Bell, Book, and Scandal by Jill Churchill Page B

of different times and circumstances. It’s a wider audience than most agents realize.“ She listed by name several of her publishing house’s bestsellers that were as much history as mystery.
    Gretta just smiled condescendingly through this part of the introduction as if she knew better than the seasoned editor. Jane was glad she’d stayed.
    The third speaker was an historical writer of some renown for yet another publisher, and she backed up what the editor before her had said.
    “I’ve received more fan mail for the first two books in my historical series than I earned from all ten of my first books, which had a contemporary setting,“ she said.
    She also went on to explain that she’d cut her publishing teeth on category romances, as many other writers had, and she and they had come to mysteries or thrillers with a lot of experience in writing and found it a wonderful change from the restrictions of short romances. Many of these former romance writers, including herself, had done historical romances and knew their way around research.
    Although Jane wasn’t among this group, she found the information very interesting and enlightening. Maybe Gretta, the baby agent, had spoken a shred of truth. Jane told herself that when she went home in a couple of days she’d look over her manuscript one more time.
    The author went on to give some even better advice. “Lots of research into the period is vital, of course. You have to like doing this. More important, though, don’t put in everything you know. It makes it a history text, not a novel. My own rule of thumb is when I find some fact that makes me slap my head and say ‘I never knew that,’ it’s what should go into the book. If I didn’t know it before, probably many readers don’t know it either and will be pleased to learn it.“
    Jane wrote this down in her notebook and underlined it. She remembered making a house plan and leaving out bathrooms. She had had to do a lot of research to find out what sort of “facilities“ her imaginary house would have had in the time period and may have gone a bit overboard describing them in her manuscript.
    The introductory remarks having been made, the speakers then called for questions from the audience. Jane was surprised to learn that many of the aspiring writers in attendance were quite ignorant about the world of publishing. Some of them asked downright silly questions, like would submitting their work on pretty colored paper make them noticed.
    The panel overwhelmingly agreed this wasn’t to be done.
    Another asked if she should copyright the work herself before submitting so nobody could steal her work. This struck Jane as absurdly arrogant.
    This also met with a negative reply from all three of the speakers. “If the work is good enough, it will be purchased, not stolen. And the publisher will see to having it copyrighted,“ the grown-up editor said.
    Most of the rest of the questions were either trivial or about technical things, like whether to use single or multiple viewpoint.
    Jane came out of the session revived and cheerful. For one thing, she’d realized she still had a lot to learn. More important, she already knew more than most of the other aspiring writers.
    Shelley’s session had ended slightly earlier than Jane’s, and she was waiting outside the door of the meeting room with a big batch of notes to hand on. “It’s a good thing I’m a fast note taker.“
    Jane glanced at the notes and said, “You sure are. But some of this you’re going to have to translate for me. What does ‘D and A’ mean?“
    “Delivery and Acceptance of the finished manuscript, of course. Was your session good? You look like yourself again instead of half dead.“
    “It was wonderful. I can’t wait to tell you about it.“ Jane pulled out the brochure to double-check. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to the viewpoint meeting. I think I still have a lot to learn about that. You can still go to the one about