So about two weeks ago I downloaded Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1) by Susan Ee on my beloved Kindle. The moment I finished the last page I went looking for book two. I was hooked. To my absolute horror, there is no book two as of yet. I ended up looking her up and reading some of her blog. After seeing that she writes AND makes movies, I guess I was okay that book two isn’t out yet. I also looked up her publisher. As a writer trying to figure out what to do with my book, I thought maybe her publisher might be interested in my story.
That led me to something else, but first, some background. And a cigar. Let me take you outside with me…
Okay, cozy outside chair, cigar lit. I finished my full length novel near the end of last year. It was mindblowingly (is that a word?) awesome to have done that. I’ve had several test readers and I love the reviews. I attended the Writers Digest Conference in January and pitched my novel. Out of four pitches, I had three ask for either the first 50 pages or first two chapters. I sent the first two chapters to two of them (one is snail mail and I honestly haven’t gotten around to that yet). One hasn’t answered yet (okay, it hasn’t even been two weeks yet) and the other sent me no thanks. It was actually totally nice and it didn’t make my head want to shrivel or perhaps fly to NY and throttle someone.
I’ve been looking at traditional publishing versus self-publishing. And trying to figure out which way I want to go on that. On top of that, I’m also co-founder of the Ink Slinger’s Guild, a writing group, which started up a little over a year ago and is one of my pride and joys. This year we are doing an Anthology. I have to figure out how to publish it.
Then my husband decides that he will help with whatever I need in order to get our daughter’s children’s books published. So here I am trying to decide which way to go. Well, I have a solution for some of it.
When I went to Susan Ee’s publishing company, I found that SHE is the owner of the publishing company. That spurred me to thinking. I could open my own publishing company and that would take care of my daughter’s books and the Ink Slinger’s Anthology. I will continue to send out my book to traditional publishers and if it comes down to 100-200 rejections then maybe I will simply take matters into my own hands. Or perhaps I will do it sooner. We’ll see how I feel about it next week.
My intention is to share the bumps and successes that I come across, the resources, the friends etc. as I move along this journey. And of course, I will continue to tell you about yummy books that make me happy (or occasionally vexed or confused).
Wish me luck! Cheers!
Author Lisa Barry 