It has just occurred to me that I never shared my dream come true news.
I got my first book contract in June and my second book contract a couple weeks later and just last month my third!
For me it was the beginning of what I’ve always wanted to do and that was to be a published romance author. I wanted to be among others like me and perhaps build quite a business of this with readers and publishers. It had finally happened for me.
I think if it wasn’t for getting devastating medical news about my husband, I would have been floating on cloud nine for weeks on end. But even with his diagnosis, there’s something bitter sweet of my dream happening because now it’s more important to me to share with him.
After I signed the contracts, I began waiting for the next step from the publisher. All of my writer friends told me that the next thing would be book covers and first round edits and I was like, “Bring it on because I could totally use distraction that will lead to something good for me”
I, of course, thought my book is cute, not wonderful, but I knew it probably needed a lot of work too. No book is perfect. I know it needs work here and there to tighten and tone the story. After all, this is my first published book….er, two plus a short Christmas story. As soon as the publisher told me they were looking for short stories to create a Christmas Anthology, I spit one out in two days. I wasn’t sure they would accept it, but they did. I was really proud of that one because I’d never written a short story before and the over time, the qualification for word counts kept getting shorter. It was okay, I needed the challenge.
Perfect!
So now what?
Within a month of signing the first two contracts for “Love over Troubled Waters” and “The Unknown Son”, I received the worksheet for book covers.
OMG, so super excited to get those and send them back in. And I waited.
My Author friend told me, “The book covers are coming, the edits are coming. Relax. It takes awhile.”
Oh, okay. But in the back of my mind I was convinced that they actually read the book and decided it was a piece of garbage.” But they wouldn’t do that, right?
“Relax its coming.” My friend encouraged.
After hearing from the publisher telling us that while she was at the RWA conference in July, she had no computer connection, halting any progress she was making. Then of course, returning from conference one would need to dig through the back log of emails and projects and that is really the real reason everything is taking so long.
I talk myself into believing that they wouldn’t have sent me a contract, three actually, if my work didn’t show promise, right? The waiting is killing me. All I want to see are my book covers the way I envisioned them and then, maybe this will all seem real.
Three months later, I’m starting to think that the real problem is that my first two books actually need so much work in the editing department that it’s taking up time from ten editors to fix what they are probably thinking is an atrocious mess.
Oy!
Stay Tuned
I got my first book contract in June and my second book contract a couple weeks later and just last month my third!
For me it was the beginning of what I’ve always wanted to do and that was to be a published romance author. I wanted to be among others like me and perhaps build quite a business of this with readers and publishers. It had finally happened for me.
I think if it wasn’t for getting devastating medical news about my husband, I would have been floating on cloud nine for weeks on end. But even with his diagnosis, there’s something bitter sweet of my dream happening because now it’s more important to me to share with him.
After I signed the contracts, I began waiting for the next step from the publisher. All of my writer friends told me that the next thing would be book covers and first round edits and I was like, “Bring it on because I could totally use distraction that will lead to something good for me”
I, of course, thought my book is cute, not wonderful, but I knew it probably needed a lot of work too. No book is perfect. I know it needs work here and there to tighten and tone the story. After all, this is my first published book….er, two plus a short Christmas story. As soon as the publisher told me they were looking for short stories to create a Christmas Anthology, I spit one out in two days. I wasn’t sure they would accept it, but they did. I was really proud of that one because I’d never written a short story before and the over time, the qualification for word counts kept getting shorter. It was okay, I needed the challenge.
Perfect!
So now what?
Within a month of signing the first two contracts for “Love over Troubled Waters” and “The Unknown Son”, I received the worksheet for book covers.
OMG, so super excited to get those and send them back in. And I waited.
My Author friend told me, “The book covers are coming, the edits are coming. Relax. It takes awhile.”
Oh, okay. But in the back of my mind I was convinced that they actually read the book and decided it was a piece of garbage.” But they wouldn’t do that, right?
“Relax its coming.” My friend encouraged.
After hearing from the publisher telling us that while she was at the RWA conference in July, she had no computer connection, halting any progress she was making. Then of course, returning from conference one would need to dig through the back log of emails and projects and that is really the real reason everything is taking so long.
I talk myself into believing that they wouldn’t have sent me a contract, three actually, if my work didn’t show promise, right? The waiting is killing me. All I want to see are my book covers the way I envisioned them and then, maybe this will all seem real.
Three months later, I’m starting to think that the real problem is that my first two books actually need so much work in the editing department that it’s taking up time from ten editors to fix what they are probably thinking is an atrocious mess.
Oy!
Stay Tuned