This summer, I have been lucky and blessed to have been chosen as a mentor in the #WriteMentor contest, a wonderful writing program that pairs agented and/or published writers with pre-agented writers looking to hone their craft and perfect their manuscripts to “submission ready.”
It’s sort of surreal experience at the moment as I find myself smack dab in the middle of the industry from a variety of angles, all converging at once. How? Because during the summer of 2018 I will be:
- Promoting the July 2nd release of my debut Southern YA contemporary romance MEANT TO BE BROKEN
- Drafting MTBB’s companion novel (Book 2 in the Carolina Clay series)
- Querying a submission-ready standalone YA contemporary romance to potential agents
- Acting as a mentor to one writer, giving advice and critiques on how to best polish their manuscript
Talk about seeing things from every angle! LOL
And now, I can’t help thinking about a summer several years back—August 2015 to be exact—when I embarked on this wonderful, scary, fabulous, intimidating roller coaster of a ride to become a published novelist.
Three years have passed—sometimes at a snail’s pace, sometimes as a flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants thrill ride. Looking back now, I laugh at the naiveté and at those hopeful (and somewhat melodramatic) words I penned on an old blog:
And now, imagine a budding author. She can hardly believe it when she looks at her resume and realizes her writing career has now spanned 15 years. It has been very fruitful, ripe with invaluable opportunities to meet and know many incredible business people in the area. But now she sits in front of her laptop, with trembling fingers, not because her parents are awaiting a wonderful tale; not because her peers are expecting her success; not because her husband is seeking her support. She’s anxious because as her fingers begin to tap out those first few lines of a novel, she realizes it is the culmination of a lifetime of beginnings that have all led to this destination. There is beauty in this moment. Beauty in the acknowledgement of how far she’s come, and beauty in the mountains still to climb.
If only I knew then about those mountains! Not to mention how many times I’d have to explain myself time and again to some well-meaning person who had questions like “So, you have that book published already?” or “What do you do? Just write it and email it to somebody and then the print it for you?”
Uh, yeah…that’d be a NO.
There were bright moments along the way—days when the inbox *ding* signaled a full request landing in the midst of daily e-mails. These unfortunately were overtaken by darker days of self-doubt when the next *ding* brought a rejection.
What did I do wrong? Why didn’t they like me?
Rejection isn’t the easiest thing to swallow for a perfectionistic, people-pleaser like myself. But don’t worry, the industry has taught me its ways now, and I finally do get it’s all about subjectivity. Bummer. That old “It’s not you, it’s me” comes back to bite us in the butt yet again!
So…I was on twitter the other day chatting with some of our #WriteMentor author-mentee hopefuls (And yes, please go on twitter, follow this # and these authors and mentors because they are AWESOME!) and I got to thinking that sharing my own journey to publication might be helpful and give them a better idea of how the path to publication differs from author to author. They asked me some great questions, y’all, so I’m addressing those in the next installment as well as adding a few installments afterwards to talk about my keys to success.
For this initial installment, here’s a timeline/breakdown of how MEANT TO BE BROKEN became an actual book.
Brandy: The Early Years
Yeah, so every author has a story that says something like I knew at a young age I was going to be an author…Well, what do you know? I do, too. My love of books started with the very first one I read by myself—The Pokey Little Puppy. In first grade, I won the school’s reading contest, logging 718 books read during the school year. (I have a bit of a competitive streak, too, so…) It was about that same time, I began using the family typewriter at the kitchen table to peck out stories—anything from talking mice who moved to the city to my personal favorite (which I still have in a box in my attic) The Perils of Princess Brandy. (Yeah, I made myself into a princess…don’t judge!) I began reading a smattering of books in all genres and age categories by the time I was 8 years old, ranging from Nancy Drew and The Babysitters’ Club to Helter Skelter (the true story of the Manson murders), The Bermuda Triangle and anything by V.C. Andrews. From those early years, I told everyone that one day I was going to write a book, and that desire never left.
The College Years and First Part of my Career
I majored in English/Writing at Clemson University, focusing on journalism. I wanted to focus solely on Creative Writing but too many warnings about how I’d get out with a useless degree and starve scared me half-to-death. (BTW, don’t listen to that drivel. There’s nothing wrong with an English degree or a creative writing degree! *hops back off soapbox*) After college, I worked in corporate communications, marketing and business development for seven years before leaving the corporate world to start my own mar-com business. Also, from the time I graduated college in 2001 until the present, I’ve freelanced for magazines. Seventeen years later, I still write for that original magazine that gave me my first shot at a real “writing gig” as well as 2-3 others on an average basis.
