unknown number of faculty and students in a much more formal academic setting.The book is coming along smoothly now that I have a firm idea of where I want to go with it. I am also very comfortable with how the research is coming into the work. I have also built up a nice rhythm with this book.I am hoping that by the time the finished product comes out, you'll see how easy it is to grow attached to the characters and the setting. I think if I can draw you into the story, you'll have a greater understanding of the history and the stories surrounding the history and stemming from that history. I hope that if you are at all fascinated, curious, or moved by the subject of Japanese-American culture and the events of Japanese-American internment in 1942-1945, you follow this blog or journal and ask questions of me or at least post some interest. I miss getting feedback. P.S. As for Book Three of the Dragon's Tear... the final draft is getting another look over and I am adjusting some of the last few chapters. A new development in the storyline popped in my head last minute that really sparked up my muse.

David McLeod

Midnight Rhapsody - Re-Visited?

I don't know why exactly I put a little pause on my current projects to go through my "Back Burner" folder to seek out this old manuscript, "Midnight Rhapsody". It was started back in December 2002 either just before my grandmother passed away or just briefly afterwards. It was worked on off and on like a little side project- a strange diversion that I suppose I never really took seriously. In 2005 though I finished the manuscript and had me about 123 pages of material.

The manuscript is very "visual-leaning" meaning the work definitely evokes images and mental scenes that seem to play out. As for story or plot- well that's the trick. The book is essentially focused on the blending of four very unique individuals- strangers to each other. Their journals and diaries tells us their stories in fact and how the stories and the actors who play roles in them mesh together unwittingly until the end.

The book is not very... hmmm... its not what you would come to expect from a vampire novel. Its a lot like reading a symphony and watching a movie with your mind's eyes.

Even though my book sales through Publish America are horrendous at best, I am taking a chance with them again for a third time to see where this manuscript can go- if anywhere. If they don't bite, maybe I'll post segments of the manuscript here on my blog.