Take it away, Jolene!
1. Submitted to the largest publisher in the niche market.
2. Rejection.
3. Found a killer awesome beta reader.
4. Did some revisions.
5. Re-submitted to another of the three large publishers in the niche market.
6. Got offer of publication.
7. The Next Door Boys was signed in January of 2011, and came out in October of 2011.
(Seems so simple, right? BUT at this time I didn’t have an agent to help with my contract or to push for a two-book deal, or to push for ebooks to follow the paperback in a timely manner, or, or, or… I don’t care who you publish with, it’s really, really nice to have someone deal with the business/sales end of things)
Next two seem more complicated, but have really been WAY less stressful (aside from maybe the query part) – ready??
1. Begin querying in December of 2010.
2. Don’t eat. Don’t sleep. Hit refresh on email an embarrassing amount per day, or hour, or minute, or you know, whatever.
3. Some requests, some rejections. Keep writing frantically to have new material. This goes on until June of 2011.
4. Offer of rep. from an agent I met on #yalitchat (never underestimate the awesomeness that is twitter)
5. Notify other agents who have one or two of my projects, and pull out hair wondering WHO to go with.
6. My agent goes through almost the same process for submission as I went through for querying – WAY less stressful than querying. I turned it over to her. All I have to do now is keep writing.
7. An editor I really wanted to work with loved Night Sky – I thought this is it! A done deal, but it’s NOT. The board at the publishing house passed. Was told that the writing is stellar, but not enough of a commercial hook.
8. We continue to search, and continue to have editors like my writing, but can’t sell to their pub house.
9. Tell my agent – we’ve talked about finding me an epublisher – find me someone who loves my book as much as I do because I want it OUT. I have other projects I want to focus on.
10. Lauren (my agent) finds an epublisher who loves my story. Sign a two-book deal for Night Sky and Knee Deep. I’m SO SO SO excited to be working with Tribute Books who is in the process of shifting their whole line to the YA market.
The point of this whole long rambling post is that there are a TON of ways to get published. Everyone finds what works best for them, and not just for them, but for each project.
This is what worked for me, and for these particular manuscripts. Well, and my writing career is and always will be a work in progress…
Thanks for having me Jen!!
You can find me HERE
And on goodreads HERE
Click over and see what Jolene's doing these days! Feel free to share your story in the comments! I love hearing how different we all are!
38 comments:
Love this post. Thanks for sharing your story. I've just recently figured out (yes, I might be slow) that the traditional route might not be for me, at least right now. Good luck with your writing adventure!
Publication stories are the best. Glad to see even published authors struggle after that first book. Sounds like she knows what she wants and goes after it.
Everyone's path is different. The best one is the one that works!
Great post. What an inspiration! Writing for publication is a crazy-wild journey isn't it? But I love it. :)
Writ on, my friend. :)
Yes, everyones path is different! Congrats on your success, though!
~JD
I wonder when those involved in "tradiotnal" publishing will wake up and realize they are losing a lot of stellar authors to the e-pub & self-pub and take a long look at the measuring sticks they've used in the past? They say the business is changing...is it because traditional publishing refuses to adapt?
Great story!
Things are changing and different routes are opening up for witers...it's an exciting time!
Really cool. It's a lot of work for some and easy for other. I hope you have success with your book. I just love the cover.
Thank you so much for this post. I love reading about other authors' journeys. It gives me hope...even if at the same time, it scares me a bit! Though my road, self-publication, will be (and is) a bit different. Thank you so much (and your book is already on my wish list. :) )
I always get excited by stories that break the traditional model.
Wishing you the best success with your books. On the way to goodreads to check them out now.
Eeeeee!!!!! I love Jolene!!!!!
Awesome post! And I always love reading/hearing about how different authors make it. So fun. :D
I love that you found what worked for you, Jolene! Such a great story. Thanks for sharing it!
Great story, Jolene! I also came to this whole thing in a weird, backwards way and found myself querying for agents *after* publishing my first book. I was surprised you found submission easier than querying, btw. I thought it was worse! Talk about sick with anxiety!
Yay, Jolene! I saw your announcement on PM this weekend, and I was so. proud. :D That's a great story about how you got to epublishing. And very cool that you met an agent you like and who works with you on all options.
Thanks for sharing this! :o) <#
I love reading publication stories! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Jolene! This was very encouraging. I can't seem to decide the best publication path for my writing, but hearing others' stories helps. :)
Yup! Encouraging! Thanks Jen
Good luck Jolene. Sounds like your journey is headed in the right direction!
I've changed my mind LOADS of times on what would be the best route.
I feel good about what I'm doing now, and that's a big deal.
Hammons - I hope they realize they're losing some amazing authors. Right now I feel like "hook" is going to beat good writing almost every time in traditional publishing. They don't seem to go together as often as they should.
IN response to a ton of you ;-D - I think that the process is going to change drastically even just between projects. It's been fun to go a couple of different routes, and it'll be interesting to see what my take on this subject will be in another year or two.
Morgan - EEEEE I just love Morgan!!
Diane - I work backwards in a lot of things . . .
LTM - I love that I have an agent who's now shopping to BIG publishers only. Is not afraid to take a chance with a small company that really seems to have their stuff together, and even said she'd help me promote if I ever wrote something I wanted to self-pub. She's just awesome that way.
THANKS EVERYONE!!!!!!
And thanks Jen :D
Wow, with a story like that we should call authors survivors!
Thanks for the info, Jen and Jolene!
Everyone's story is so different. I still can't believe publishers didn't think there was market for Night Sky, it's just SO fabulous. Oh well. It is so hard to understand the publishing world. BUT, I'm glad Lauren found the right place for it.
Thanks for sharing your journey.
Thanks Jen and Jolene, It's good to see so many paths we can go down. Keeps us hopeful.
Love a good success story. Congrats!
AW! I <3 you Jolene! Thanks for sharing.
It is so nice to hear the stories of others. There are so many ways to have success! Thanks for sharing.
Always great to read how others went through the process. There should be a mass comparison of our successes after Armageddon.
I love reading success stories. It's like, "Yes! It does happen!" Thanks for sharing! :)
Thx for this ...
Love this- sometimes we need a reminder that there is more than one way to get published and its not as easy as people make it seem, sometimes. Even when you have an agent! And I love hearing everyone's stories of how they came to be published.
I LOVE that there are a million ways to get published, and I also love that people are taking advantage of all of them.
Thanks again for having me Jen!!
I never tire of hearing people's unique story of publication. Thanks, ladies!
If roads to publication were all cookie-cutter, there'd be no excitement, no thrill, no, "Wow, that was awesome." But it's still a road that must be traveled to reach one's desired destination.
Thank you for sharing yours today, Jolene. Thanks, Jen, for having her here.
Jolene is definitely a brilliant example of how there is no longer any 'right' way, only what is right for you, for your book, at this time.
Very interesting! It's neat to see an author who went the publisher route first. Haven't seen one of those in a while! Great post!
Thanks for telling us about your story and making me think that about the different ways you can get your book out.
It's so interesting to hear how it works for others. Congrats to jolene and her many varieties of success!
Great run down. I saw the announcement on PM for Night Sky, it sounds really good!
Jolene, it's an honor to be working with you on "Night Sky." I'm glad we were able to connect through Lauren. The picture with your kids is adorable :)
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