The Ink is Dry

My little world of Epertase has found a home.

For those of you who don’t know, my fantasy novel, The Light of Epertase, is on its way to becoming a published book. I thought I would take some time here to talk briefly about the process of getting a publishing deal in hopes of helping those of you who seek to be published keep your heads up.

I began the querying process in September of last year (or as I like to call it, passing a nine month kidney stone). I mean, my manuscript was the greatest thing I could ever write so it was only a matter of time before I was beating agents off with a stick, right?

Well, not quite.

Each form rejection letter caused me to rethink everything from my query letter to my story itself, much like everyone who tries this authoring thing, I suspect.
So why did I keep trying? Everyone has their own reasons and motivations but mine came down to one simple fact—not one rejection came from the reading of my actual story. That’s right; I was rejected on my query letter alone many times. No partial requests, full requests, nothing. So I continued to rework my letter over and over all the while knowing that it may just as easily be my credentials (or lack thereof) as it was in my story as a whole.

What’s that?

How dare you suggest that my query letter may have simply sucked?

OK, maybe it did, who knows?

And then, because of a good friend, Rhemalda Publishing came into the picture. They read my story. The key part of that sentence is “they read my story.” I’m not sure but I’m assuming they liked it since they offered me a contract. I counter-offered, letting them know how important of a person I was and… Are you kidding me? I signed and was elated to do so. Sure, I did the due diligence first; you know, have important people look over the contract (by important people I mean my wife), research the company, and all of those things that important people tell you to do. Note: That is a joke. Signing a contract is a serious thing and you should have someone who knows more about contracts than my wife go over it (sorry, honey).

Now, I couldn’t be happier...

Well, maybe if everyone goes out and buys my book I would be happier.