The Turning Point
I spent the better half of my first adult years still claiming I wanted to “write that book!” yet using every excuse under the sun not to start it. I had the idea in my head, one I tapped out in a Word doc in a cubicle sometime during the corporate years. I emailed it to myself and that is what became the beginning seed of MTBB. Still, after so many years of putting it off, it became easier to keep doing that, though the ache to finally answer my heart’s calling kept nudging me over and over. During that summer of 2015, I turned 35 and was handed the single biggest article of my life—a feature in Delta Sky magazine with my byline that would appear on every one of their planes. I don’t know if that suddenly gave me some validation as a writer (you know how real the self-doubt is, right?!) or just made me realize I needed to aim higher, but I took that moment and had a long talk with myself. “Brandy,” I sternly admonished, “You aren’t getting any younger. You’re 35 and other exciting things are happening in your career. It’s time to pee or get off the pot.” That’s the day I typed out the first words of Chapter One.
The Path to Publication
Fall 2015: I finished the first draft of MTBB in 3 months. I did about a minute of internet research and promptly fired off my first query. Note to self and everyone else: DON’T EVER DO THAT. EVER. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, DO NOT SEND PEOPLE YOUR FIRST DRAFT. IT’S BAD. IT’S RAW. IT’S UGLY. I still want to crawl under a rock somewhere because of that. I want to call the agent and personally apologize for being an idiot, but instead I’m just hoping she’s forgotten my name.
Okay, so here’s the thing…as AWFUL as that first draft was, the query was pretty darn good if I do say so myself (I didn’t do marketing all these years for nothing, right!?) and that initial query got a partial request! I danced. I cheered. This was easier than I thought!!! That lasted about 5 weeks until I got my very first rejection. Woh-woh.
January 2016: I participated in an online writing workshop where after 3 days of webinars we were allowed to submit our first pages and query to an agent for review. In the meantime, the class had a forum where authors could meet and greet and exchange work. A few of us got together and formed a critique group. (This was to become one of the major milestones of my journey, though I had no idea at the time! More on them in future installments.) I got my agent critique back to hear some disheartening stuff: Your characters are flat. You have too much telling. Cue: THE MELTDOWN. I’m done with writing! I can’t do it! I suck! Screw it all! (If you say you’ve never had such a meltdown as this, I’m calling you out on your crap. Yes, you have. Admit it!)
February 2016: A trusted website was hosting a pitch event where an agent would read your first 250 words and either request, give you feedback or ignore you all together. SIGN. ME. UP. On the day of the pitch, I posted my first 250 as soon as the window opened up and waited. About two hours later, a notification appeared on my screen. Yes! Feedback…or maybe, just maybe…a request? I shot over to the website and scrolled down to my entry. The first line was awesome. Nice voice here! Voice sells, right? But then I kept reading… “However, you say this is a contemporary romance but the first 250 read more like a thriller…a horror even.”
Uh, what?! I stepped away from the computer and went on a long walk around town. When I made it back home, I re-read my opening chapter. *Face palm.* She was right.
March 2016: I revised my query and my manuscript, realizing I’d been focusing too much on the “Mama’s secret” part of my story in these key submission materials where I was marketing my contemporary romance. Duh. Why didn’t I see that before?! I scrapped my prologue (ugh, yes) and first chapter for a shiny, new one and rewrote my query focused on the actual romance, only inserting the mystery of Mama’s secret as a small thread.
April 2016: Being ever-cautious, I decide to send out ONE query as a trial run (also a stupid idea…please don’t be afraid to send out in small batches. That’s what agents expect and that’s what you should do to cast a suitable net.) The particular agent had just posted on MSWL that she wanted a gritty romance complicated by family dynamics. Ka-ching! So, off the query went and within hours I received a reply: “Yes, please! Send me the full.” Cue the celebrations again. I sent off the full with a huge smile on my face and settled in to wait.
