By Rebecca Lee Smith (Guest Blogger)
To
never, ever, ever, ever, ever give up.
I
know it’s cliché. And I know hearing that (again) makes writers
who are on the long, lonely road to publication, and want to place
their book with a traditional publisher, feel like throwing something
against the wall. Or at me.
But
it’s true.
A
Shadow on the Ground
is the second book I’ve published, but the sixth book I’ve
written. Book Number Five (the first book I sold) was rejected over
forty times before someone wanted it. Book Number Four received
ninety-six rejections in the span of one year. Some of these
rejections were from publishers, but the majority were from agents
who clearly thought the work I produced was unsalable. I had several
requests for full manuscripts, synopses, partials, bios, and more
chapters. If they asked to see it, I sent it out. Over and over
again.
We’ve
all read articles about surviving the query process, and taken to
heart the platitudes that are supposed to keep us going. Throw
the query net wide and deep.
Be patient.
Don’t get discouraged.
Believe in yourself. Cream rises to the top.
But what if
it doesn’t?
I asked myself. What if I’m sending out manuscripts five years from
now, and the rejection numbers stay the same? What if cream doesn’t
rise to the top? And then a voice deep inside my soul whispered, But
what if it does?
The
query process can be heartbreaking. Especially those close, close
calls. I’ve been writing for over twenty years with lots of stops
and starts when life got in the way. Throughout the process, I’ve
experienced incredible highs and lows. I’ve won and placed in
numerous contests. I’ve had goodhearted agents and publishers write
gems of encouragement across the bottom of their rejection letters.
But I’ve also had agents ask for the full manuscript, keep it for
three months, then reject me with a form letter. Or, in one case,
never respond at all. One publisher asked for revisions, then held on
to the revised version for thirteen months and rejected me with a
form letter. (Gotta love those form letters!) I’ve had an agent
call me on the phone to tell me she loved my book and would really
like to represent me (my heart stopped), if only she had room for
another author in her stable. Well, the list goes on.
I
remember reading an interview with a well-known multi-published
author who was bemoaning the fact that she had sent her first
manuscript to five different agents before she secured
representation. Five agents. Wow,
I thought.
How in the
world did she ever cope with that
kind of rejection?
Sarcasm aside, it all boils down to this: Everyone has their own path
to follow. Some are rocky, some are smooth, and some wind their way
through the forest and back out again. But if you give up and sit by
the side of the road because it’s just too damned hard to keep
going, you will never reach your goal.
There
were times when I pulled back and regrouped. Times when I faced the
cold, hard truth that the manuscript I had been rewriting for over a
year would never work and find the courage to move on to something
new. I’ve screamed and cried and threatened to toss my computer out
the window. But I never gave up. I kept going and going and going,
just like that old Energizer Bunny. And a few days ago, I stood and
wept as I held a copy of my second book, A
Shadow on the Ground,
in my hands. It still feels that good.
So,
whoever you are, and whatever you write, just keep flinging those
finished manuscripts out into the world, and sooner or later, one
will land on the desk of someone who “gets” you and loves your
work. But until that happens, you have to keep trying. Because
there’s no way you can win the lottery if you don’t get in the
car, drive to the store, and buy the damned ticket. Or five.
*****
So let me tell you a bit about A Shadow on the Ground. After you read my excerpt, use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter my blog tour giveaway. You might win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble!
Blurb
Morgan
Maguire is afraid to believe in second chances. The family orchard is
failing, her twin brother is being framed for murder, and the sharks
are circling. The tough exterior she's spent years hiding behind is
beginning to crumble, just as the man who shattered her heart is back
in her life. Gage Kirkland is as compelling and magnetic as ever, and
he's offering the kind of help she may not be able to refuse. But can
she trust him?
To
finance his troubled son's therapy, Gage, a former investigator,
takes one last job--recovering a stolen Civil War artifact.
Unfortunately, it's in the possession of the woman he left behind,
the woman who's haunted his dreams ever since. The electricity
between them still crackles, but unless he helps exonerate her
brother and finds a way to confess his true reason for returning, how
will he ever recover Morgan's heart?
Excerpt
Gage
grinned, making Morgan’s heart beat in slow, rolling thuds. “I'm
going to make some calls about finding Sean representation. If he
goes up against a murder charge, he'll need the best lawyer we can
find.”
“We?”
“We.”
He held
her gaze while a current of electricity sliced a path through the
center of her abdomen.
“I
didn't want to leave you alone last night,” he said.
“I was
fine.”
“Well,
I wasn't.”
“Oh,
come on. A big, tough, adrenaline junkie PI like you?”
“Not
so tough when the bullets are flying.”
Memories
of the night before slammed into her brain—the sound of gunshots
cracking the air, Gage pushing her off the flagstone walk, lying
stone still beside him in the wet grass with a broken rhododendron
stob biting into her neck. If she closed her eyes, she could still
feel his breath crashing across her shoulder, the pulse at the base
of his throat flicking against her cheek. How long had it been since
she’d touched a man? Or been wrapped like his most cherished
possession in the strong, shielding warmth of his arms? Had she ever
felt so safe? Would she ever feel that safe again?
Maybe
she should hold on to the memory. Bury it deep. Then, when she needed
comfort, she could take it out and replay it over and over in her
head to drive the unbearable loneliness away. Until something that
felt like contentment trickled through her bloodstream, like a double
shot of apple brandy on a cold, wintry night.
A shadow
fell over the table.
She
lifted her eyes and gasped softly. The last thing she expected to see
were the pale, twisted, angry eyes of Lawrence Finch.
About Rebecca
Rebecca
lives with her husband in the beautiful, misty mountains of East
Tennessee, where the people are charming, soulful, and just a little
bit crazy. She's been everything from a tax collector to a
stay-at-home mom to a house painter to a professional actress and
director. When she's not churning out sensual romantic mysteries with
snappy dialogue and happy endings, she likes to travel, go to the
Outer Banks for her ocean fix, watch old movies, hang out at the
local pub, and make her day complete by correctly answering the Final
Jeopardy! question.
Twitter
- @rbeccaleesmith
Amazon
Author Page – http://amzn.to/1aEqJo4
Ebook - http://amzn.to/1chj56X
Print – http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Ground-Rebecca-Lee-Smith/dp/1612179819/
Use the widget below to enter my drawing! And I hope you'll visit the other stops on my tour, too. You can find the schedule here:
The more often you enter, the higher your chances of winning.
Use the widget below to enter my drawing! And I hope you'll visit the other stops on my tour, too. You can find the schedule here:
The more often you enter, the higher your chances of winning.
