“What does a published author look like?”

I started writing in 2008 for real. All of us… those who write, have been writing forever. But I started to try and figure out how to create an entire novel that year. July 3rd, to be exact. See, I’d had a bit of a tantrum. You can read about that HERE.

Only… once that first novel was finished, I didn’t know what to do. I had to research. How do you get your novel published? When I compiled all the info, I was daunted.

An agent? Huh?

An agent who will get your novel seen by editors at publishing houses? What? (I thought you could still wrap a manuscript up in brown paper and tie it with string. Really.)

And there were the percentages: Few writers even get an agent. It’s HARD to get an agent. Then, when you have an agent? The percentage of writers who get their books sold and then in print? Minuscule. I’ll admit it. Those statistics scared the hell out of me.

Thank god I didn’t pay any attention to them.

My first book got attention from agents. But no offers. 250 queries. Read it. Know it. I wrote a damn fine query, too. It was the book, not the query.

So I wrote another one (novel, that it), sent 180 queries. I landed one agent who I didn’t really feel was right, and had a book I didn’t feel was right either. I did the unthinkable. Terminated my contract and tucked that book under the bed too.

And then I wrote a third novel. I felt it in my bones. I knew…. it’s unexplainable. I sent 11 queries. received 3 offers. Accepted one ANNIE. (Anne Bohner of Pen and Ink Lit)

Each morning, I’d wake up and look in my bathroom mirror. I’d ask it..”Is this what a published author looks like?” I swear. It became a habit, a mantra, a chant.

We worked, Annie and I, and polishing the novel. And in May of 2011 that book went out on submission to publishers.

I then began to get the next set of rejections. I wore them like badges. They were positive. They were interesting. They were one step closer.

So I’d look in the mirror and ask: “Is this what a published author looks like?”

Then, one editor at the publishing house that I’d dreamed about (Saint Martin’s Press) because I admired the books they published, the cover art, and also? SMP are my initials (Suzanne Marie Palmieri). She rejected the novel too. But I could tell… there was room. Room for me to perhaps revise.

So I asked Anne if it would be okay, and then I emailed the editor with some ideas. Things I thought would help the novel shine.

“Revise,” said the editor. So I worked. Hard.

In September 2011 Annie called me. We’d sold The Witch of Little Italy. It was real.

I was at work. I went to the bathroom to catch my breath. And looked in the mirror. “Is this what a published author looks like?” No answer came from my reflection.

At the end of that month, Annie had worked out a two book contract with Saint Martin’s Press. Two books. Not a series. AND she’d also co-agented a novel I’d written on the side with a wonderful author and dear friend (who I’ve never met) Loretta Nyhan. Annie and Loretta’s amazing agent Joanna Volpe had worked out a two book contract with MIRA Books (mainstream fiction imprint of Harlequin). Both deals, for two books each, came together on the same day.

Four novels would be published. I had it in writing.

I woke up, looked in the mirror and asked: “Is this what a published Author looks like?”

I still didn’t know.

Today is March 1st, 2013. My novel came today. The one that will be on the shelves on March 26th in bookstores both small and big. In Target too. Not a manuscript. Not a galley copy. The real thing.

I looked at it for a long time. I touched it. Read a bit of it. Saw my picture on the back.

Then? I had an idea. One of the perks of working under contract for a traditional publishing house is that you get a chance to read some books first, before they are published. I have group of them that I simply adore.

So I took my own novel and stacked it up with the wonderful books I’ve gotten from authors I admire and editors who are kind. All are galleys,(though some are published now). I stacked them with mine in the middle. Here is what it looked like:

As I said, some of these amazing books aren’t out yet. Family Pictures (Jane Green), The Time Between, (Karen White -that book will be hard cover in it’s final form!), and Evidence of life (Barbara Taylor Sissel) will come out soon. And they are all wonderful.

Semi-Charmed life (Nora Zelevansky), and The Fate of Mercy Alban (Wendy Webb) are now available in stores.

And there’s mine. Do you see it? Sandwiched in between. That’s what it looks like to be a published novel. A novel amidst other wonderful novels. As it should be. In an amongst all the other choices that readers will have this year. (And last, and next, and forever….)

But, still. What does it look like to be a published author?

Well, if you are out there. And you are writing and hoping and dreaming. If you are in the process of querying agents and wracking up rejections. If you have an agent and are struggling with the “passes”…. go to a mirror. Look at yourself.

Because it’s you. YOU are the one that looks like a published author. Bravo on what is coming your way.

Never give up.

All the love,

Suzy

Suzanne Palmieri (AKA Suzanne Hayes)