THE PATH TO PUBLICATION - MARGARET TANNER
So you want to get
published?
You have written a
fabulous novel, your mother loved it and your girlfriend said it was the best
story she had ever read.
Now, who is the lucky
publisher? You know everyone will want it. The dollar sign lights up in your
eyes. Six figure advance, well maybe you would take five for starters. You are
already debating what you will wear to your first book launch. Who will play
the lead role when your masterpiece is made into a movie? Be honest, haven’t we
all thought like this?
I have sent
manuscripts to the large category romance publishers. The bigger the better I
thought and received rejection letters, the good, the bad, and the downright
ugly. I could paper the side wall of my house with them. Along the way I entered and won, or was
commended in, unpublished manuscript awards so I was reassured that I had some
talent.
In desperation, after
a few rejections, I once sent a manuscript off and pretended to be my husband.
I wrote a little introductory note saying I was a male nightshift worker at an
international airport, (which he was. Of
course, he couldn’t write a romance novel to save his life).
A couple of months
later the manuscript was returned from the junior editor saying she quite liked
the storyline, I really did write like a woman, but they had read something
similar only a few weeks previously. Devastating news.
A few weeks before
Christmas, a friend of ours proposed a daring plan that would get me out of the
‘slush’ pile. He said. “Wrap the manuscript up in Christmas paper, put a fancy
ribbon on it and send it off addressed to the senior editor. No junior editor
would dare open the boss’ Christmas present.” What a master stroke I thought,
the man was an absolute genius.
Well, a couple of
months later, said present winged its way back to me, my pretty ribbons intact,
sticky tape untouched by human hand. The note was brief and to the point. Thank
you for the gift, but we don’t accept presents, wishing you Merry Christmas
etc. etc. The rejection was killing. I felt like the world had ended.
Then I got smart, and started
researching publishers who published the kind of novels I wrote and whose
business structures were sound.
It has taken me years and
a lot of perseverance to get this far, but I am now multi-published with Books We
Love and I couldn't be happier.
Georgina O'Rourke has been living a lie because of a deadly secret from her past.
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