An update on where I am with this whole book thing.
After way too much wasted time chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (traditional publishing). I've decided to self-publish my debut novel One Summer Knight.
For those who don’t know the traditional publishing route is one where I query (send my writing resume and book blurb) literary agents in hopes they will like my writing and represent me. Think of it as a job interview where YOU pay to work for a company if they hire you. The agent will try and sell my book to a publisher, and if all goes well in two to three years my book will be in most places you buy books. I tried this with One Summer Knight.
I pitched it (in person) to five agents and queried over a hundred agents. From those pitches and queries I heard things like: “Elise is just too bitter; can you make her seem nicer.” Or “This feels just to dramatic and unbelievable.” “This would be better if Elise was 27 and Rhys was 37.” “I thought this was a book about the Renaissance Festival? There is a movie about this woman who goes to….”
There was nothing about my writing, the story, or anything I wanted to change. Elise and Rhys’s age difference is what makes this story a story I want to tell. Beside a thirty-seven-year-old man living with his three thirty something friends in a horse trailer is a HUGE red flag. So, I had two choices:
Give up and move on or self-publish.
I chose self-publishing. Contrary to what some think (I mean you Jodi Picoult) this is not the easy way out nor does it mean my writing is substandard. Getting a traditional publishing contract isn’t a reward that is given out to people who have been patiently waiting. If that was the case I’ve put in my time, I’ve been jumping through every hoop that model has thrown at me since 2014.
And in that time, I learned pretty quickly that my writing isn’t mass market, meaning it’s not going to be picked up by Oprah’s book club nor will I be interviewed on Good Morning America and that’s okay. Because that’s not why I started writing but let me be clear I won’t turn down either. 😉
With all that said my next step is to send my debut novel One Summer Knight to my wonderful editor in Dec. In Jan it’ll be off to proofreader, then cover designer, formatting and if all goes well on May 14, 2024, I will release ONE SUMMER KNIGHT into the wild.
Yes, this is scary, and it might fail but I will not have any regrets, nor will I look back at any of this and say, “I wish I would’ve….” So, I hope you will follow long on this final leg of a very long and silly journey to get a book about a woman looking for her happily ever after into the big wide world, okay the kinda small ‘hey, would you read my book’ world.
I hope you will stick around. Follow me on Instagram or sign up for my newsletter in case I decide to ever send one!
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