Well it all happened so suddenly! One minute I was having a whinge about the traumas of self-publishing and the next I was receiving a contract offer from a publisher for my debut novel ‘The Apple Tree’. How did that happen? Well, promise you won’t laugh…?
Being a newbie to this publishing game, I started approaching review blogs asking them very politely if they would like to review my new contemporary romance – I touched upon that briefly in a former blog. One of these ‘blogs’ turned out to be a site for a start-up publisher called ‘Inspired Romance Novels’. A lovely lady named Joan agreed to accept my submission and read it. Trust me to get it wrong, but who cares? Joan liked the novel and offered me a contract!
Not only that but, by submitting to her site, I had unwittingly entered my novel into her ‘kick-off romance writing competition’ – which I subsequently won! Since then the wonderful Joan has worked painstakingly with me to help me revamp my novel, find just the right cover art and prepare for its re-launch.
I’ve been so inspired and excited that I churned out my next novel in record time – true the idea was fully-formed in my mind – but ‘In Loving Hate’ (title still open to debate, by the way) was so much easier to write after that little confidence boost.What I want to say to shy new writers (like me) is have faith in yourself. Approach the review blogs after first making sure that your work fits their wanted list and don’t give up hope. Joan was my fairy godmother – I hope you will find yours!
3 comments:
Congrats!!! I'm very happy for you. This is well deserved. Wishing you great success, Deb
Congratulations and well done! I find writing short posts for my blog terrifying enough so I am full of admiration.
Thank you very much to both of you. It's praise indeed when it comes from people whose work I really admire.
Lyn
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