Shelf Stealers

As I said in my last post, here I am with all sorts of links and stuff to my publisher. I still blush when I say publisher because it sounds to me like I'm all full of myself that I could actually have a publisher *pinch, pinch*. A publisher for my novel that will be published. My novel that you will be able to hold in your hands or read on your Kindle thanks to my publisher. Published....

Now that I've gotten that out of my system let me introduce you to the folks who have made this post possible:

Shelf Stealers

Shelf Stealers is a new publishing company with the right kind of plan to make it in this changing industry. With their focus on e-books and audiobooks they intend on growing with the increasing demand for electronic reading. However, along with that, they are still intent on making paper books available for paper snobs (like me) but keeping the costs down to a minimum.

However, that's not all. With the industry in such flux, they also have a slew of new ideas they are bringing to the table in order to draw more readers. One is their Clear Eyes program designed to bring free audio books to the blind, and the second is their Watch Our Writers. This one is still in the works but basically, you can watch your favorite author work on his or her next project. You can hear their thought process and see what the Shelf Stealers editors have to say as they go along. You will also be able to buy the book a chapter at a time before it comes out. To me, as the author, that sounds like some very satisfying work although it could prove stressful during those moments of self-flogging and writer's block. As as a reader, I would find it intriguing to see another author's process.

Shelf Stealers is actively searching for great books right now and aren't afraid to take on debut authors (like me), authors with small audiences and even self-published authors as long as it is quality writing. They will even give you feedback on your submission with a feedback form. If you're interested in submitting to them, look over all the info they have on their awesome site and then go to the submissions page.

Oh and just for fun, check out my real live author profile on the Shelf Stealers website here.

You tell me: what do you think about the Watch Our Writer's program? As a writer, would you want to participate? As a reader, would you want to follow the authors journey?

Publishing and Reality

So much has happened writing-wise in the last few months, I've been procrastinating doing a blog post because I knew it would be huge and therefore no one would read it. So the more I procrastinated, the huger it got in my mind until I started avoiding blogger altogether in order to not have it staring accusingly at me. Anyway, here goes the huge blog post of doom which I will attempt to abbreviate so you have time for some dinner tonight and hopefully a little sleep.

First of all, let me just trumpet the fact that after laboring for over a year on the sequel to R.A.G.E., I finally managed to pound out THE END on the first draft (RISK). Whew! For a time there I never thought I'd find out how it ends (the curse of being a discovery writer). It still has an exorbitant amount of rewriting (I can't even mention editing yet because that's more about fine tuning to me and it's not to that point) as well as finally reaching the eyes of my writer's group and beta readers. I did allow one person to read it (Thanks Kate, you rock!) since with her encouragement (i.e. making a deadline for herself as well as me and forcing me to stick to it) was the dang thing even finished at all. All hail the birth of RISK.

So after the completion of aforementioned rough draft, I put on my editing hat and delved into other people's manuscripts, the first being likewise aforementioned Kate's second draft of her wonderful YA fantasy THAYER. I love seeing other peoples world building, creativity and the amazingly (blasted adverb but I'm leaving it because I can) hard work this author in particular put into her novel.

The second book I edited, was my father's third book in his Cedar Post series (FLYPAPER) due to come out sometime in the next couple of months. Can I tell you how much I absolutely adore hearing my father's voice through the pages. He lives on the other side of the country and I got to listen to him tell me a story for hours and hours every day for a couple of weeks. Such joy. If you're interested in his other novels and hope to anticipate the third, he just put THE CEDAR POST and TEARS OF JOY on kindle. You can also go here to get a hard copy and prepare yourself for the much anticipated FLYPAPER.

Now come the third thing which is of great importance (to me) so I hope you haven't zoned out on my monstrous blog post yet because this is where it is getting really exciting (again, to me). After watching my father go through his publishing process and after going through many years of querying with a few hopeful moments but more than a lot of rejection, I decided to bite the bullet and self publish my book. I got on amazon and jumped through all their hoops (i.e. formatting the manuscript, battling with adobe illustrator to make a book cover etc.). So the other day I got to the point where R.A.G.E. was as good as I could get it and I ordered my proof copy. (Yay! Still waiting for it.)

Two days later I was going through and cleaning out my google reader(which involved over a thousand blog posts I'd neglected to read while avoiding blogger's stink eye), clicking on the occasional post that interested me and I happened on one touting a new publisher asking for submissions. So naturally I clicked on over to them, loved their website, immediately filled out their submission form and promptly forgot about them. After X number of rejections you stop getting your hopes up on every one.

Well wouldn't you believe it but an hour later I received a personal email from the founder saying she'd gotten my submission, liked it at a glance and was sending it over to her editors. Yipee. (with no exclamation points because remember me talking about not getting my hopes up?) So a couple of hours later I got a very quick email the send my heart right into my throat.

The founder said there were two votes in my favor and they were still waiting on a third and that they hoped I'd like to work with them.

Well since my heart was in my throat it didn't have any room to beat so I may or may not (I must maintain my dignity) have started hyperventilating and wept real life tears. My children did their best to console me as it was apparent to them I had received the worlds worst news.

I'd love to go on and on but in the interest of saving me the embarrassment of watching someone react really badly to really good news (and my daughter has a doctors appointment I need to leave for right now) let me just say that I am now a part of a publishing company and am not getting any sleep at night because I'm so excited.

I'm not putting in any names right now because there's all sorts of stuff that has to be signed and finalized and honestly I'm still waiting for things to fall apart because are dreams really supposed to come true? Aren't they just suppose to stay dreams to you always have something to reach for?

Don't worry, I'll post lot's of info and links and all sorts of stuff when reality hits. Now go get some sleep--for me if nothing else since I probably won't be sleeping again tonight.