Trail to Glory, an historical family saga based on my own family's genealogy was published by Dorchester about 22 years ago. This was back in the days when you typed the whole manuscript out and sent it in a box with another box inside with the right postage for it to come back to you. By the time it was actually published, it had been rejected nearly 30 times with many rewrites in-between. I probably spent more on postage than I received as an advance.I was thrilled--but dumb. With contract in hand, I should have found an agent before I signed. Because I knew no other published writers, I didn't have anyone to go to for advice. When I received my author copies, instead of using them to get reviews, I gave them away to friends and family. I told you I was dumb.
Of course I thought the way would be easy from there--was I ever wrong. The editor who bought my book at Dorchester left, and when I sent in my next book, her replacement wasn't interested.
I found a publisher for it--Two Ways West. The books looked wonderful, but the publisher turned out to be a crook--eventually I got all the books that were printed and sold them myself. Since that time, I published it myself and sold out several times.
This all took a lot of time, and I was writing and writing. Mysteries mostly. I've had two publishers who died and was electronically published, long before anyone knew much about that including the publisher.
And yes, I've had agents, several over the years, but basically found publishers on my own.
Now I'm happily published by Mundania Press and a couple of other e-publishers. The second in my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series coming from Mundania, Judgment Fire, will be out this month and can be purchased from http://www.mundaniapress/, or through my website, http://fictionforyou.com/ or ordered through your local bookstore.
My advice to all new authors who are having trouble finding a publisher, is look for new avenues of publishing, but do some investigating and find out what other authors of that publisher have to say. Though writing is a complicated business that keeps changing, it is a business. Learn as much as you can. It's all out there on the Internet, easy to find out. Never let rejections get you down. Keep writing and submitting.
Marilyn Meredith
Author of JUDGMENT FIRE
http://fictionforyou.com/
http://www.policewriter.com/
NEW BLOG at http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/
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