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?
