As hard as I try to stay positive, and not let things get me down, it's never a one hundred percent proposition. Submission can be a brutal process. Everyone says to write to keep your mind off it. Persevere. And yes, I realize this is a business and if a publisher doesn't think they can sell your book and make money, or are not sure where to place it in the market to sell it and make money, well then ... they're not going to take that risk, especially on a debut novel.
I still believe with my whole heart that this is a good book. A really good book.
My friend Alison, she of the same name as my main character and the person who led me to WFWA and also put my agent on my radar, is having a great month.
She got an agent just a few months back. She did her revisions and her agent started submitting her book. She got one, maybe two rejections, and then an offer from a publisher. So happy for her but a glaring reminder, that I don't have an offer yet. The thing to do when you have an offer, but other editors have your manuscript, is to let them know an offer is on the table. That usually will nudge the others one way or the other. In Alison's case, it nudged a couple of other editors to talk to her on the phone. She will probably end up with two or more offers. Nice to have choices.
If I have to self publish, so be it, but it will be a crack in my heart. Not enough to break it, but it will sting. I've been set on traditional publishing from the start.
If my agent decides at some point, it's not happening on this book, then I will seek her counsel and we will go from there. In the meantime I'll keep working on the new book, because it's what I do, what I need to do and so much damn fun.
The jumping off point for the story is something that happened to my grandmother. When she and her sister were very young (younger than the characters in my book who are five and six), they were abandoned by their mother in a soda fountain in Atlanta, Georgia. Their mom ran off to Baltimore with another man, and their father picked them up pretty quickly. I heard that story as a child and it never left me, so that's the catalyst for the story ... everything after is fiction ... made up. And that's the fun part. Well, off to write. I'll try to focus on the lovely view out of my window, the beautiful weather today, the cat curled up in my lap, my family's health and happiness. Even a temporary funk can't dim those good things.
I still believe with my whole heart that this is a good book. A really good book.
My friend Alison, she of the same name as my main character and the person who led me to WFWA and also put my agent on my radar, is having a great month.
She got an agent just a few months back. She did her revisions and her agent started submitting her book. She got one, maybe two rejections, and then an offer from a publisher. So happy for her but a glaring reminder, that I don't have an offer yet. The thing to do when you have an offer, but other editors have your manuscript, is to let them know an offer is on the table. That usually will nudge the others one way or the other. In Alison's case, it nudged a couple of other editors to talk to her on the phone. She will probably end up with two or more offers. Nice to have choices.
If I have to self publish, so be it, but it will be a crack in my heart. Not enough to break it, but it will sting. I've been set on traditional publishing from the start.
If my agent decides at some point, it's not happening on this book, then I will seek her counsel and we will go from there. In the meantime I'll keep working on the new book, because it's what I do, what I need to do and so much damn fun.
The jumping off point for the story is something that happened to my grandmother. When she and her sister were very young (younger than the characters in my book who are five and six), they were abandoned by their mother in a soda fountain in Atlanta, Georgia. Their mom ran off to Baltimore with another man, and their father picked them up pretty quickly. I heard that story as a child and it never left me, so that's the catalyst for the story ... everything after is fiction ... made up. And that's the fun part. Well, off to write. I'll try to focus on the lovely view out of my window, the beautiful weather today, the cat curled up in my lap, my family's health and happiness. Even a temporary funk can't dim those good things.
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