After six long years of writing, submitting and more writing, (not to mention even more submitting), I sold my second book.
As I reflect on what took me so long, I keep coming up with different answers. Were the sales of my first book too low? I have no idea what my print run was, because my publisher didn't share those numbers. Possibly. Was it an awful book? Maybe, although I received very good reviews and lots of great feedback from my readers. Was the timing all wrong?
I think that's a big part of it. My first book was published as part of a national contest, and although I didn't win first place, all the books from the three finalists were published. It was wonderful to finally see my book on the shelves at bookstores. I loved signing at events and attending conferences as a "published author".
But then I wrote my next Western historical romance, and received no interest from my publisher, and even though I came close to selling in several instances, I finally gave up and put the book away. I wrote other things, contemporary romance, a historical romance with paranormal elements.
I kept submitting.
Last summer, I decided to submit the Western to a new publisher I'd been hearing a lot about, The Wild Rose Press. I received a request for a partial almost immediately. Then I was given a bit of encouragement. The editor told me there were problems, but she felt I could fix them.
Would I be willing to revise the partial?
I know there are writers out there who would refuse to do this, but I'm not one of them. I want to become a better writer, it's my first objective. So of course I revised the partial.
Then she requested the entire manuscript. And she asked me if I would be willing to revise that, with her suggestions?
Of course and then I got the response I'd been waiting for since 2003. "I want to buy your book."
That's the best possible ending! Stay tuned because this is just the beginning of a new chapter in my life.
