It’s Signing Day!

Big things are happening in my world. After many months of querying agents and publishers, my YA fantasy novel “Broken Fate” is finally going to be published, thanks to the good folks at Clean Teen Publishing. This news is almost too exciting for words, but I thought I’d share with you how it all went down, in case it might be helpful to other writers.

The first thing you have to know is that I resisted social media for many years. Not out of any kind of phobia, but because I simply didn’t need to use it. I had plenty of freelance work coming in due to word of mouth, and my family and friends mostly live nearby so I can keep up with their happenings without social media. I figured that if I didn’t need it, then there was no point in spending the valuable time on it that could be spent actually writing.

And then I started working for iSlaytheDragon.com. They would have preferred me to be on Twitter, but weren’t going to push it if I didn’t want to be. And then one day, one of the guys jokingly “shamed” me onto it by pointing out that I was the only one on the team without an account. Fine, I thought, I’ll get on the dang thing. I was getting ready to start querying “Broken Fate” in earnest, anyway, so I knew there would be some value in building my platform. So I signed up and then the fun began.

(Moral of the story: Those Twitter pitch parties and contests actually work. Enter them. Often. You might be surprised at your success.)

I discovered pitch parties and contests! Who knew that there was this whole wonderful way to circumvent the slush pile. (Well, at least as long as you can craft an awesome 140-character pitch.) So I entered a few and then on July 15th, I entered #Pit2Pub. (The next one will be on 2/3/2016, if you want to get in on the fun.) I received several favorites that day, which are really requests for more information, be it a query, full MS, or sample chapters. Clean Teen was among them.  I sent them the full manuscript that day and in less than two weeks, they made me an offer. After taking due time to run it past my attorney and research Clean Teen as a business, I signed the contract today. (I used my lucky Marvin the Martian pen, so good things are sure to follow.)

I couldn’t be happier. The journey is just beginning. Many people think that once the book is written that the hard work is over. I know that I’ll probably work harder in the next year as we head toward publication than I ever did on the book. There will be promotion, editing, and hopefully meeting and working with all sorts of fun people. I can’t wait.

And then I get to start on the next two books in the series…