A Dymond in the Rough: My Publishing Journey

I've been asked quite frequently how I got my start so I thought I'd share my journey with you. It's definitely been both frustrating and rewarding and I hope it will give you a chance to know me better.

I started my writing journey in July, 2011 with a pen and a college-ruled notebook, writing stories that bounced around in my mind and I have to admit, I thought it would be a much easier process than it proved to be. After all, how hard could it be to write a story about two people on an adventure to fall in love?

EXTREMELY HARD!

From a young age, I put a lot of work into creative writing and even studied both English literature and creative writing in college. I worked hard to perfect grammar and punctuation and to develop the art of putting words together to create a story that people could enjoy. Yet, writing a book was difficult. And, not only that, but convincing someone to publish it was nearly impossible – at least in my case. See, when I began my journey e-books were nearly non-existent. Tangible, paper books were still the norm.

The “acceptable” process for publishing a book was to first develop a query letter to solicit either a publisher directly or an agent to represent you. I found out rather quickly that the letter had to be phenomenal because I couldn’t even get my manuscript read until they received my letter and then ASKED ME TO SEND IT TO THEM. The letter was the proverbial “foot in the door”; however, once my foot was inside, my toes still got smashed.

So, I wrote and re-wrote at least fifty query letters and luckily, I received a few requests to send my manuscript. Unfortunately, none of them allowed me to fully enter the door into the literary world. But I kept writing and re-writing in hopes that I would get through eventually.

I attended numerous writing conferences, stuffing my mind with industry information and soaking up new techniques on how to make my writing more desirable. I discovered a whole list of rules that someone (I have yet to identify who) developed to follow in order to be a successful author.

Fun fact: I don't always follow the rules.

Don't get me wrong, I am a law-abiding citizen. I just think the rule I'm supposed to follow should be a logical one. I know I should stop at a stop sign or a red light, but why can't my hero be a rock star? Yes, I was led to believe rock stars are not hero material. Well ... I broke that rule with my first novel. What a rebel I am! 😀

I stuck to my guns and kept writing. I literally wrote ALL the time. You know how die-hard readers read at stoplights? Yeah, I wrote - sometimes notes, sometimes paragraphs. Finally, I managed to get a short story published in a magazine. Baby steps, I reminded myself.

And then, a door opened.

Enter Smashwords.

My dearest friend in the whole, wild world happened to be a subscriber of Romantic Times Magazine and saw an ad by Smashwords. She jumped up and down, nearly turning blue while she urged me to investigate self-publishing. But I am a stubborn woman, as she well knows, and I immediately declined. The reason made a lot of sense to me then – I find it utterly ridiculous now:

I had just returned from a conference in Dallas, Texas where a well-published author spoke. When asked for her thoughts about self-publishing, she responded:

Why would you want to do it yourself when you can have a large publishing house behind you to pay you an advance and carry most of the weight?

My first mistake: I listened.

Be sure to read next week's blog to see what happened next!

Have an AWESOME week!

Mia

Thought for the week:

If we're not supposed to have a midnight snack, why is there a light in the fridge?