I SOLD MY SECOND BOOK!!!!

Monday, November 30, 2009
I was going to title this post "Woes to Wows," but I have a feeling my current title will get more attention.

Anyway, as of November 18, 2009, I was offered a contract for my second book!!!

It had been exactly a year and six days since I'd received an offer for my first book. Sadly, I had submitted seven of my finished manuscripts a total of twenty-five times to a variety of ten publishers. Crazy, huh? The first twenty-two of those twenty-five submissions were rejections, of course, though okay, in six of the rejections, an editor was interested enough to ask me to resubmit my story after I made revisions, so we could call those half rejections if you like (sounds better to me, anyway).

Twenty-two fails out of twenty-five tries... and all within twelve months. You can probably imagine my frustration and mounting depression. But I can’t say I learned nothing from the experience… and I’m still learning. A writer can find out a lot about a publisher from a rejection letter, even some things they don’t mention in their submission guidelines. Some places don’t want the secret-baby, billionaire’s mistress kind of theme in their books and other places would actually prefer to receive these category-line plots. Some places want an even mix between hero and heroine’s point of view. Other places want it to be mainly HER story (this is all in the romance publishing world, by the way--I'm not so knowledgeable in other genres). I could go on with examples, but I won’t bore you. My main point is: it’s all a matter of trial and error.

And out of twenty-five tries, I made twenty-two errors (yep, that sounds like me). Just three more to go and I’d be out of submissions...All filled up with rejection. So, when reply twenty-three showed up in my Inbox on the morning of the eighteenth, I wasn’t so optimistic (Imagine that). But I opened the letter anyway… and in the blink of an eye (well, okay, I blinked a few times to make sure I was seeing what I was really seeing), all my woes turned into one big, “Wow.”

I just sold my second book.

At first, I was a bit breathless and way too excited, I couldn’t have told you much of anything past, “Wow. It’s a miracle.” But since then, I've calmed down AND received my signed contract, so I’ll spill all the juicy details I know. This book is an ADULT romance as opposed to my first book, which is a young adult romance. It will be published by the same publisher as my first: The Wild Rose Press.

It's currently titled THE TROUBLE WITH TOMBOYS, and I think that will stay the same. In a rating scale of sweet, sensual, spicy, hot, to erotica, it's "hot," which will be really embarrassing for me when it comes out. For people that know me, there will be a lot of gasping going around if they read this story. "Linda Kay! I can't believe you wrote something that... that... naughty." But there's a lot more to it than just bedroom scenes, so don't worry too much.

Since I'm still in the editing stage, there is no release date set yet, but fear not, I will most definitely keep you updated on those details. And if you want to know what it's about, here's my one line blurb : Grady Rawlings can't seem to get over the death of his wife, but tomboy B.J. Gilmore refuses to give up on him until she drags him back to the land of the living. And that's all I have to say about that.

So, here’s my motto for the day: Keep on submitting; it does eventually pay off!

On another funny note, a few hours after my big "Holy Cow, I sold a book" moment, I received rejection number twenty-three. SOMEONE must want to make sure I stay humble, huh?!

22 comments:

  1. *she fans herself after reading about Linda's book* WHEW "Did someone turn up the thermostat in here?"

    Linda! Linda! Congratulations. Oh my goodness. Celebrate my friend. CELEBRATE. :)

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  2. Congrats on your sale, Linda! And congrats for getting Stillburrow on The Story Siren's Debut Authors list. Yay!

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  3. Wonderful news, Linda!!!!!!!!!
    Congrats!!!

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  4. Wow, Linda! Fantastic news. How you could not tell us for five days is hard to imagine. Now that's naughty! But ;) I know you had to wait for the paper to sign. I think you gave us all hope and perspective with your story on persevering through the rejections.
    Again, a big woo-hoo!

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  5. Robyn - Thank you, thank you. I can always count on you to boost my ego!

    Susan - I just saw that on "The Story Sirens" blog this morning. Exciting stuff. Thanks.

    Jennifer - Thank you dearly.

    Tricia - It was hard to keep my mouth shut, you're right about that. And thank you for passing that award along to me on your blog. You're too sweet.

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  6. Yay Linda! Congratulations. Very exciting news!

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  7. CONGRATULATIONS, Linda!!!

    That's awesome news and thanks for the motto. I need to take heed to that, I think!

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  8. Congratulations, Linda! That's great news. And even though you had your woes on the way, your story was still encouraging.

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  9. Hi Linda, congrats on your sale!! You know, what you describe is exactly what it's like to be a working writer- 80 percent of what you write is rejected- even after you publish. lol. So, yay! Congrats, I'm jumping up and down for you. Can't wait to read it.

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  10. Woohoo!!! I love your title too. LOL I would totally pick that up to read the blurb.

    This is so huge. :-) Congratulations!

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  11. Wow! That's brilliant! Congratulations!

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  12. So happy and proud. Love your trial and error stories. I knew that book sale was on it's way! Congrats!!!!! :O)

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  13. Thank you, everyone. What wonderful support you are. I feel blessed.

    And I'm glad some of you like my trial-and-error report. I hoped it would be more inspiring and uplifting for other writers instead of just belittling for myself!!

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  14. Congratulations! Perseverance pays off =D

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  15. Hip! Hip! Hooray! I am sooo excited for you! How will you celebrate? chocolates? steak dinner? shopping spree? oh, the possibilities....

    :D :D

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  16. Doin' the Snoopy dance for you! Congratulations!!

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  17. CONGRATULATIONS! popped over from eileen's blog. what a great day to do so....so i can join in your celebration! :)

    jeannie
    The Character Therapist

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  18. Congrats! What a great story! Much success to you and your career.

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  19. Yay for you:) I also just sold my second e-book, one year after receiving my 1st 'conditional' contract, so I know how frustrating the wait has been! I drank the last of my wine last night and toasted both of us, since you can't drink just yet (grin!).

    And for the record, when my 1st one was made known to people, I got 'Sweet innocent YOU wrote THAT?' Hahahahahah:)

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  20. YAY! That's fantastic! You totally deserve it!

    I've had those humbling moments too. I got an agent rejection the same day I got the call :)

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  21. Congrats -- again!!

    And as for the "Linda I can't believe you wrote something that naughty..."

    It isn't as bad as you might think :) My mother... well let's just say she's VERY old fashioned. Not a sideways glance from her about my books and their "hot" ratings either.

    Her comment -- "Well, sex sells."

    Betcha you'll be surprised at your praise!

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  22. Congratulations, Linda. I'm thrilled for you!!!

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