Welcome to my journey of trying to get published.

 

I did it!

The day I finished my book, I felt bereft. I’d spent so much time with my characters; being in their heads and watching their lives unfold or implode, I knew I would miss them. I didn’t want their story to end.      I decided to write a three-book series, each book introducing new characters while keeping the originals in secondary roles so I could keep an eye on them. To me they were and are real. Maybe because there is a little bit of me in each one except maybe the gorgeous one with the hankering for designer handbags. But I knew one thing. I wanted other people to know them, too. Not because they were profound or the story so spellbinding, but because they were everyday people who just wanted to be heard.

And me? All the hours and weeks and months of writing, editing and revising the manuscript had been both a joy and a pain, but all I really want was for someone to validate me as a writer and tell me I don’t suck.

 

I wrote a book! Now what

Well, the first thing you will do is go online to see who might want to either represent you or just publish the dang thing. Let me spare you the rude awakening - no one wants you. They only want a person who has:

1.      Already published a successful book

2.      Widespread name recognition, a large platform with a massive social media presence and thousands of followers

3.      A full marketing plan including book signings, promotions, scheduled radio and tv appearances, preferably on national stations

If I already had all that, why would I be looking for someone to help me get my first book off the ground? I mean, everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Being a nobody, having no connections and, in the eyes of agents and publishers, no friends, I decided to dig in and try anyway. What’s the worst that could happen? They’d say “no.” And if they did, so what? I wasn’t going to take it personally. It wasn’t like we were friends, because apparently I didn’t have any.

I purchased a book containing listings of names and websites of those who were looking for submissions. I sent off twelve queries and ten refusals came back like those canons that serve you tennis balls when you don’t have anyone to play with. Well, I should be used to that. I didn’t hear from two other agents but I didn’t hold it against them since their website said they would not respond if they weren’t interested. Alrighty then! I comforted myself by thinking I was a real author now because all best-selling authors have gotten rejections.

  

The Proposal

I admit that my first submissions were to folks that didn’t ask for much. I kept running into places that wanted a ‘proposal’. A proposal is an instrument of torture designed to separate the…the – well I don’t know who exactly, but they want you to do most of the work that used to be done for you back in the good old days of traditional publishing when you didn’t have to be an MBA to write a ‘Hi, here’s my book’ letter.

Publishing has changed a lot, and I understand the request, and I wasn’t afraid to put in the work required to prepare my proposal. but I found it to be intimidating and overwhelmingly daunting.

Publishers and agents all ask for basically the same thing in a proposal, but they are asking for it in different ways which means you have to reorganize, edit and customize each submission. What I did was find the most common requirements and wrote multiple blurbs for each question. I even saved it in a document in my Submissions folder as Proposal Blurbs. Then I can copy and paste into their preferred configuration. No one is the wiser unless they read this blog, then I’m busted, but my aforementioned lack of friends makes that unlikely.

I’m still not sure if my proposal is any good or not. I answered the questions to the best of my ability as a new, and at this point, unappreciated, author, but even to myself I sound pretty lame. Especially when it comes to the part about the Marketing Plan or the scheduled TV appearances because there aren’t any.

 

My foray into self-publishing.

Foray might be a little misleading. It was more like ‘ok, let’s throw this at the wall and see if it sticks’. I figured I could probably learn something, so I sent my book off to six of these outfits. In no time at all I received six enthusiastic emails and actual phone calls announcing that I had been ‘accepted’. All I had to do was send them anywhere from $3600 - $5000 to get started. But they won’t answer any questions because you might use that knowledge to publish elsewhere. Finally, I got sneaky and asked them to tell me in general terms why they thought my book would be a success. This was my idea of a clever ruse to determine if they had actually read it. All but one failed miserably.

One even tried to tempt me with glamour by talking about what the cover would look like and how I felt about going on a local news program and asked when I would be available for book signings. Being in the public eye is not something that appeals to me so that conversation came to a quick stop. 

 

  

June 22, 2022     Another Assault on the Hill         

During the last month, I spent hours going through my manuscript and did a thorough spellcheck, agonized over commas, added a few colorful descriptions, inserted page breaks and figured out how to realign the most requested margin format. This week, pleased with myself, I sent out six more submissions. I selected places with more stringent requirements. I realized that my reluctance was because I had a terrible inferiority complex over presenting myself. I spent a lot of time looking at proposal samples and even though I thought my work was good enough to maybe have a shot, I personally did not live up to what they were looking for. I had published no book, had won no award, had never been asked to speak anywhere. I did the best I could without exaggerating or lying because it always comes back to bite you. Plus, God doesn’t like it. Most places indicated a wait of three to four months before responding so I hunkered down to wait and continued work on my second book.

I was encouraged to receive one email from Publisher A saying they liked the premise of the book and to please send a few more chapters, which I did. I also received a request from Agent A for a complete manuscript and a full proposal. I took two days to rework the proposal by padding it a little without stretching the truth. I was very stoked by that request because they were my number one agent pick. Now I just have to wait.

 

July 7, 2022     Rejection  

Publisher A sent a nice letter saying that they liked the book, but my lack of a Marketing Plan and an established platform was a hindrance. They also kindly provided a few notes for my manuscript which would be easy to do but now I have a dilemma. Do I continue to edit and rewrite the manuscript based on one person’s feedback?  I mean, the book is already out there as is. I went to some online forums to get some opinions and got an equal amount of yes and no. So what did I do? I sent out six more submissions. If the eleven I still have out turn me down, I will go back and add a few more descriptive scenes suggested by Publisher A.

 July 8, 2022      More Rejection   

Publisher B just responded with a boilerplate ‘thanks, but it’s not what we are looking for’ letter.

 

July 12, 2022     Rejection Via Ghosting  

One publisher and two agents ghosted me after they said they would get back in me in 2 – 3 weeks. I can’t say I’m all that disappointed because the big guns, the publishers and agents I’m really hoping for, are still far short of the 3 – 4 month window specified on their website. I’m not even going to assign them a letter.

It occurs to me that maybe I will get famous for my blog about failing to publish. I prefer to think of it as I SUCCEEDED in writing a book that hasn’t been published YET. Let’s hear it for all the other unpublished authors out there with hopeful hearts!

So – three down and nine to go!!!

July 25, 2022     And Even More Rejection

OK, another NO came to my inbox. Literally. The title of the email was NO for Fiction. I guess that was if I had any doubts. They did however, go on to say they felt 'awful' about it and that they were sure I had a best seller and when it was published I should let them know so they could first. kick themselves for rejecting me, and second, share my success on their social media. I know this was a form letter but at least it made me laugh. And I think I will let them know when it happens. Yes I will!

I would like to ask you to look at my Pages tab to see what I have done and what I am currently working on. The 'About Me" is still a work in progress, as I am striving really had to make myself sound interesting.

 July 28, 2022     And the Rejections Keep On Coming

        I know that getting a lot of rejections is not unusual, in fact, they are expected, but this one was a bummer. A very short boilerplate refusal - 'not what we are looking for at this time' type of rejection. The problem is, this was one of my top picks for an agent. Oh well....  I'm waiting for only a few more responses before I have to send out another batch. I wonder --how many should you send out before throwing in the towel?? When do you know it's time to stick a fork in it??