Somewhere in the beginning

Okay, I am a newbie to the world of book publishing.  I, like many of us I suspect, have secreted away at least five unfinished books in my desk drawer, carefully packed with each of many moves as my husband was transferred from one end of the country to the other. When a brief moment from raising children and working for a living appeared, I would eagerly return to one or the other of my “books”, piddle with it, edit it myself instead of just writing, then squirrel it away until more time would make itself available.  I was very sure I would finish each and every one and that at least one would get published. One Day.

 

An elderly friend of mine called one day. She was bored, she said. She had nothing good to read, she said. What was I reading, she asked? I glanced at one of my manuscripts and offered to send her the finished chapters to see what she thought. She was happy and I was elated as I popped the dog-eared pages in the mail to her. A few days later, and every two days after that, she called, demanding more, more, more. She needed new chapters. I wrote them quickly, didn’t self-edit them, and mailed them off. By the end of summer, I had actually finished, well first draft finished, one of my books! Secrets of the Devil Vine was born!

 

What to do next? Didn’t have a clue.  I went on the internet searching for Independent Publishers, knowing full well that I would never get the attention of a larger publishing house.

Ignorance is bliss and when the website said that new submissions were accepted in June, I waited until June and mailed my masterpiece off! I got word from the publisher, via one of his grad student assistants, that I needed to get it edited and when I did, he agreed to reread it! The assistant explained she had never heard of him doing a “reread”.  I was excited and set out to find an editor.  Back to the internet.

 

I would love for you to join me as I take you from writing to publishing to releasing my first novel. There is much to do on the business end of the book stick, none of which I knew about, much less was prepared for. So, next time I’ll explain how much fun (not) editing was and, more importantly, what and when you should do this and that.