Welcome to my blog! I am going to try to post a new entry every Friday. If I actually manage to do this, I will be buying celebratory ice cream every Saturday!

For my first post, I will share a bit about my publishing adventure. Providence was submitted and rejected many times. I was lucky though. The editors I sent it to almost always took the time to explain why they were rejecting it. This helped me in my revising. It got to the point I actually liked the criticism more than the praise! At the end of December of 2012, I came upon an interview with Jackie Mitchard, my editor at Merit Press. In the interview, she discussed the kind of book she would like to publish. As I read the article, I thought – She’s describing Providence! Then, ignoring all of the advice I’ve read about not submitting over the holidays and not submitting until you knew everything you could possibly know about the editor or agent, I impulsively submitted the manuscript. Within weeks, she asked me to revise the first chapter and told me she would like to make an offer. After that, came the nail biting weeks of waiting to see if the committee was onboard with the book and then the written offer and contract.

While my head was still spinning from the idea of Providence being published, I received the contract. I’m no stranger to publishing contracts, but this one had clauses and concerns of which I had no knowledge. Panic set in. I went to a lawyer who said he had experience with publishing contracts. My first sign of trouble – he was surprised to learn the publisher was paying me; I was not paying the publisher. I paid his fee and left. Then I went to a SCBWI conference in Massachusetts. I heard several agents speak. Among them was Karen Grencik of Fox Literary Agency. I spoke with Karen there and followed up when I got home. By the end of the week, Karen was negotiating the contract for me. Knowing she was good with the end results made it easy for me to sign the contract.

Of course, if you ask any author, they will tell you signing the contract is just the beginning. I’ll save the next part of the process for my next post!