After
years of rejection, my
book Tempered Hearts (Book 1 in a series) was
accepted for publication with Writer’s Exchange Epublishing
Co. I was thrilled! Though this was Sandy’s maiden effort in
publishing books, she had a wonderful reputation in producing Writer’s
Exchange Ezine—a publication offering info and advice to
writers—and was truly a blessing
to work with. Since she wasn’t set up to offer POD (print on demand) at
the time, I self-published the print copies of my book and quickly
signed Tempered Dreams (Book 2) with her, which was
released June 2001.
Though the print copies were
offered through WEE’s Web site as well
as mine, I took this endeavor a step further and distributed the books
through Amazon.com, American Wholesale Book Co., and the
Books-A-Million stores. I set up author events, book signings, speaking
engagements—the whole works.
Together,
Sandy and I worked to make my dream of being a published
author flourish, and we did very well, selling over 400 books the first
year!
In December 2001, I began
chatting with an up-and-coming new
publisher. The woman had unique and wonderful marketing ideas
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for her
authors, so I asked to be released from WEE and signed a contract with
her in May of 2002. In November 2003, my contract became null and void
without ever being fulfilled.
This mistake cost me nearly four
years out of my career!
As humans we tend to look back
and wonder “what if” . . . what if
I’d never left WEE? What if the publisher had materialized and
flourished? What if . . .?As Christians we are told not to look back
but to press on to the high calling of Jesus. This is what I remind
myself when my thoughts take that never-ending downward spiral.
I’ve bounced back since that
devastating setback and now have five
full-length titles published through two different small press
publishers (Book 4 of Tempered series through ComStar Media
and The Inheritance through The Wild Rose
Press). All are available in Ebook and Print. I also have
four short stories available in electronic format through The
Wild Rose Press.
Some folks thumb their noses at
E/Self/POD published authors, saying they’re not really
published, and many of those E/Self/POD authors still dream of a
contract with Big Name Publisher or even a new traditional house, but
I’m here to tell you never give up a sure thing for a maybe.
Recently I signed with an agent
to represent my last two complete
novels, future works, as well as a gift book idea to those Big Name
Publishers, but if for some reason he doesn’t secure a contract, I’m
more than happy to continue on the path God has chosen for me.
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