Thursday, November 1, 2007

The story of getting to published...

Okay...so eventually I decided to promote my hero. I think it was because I had read dukes were still very popular heroes and so all of a sudden he became a duke and the title likewise changed to The Duke's Project. This was the first book I actually completed and it ended up being close to 100,000-words. Never been able to write a book that long since, I might add. I queried a few agents and sent off a full to less than five. One such agent offered representation and I was thrilled. I review her contract and instantly saw some stuff I didn't care for. Other stuff, like send her boxes of stationery, was just plain weird. I had my sister, a lawyer, look at it and she suggested several changes. They seemed reasonable to me. Well the "agent" reacted very badly and was "shocked" I would have a lawyer review the contract. She basically withdrew her offer. I was disappointed, but come to find out she was a scam artist well known for her scams, infamous you might say so I dodged a HUGE bullet there.I tried submitting it on my own to some publishers, but honestly without much success. So I moved on. That was the advice you get from most other writers and industries experts. I wrote another book, a medieval romance this time instead of a Regency romance like The Duke's Project was. I finaled in a few contests with the medieval and even got an agent, but ultimately it didn't sell. I started another Regency romance this one called Duke Pretender and it involved the younger brother from the first Duke book. I ended up trying to market it as a traditional Regency and was told it was well written but not traditional enough and too quirky for regular historicals. So three books written, but nothing published. I got laid off from my job of 15 years and wrote a fourth book, a sequel to the medieval. I parted ways with my agent. Started 10 different partials of books and floundered for a while not really sure what I wanted to work on. For a while I decided to work on nothing...

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