Getting Published

PLEASURING THE PIRATE, my 5th book, will be in stores tomorrow! I'm thrilled. And grateful. And feeling like this is an opportunity to look back a bit over the last few years since my debut in May 2006.

When one of my MySpace friends asked about how to get published, I thought there might be others who'd like to know as well. Everyone's journey is different, but if others will be helped by my experience, I'm willing to share. So, here's a brief stroll down my path to publication.

I'm not like Susan Elizabeth Phillips, who scribbled a proposal and sold her first book before it was even written. I had to learn my craft. I started in 2001 with the naive notion that since I was a reader, I could be a writer. That's right. It took me 5 years to publish. You may take less time. Or more. It's the journey that's important, not how long it takes.

I wrote 2 complete manuscripts that will forever gather dustbunnies under the bed. They were my teachers. I learned about story arcs and POV and dialogue. And generally how not to write a romance novel. Even so, the 2nd one (a sad little western) started to win a few writing contests. It was enough encouragement to keep me going.

Then we moved to Seattle and I joined Eastside RWA. Finally I wasn't on my own, trying to reinvent the wheel. I had help in learning how to write. And at one of the chapter meetings during a writing exercise, my heroine Rika from my debut novel MAIDENSONG was born.

I was just typing THE END on MAIDENSONG when my husband lost his job in a corporate downsizing. We moved to Missouri to lower our expenses. I took a position as a banker to help make ends meet, while he looked for work. While I struggled to learn a new job, I also struggled to learn to write in the evenings and on weekends, when I was tired, whether I felt like writing or not. I wasn't playing with this. It was not a hobby. There was far too much of my blood on the pages for that. I was determined to be a real writer.

I sent queries (I'll talk about query letters in my next post) to agents, since I knew I didn't have time or the expertise to submit MAIDENSONG on my own. Thanks to a faithful e-critiqueing friend, during this time I finished ERINSONG, and wonder of wonders, I finally was offered agent representation in 2004.

I continued writing. Each time I finished one story, I didn't wait to see if it would sell. I started on the next one. In June 2005, I got THE CALL. Leah Hultenschmidt from Leisure Books had found MAIDENSONG languishing on her desk and loved it. (Bear in mind, MAIDENSONG had been there for a year. Most of the time, publishing grinds with glacial slowness.) MAIDENSONG came out in May 2006 and I wept when I first saw the cover.

Now, I have 5 books in print, another due out next March and a contract for one after that. I'm writing full-time now (Thank you , God and my dear husband!). I have been extremely blessed and I feel I must share that there is an element of luck in who gets published and who doesn't. It's a matter of the right manuscript on the right desk at the right time.

But it's also a matter of perseverance. The clinical definition of that word is "continueing an activity past the time when it makes sense. To persist in an idea, purpose or task, despite obstacles." I used to think 'perseverance' meant going to grad school, but it fits trying to be published to a T.

Persevere. Keep writing. Once you start down the path, don't give up on the journey. You'll find places in yourself and others you never knew existed. Good luck!

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"I simply couldn't put this one down!" ~ Reviewer Top Pick, NightOwl Romance on PLEASURING THE PIRATE

Typing THE END

I just finished writing the first draft of VEXING THE VISCOUNT, the manuscript that's due to my editor later this summer. I know what you're thinking. "Big Whoop! It's just a first draft." For me, typing THE END is a big deal because of how I write a book.

I'm mostly a linear writer. Once I have a fully developed idea of the plot points and the characters solidly in my head, I start on the first chapter and write the story straight through in order. I sneak back from time to time to do line edits and make sure I've covered all the bases, so by the time I reach the end, my manuscript is really pretty clean. I'll spend a couple weeks tweaking and polishing, but it's essentially done. If I had to, I could turn it in today.

But it takes me several months to write a first draft, which is a little scary since even though I've written a synopsis ahead of time, I've been known to deviate significantly from it. So until I actually reach THE END, I'm not really sure how the story ends.

I know some authors who can pop a first draft out in weeks, or even a weekend! They write in layers and spend months fleshing out the skeleton.

Some plot extensively, down to the individual scenes and POVs, before they write a single word. Then like a drawn bow, they fling their story fully formed onto the page.

Still other authors are "puzzle" writers. Their stories come in chunks, scenes plopped down out of order, rising up from their psyches like some sort of literary magma displacement. Then they go back, reassemble them in order and string together the connecting narrative. This method almost sounds like magic to me.

Then there are pantsers (as in 'writing by the seat of their pants') who sit down to the keyboard and follow their characters around. They tend to write long and may have to shave hundreds of pages off the finished manuscript to conform to their publishers wordcounts.

Some say a writer should know their own type. I think I'm a conglomeration. I do start with a synopsis like a plotter (a very shallow plotter). I begin at the beginning like a linear writer. Once my characters start breathing on their own, I tend to let them lead a bit, like a pantser. Occasionally a future scene will appear in my head way before I set it down on paper, but because I'm linear I can't write it down like a "puzzler" would. I just let it percolate till the right time comes. And as I go back to do edits, I'm adding layers as I write. So what type am I?

I'm a plotting linear pantser who occasionally puzzles and layers. It's messy, but it works. And that's what every writer has to do--find a process that works for them. A novel is a big unwieldy beast that doesn't like to be cornered. How you bag the beast is up to you. There is no one right way to write one.

If you're an aspiring writer, please visit my website and check out the WRITER'S CORNER. I've just added several linked pages of content of interest to writers. While you're there be sure to enter my contest! Enjoy! www.emilybryan.com