OMG! OMG! OMG! Imagine those words being shouted at the top of one's lungs across a cavernous granite hallway as you run to find a co-worker who immediately thinks something awful has happened to one of your children because you cannot find the words to explain what is wrong but keep repeating OMG! OMG! That was the reaction produced by an email from my agent informing me that I had been offered my first book contract...an editor actually WANTED my book!! Yes, I AM AN AUTHOR now. LOL
I realize some time has passed since my last blog here. My only excuse is that I have been writing on book after book after book....then re-writing and editing, etc. Along the way, I have learned a lot about the publishing world. I no longer have rose-colored glasses.
Allow me to back up and fill in some holes on the timeline. In April 2012, I realized a goal....I had an agent offer to represent me. I signed with The Seymour Agency. Thus began the regimen of my life: write for 4 hours each weekday after leaving my 8-10 hour day job; write for 14 hours on Saturday and Sunday. Submit to line editor for corrections. Make corrections. Submit to agent for reading. Make her corrections. Then hurry up and wait for editors to read and get back with decisions. One publisher took seven months...of course, they lost the manuscript not once but twice when the editor who requested I write that book specifically for her up and moved to another publisher. I became immune to the emails which would arrive from editors via my agent...extolling what they loved about my writing and my story....BUT. Some made sense and some did not. I now know that it is true that some editors are swayed by whether their coffee was too cold that morning or they broke up with their boyfriend the night before and my manuscript was in wrong spot at wrong time!
All I could do was to continue writing the stories that would not stop coming into my mind. I also learned to trust my gut instinct. Along came a publisher one day who read a blurb about one of my books on Publisher's Marketplace. She asked, via my agent, if she could have the manuscript to read as she loved the blurb. OF COURSE! She had the book about three weeks and then came the email that sent me screaming from my office. She loved the story and offered me my first contract!! I am still on cloud 900. I realize the road is still long and I will now work closely with an editor who I hope I like and who 'gets' me. LOL But the bottom line is that I am an author at long last. I can say those words and feel that incredible giddiness inside...along with FEAR. Someone will actually be reading my work soon....hopefully, a LOT of someones.
There you have in a nutshell what I have been doing since my last blog. I am working with a web designer now for my web presence. I have a graphic artist working on my 'brand'. And I am still writing my stories everyday. I will share the long and winding road on this blog....if for no other reason than to hang on to a bit of sanity!
Debbie
