I am in the middle of re-editing several books that I wrote in the 1980s. They are being re-published as Vintage Romance, and that word vintage got me thinking about how my writing life has changed since they were first published.
In those early days I produced a top copy and a carbon copy on a portable manual typewriter, and both copies were stored in box files until I typed The End on the final page and sent the top copy off to a publisher with a covering letter. To get them even looked at instead of ending up on a junior editor's slush pile, writers had to do their homework. Woe betide any hopeful author who didn't produce a manuscript to each publisher's exact specification. I remember having to send 200+ single-sided, double-spaced pages to one publisher (no more than 10 chapters, one inch margins all round, each page numbered centre bottom and with name and title at the top). The pages then had to be boxed and secured with an elastic band, and I had to include a stamped addressed envelope for the reply; a reply which would probably not arrive for months.
When, after quite a lot of rejection letters, I was finally invited to meet an editor to discuss one of my manuscripts with a view to publication, I was beside myself with excitement. The editor was positive and her suggestions helpful. I left the meeting walking on air and spent the next few weeks revising and re-writing, sure that it was only a matter of time before I took the publishing world by storm. Pride, of course, always comes before a fall, and what a fall it was. The revised manuscript received a very swift rejection. I don't remember the exact words of the letter except that it said my editor had now left the publishing company and her successor did not feel my manuscript was a fit.
That was quite possibly the worst day of my writing life but I eventually followed the advice in Jerome Kern's song and picked myself up, dusted myself off and started all over again. After all I had a completed manuscript that needed a home. It eventually found one I'm glad to say and a long life too. Initially published in 1983, and then again in 2012, it will soon go to a 3rd edition when it is re-published in digital and paperback by Books We Love in 2018. In the meantime two of its contemporaries have already been republished: The Hollywood Collection and Bouquet of Thorns.
Re-reading and editing all those early books has been a more enjoyable experience than I anticipated because they have stood the test of time surprisingly well. I also found myself remembering where the stories had come from and what had prompted me to write them. The Hollywood Collection for example was triggered by a magazine article about a handsome and up-and-coming young British dress designer. To research it, however, required a lot more graft than nowadays. With no Internet it was libraries, newspapers and magazines. Also I had never been to Hollywood. Nowadays I only write about places I know, but then I was much more cavalier. Ah, the arrogant confidence of youth.
Reading those books again definitely brought back memories of that time before I also became vintage!
You can find details of all Sheila's books on the following sites:
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