Submitting Bryony

Although I had been a journalism major and had freelanced a dozen years for a newspaper, I had scant knowledge of the book industry. I thought authors simply packaged their manuscripts, sent them to publishing houses, and waited for the ensuing rejection or acceptance.

To my credit, before I sent that first query, I researched the submission process, including how to properly format a manuscript. Being technologically impaired, I only knew how to do certain things by hand. It took an entire weekend to change my single-spaced manuscript into a double-spaced one and to manually set each page break.

Feeling like a guppy out to sea, I bravely sent my first Bryony query and, four weeks later, happily accepted my first rejection. I had officially joined the ranks of other hopeful authors. I was on my way.

After two months and several more queries passed I decided I wasn't doing too badly. I had two more agent rejections, one agent request for a full manuscript, and small press request for a partial. Both happened near my birthday, so that was pretty cool, at least until my manuscript returned, rejected, from the agent. The small press remained quiet, so I researched some more and sent out a another batch of queries, which I promptly regretted.

Why did I regret it? There was something about the process that seemed inconsistent with my goals. I only wanted to share an entertaining story with others who wanted to read it, and I wanted to encourage other people's writing efforts. I wasn't against marketing my work, but I wasn't trying to break into high-profile, commercial fiction, either.

I also wanted Kathleen R. Van Pelt's illustrations, but that's another post.

Self-publishing seemed the preferable alternative, but I hesitated for two reasons: I couldn't afford it, and I feared unprofessional editing. Then, I interviewed an author who used WriteLife LLC.