June 2016: Having still not heard back from the full, I participated in an agency’s online pitch contest and received a partial request! I was particularly encouraged because the agent in question loved Southern stories. Ka-ching! Again, hope renewed, I sent off the partial with a huge smile. The rejection came two weeks later.
July 2016: Feeling rejected, still waiting on the response to the full request, and writhing in a pool of self-doubt, I lost faith in myself. I’m a sham! No one wants my words! No one loves me! (Told you I can be melodramatic.) I begin to search online for the perfect answer to what the heck I was doing wrong. My magazine articles had always been well-received and applauded, so what was going on? The one thing I kept seeing repeated time and again was “Read in your genre.” And I was reading…occasionally…when I had time. My family and I were headed for a week at the beach, so I promptly got my butt to the library and checked out an armload of YA contemporary romance. No one can say this girl wasn’t going to be well-read in this genre!!
August 2016: I read a book (or more) every day on the beach, and the veil began to lift. I identified two major issues in my own writing:
- When I edited the first draft, I inadvertently edited out the voice. Everything was so starchy and pristine, it was as if I’d written something for a technical magazine instead of the intended YA audience. We’re talking saltine cracker bland. Uh…no.
- I was still having issues with show-vs-tell. Being a journalist for nearly two decades had warped my mind a bit, shoving the “Five W’s and an H” (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How) down my throat. When you’re penning a news story, they just want the clear cut facts. Writing a novel turned all that on its head, and I had to train my brain to switch out those “Five W’s and an H” for some killer “Five Senses and some Inner Voice.”
After that trip, a churning in my gut started. I KNEW what was wrong with my manuscript, but I couldn’t make myself face it. Denial, maybe? Fear? I tried to “ostrich” and poke my head in the sand and pretend I was wrong, but a few days later—on my birthday no doubt and one year to the exact day I started writing the book—I received the rejection on my full. No nuggets of feedback. No “I liked this but this needed work…” Nothing. Just a run-of-the-mill “Thanks, but no thanks.”
It was soul-crushing. I sobbed into my couch cushions. I sobbed into my carpet as I lay face down in the floor. I sobbed into my husband’s shoulder. I sobbed until my eyes swelled almost shut. This was the END. I was done. I sucked as a writer. “I’m giving up!” I declared. The universe kicked me square in my knees—and on my birthday, too! (Imagine if you will some sad violin music playing softly in the background)
But then something happened when the exhaustion from sobbing took over. My brain stepped in and suggested I cut the crap. I KNEW the problem. I KNEW how to fix it. I could wimp out now or get my butt in gear. The next afternoon I looked at my husband and said, “I’m gutting this manuscript. I’m going to fix it, and then it’ll sell.”
November 2016: The third redraft (and most extensive edits known to man!) were finished. I stepped back, handed it over to critique partners and waited for their suggestions. When they came, I read them all with an open mind and made adjustments as they aligned with my vision. Then I put it away until the new year when I would officially begin to query (again).
January 2017: A dream agent opened to submissions on January 3rd and she asked for YA romance and heart-tugging stories. I carefully followed all submission guidelines, loaded up the first 10 pages underneath the query and hit send, confident that the new MSS would woo her right away. I got my first rejection on the new MSS five days later—a form rejection. Disheartening, yes, but fatal, no. Why? Because now my gut said this MSS was on point, and I had only just started this process. Someone was out there!
February 2017: I participated in two conferences: an online one and the Atlanta Writers Workshop. In the online forum, a ninja publisher asked for my full based off my query and first 250, and in Atlanta, I paid for two agent pitch session and received two partial requests. Things were looking up! All three ended up in rejections…and all for different reasons. The publisher said they didn’t like my main character guy (which for the record NONE of the tons of people who’ve read this book has ever agreed with), one agent said the MSS’s hooks were “too quiet”, and the other agent never even responded.
March 2017: Feeling a bit frustrated, I decided to participate in PitMad and received one agent like and two publisher likes. Encouraged once more, I sent off all three submissions and then finally mustered up the courage to send out a few more queries to agents I’d researched and identified as good matches.
Spring/Early Summer 2017: Requests began to roll in, and my hopes were soaring. I got a rejection on a full from one agent who didn’t like that I used classic tropes. I got a rejection from a publisher who thought I “tortured my darlings a little too much” but at least that rejection came with paragraphs of positive reinforcement telling me that my prose was lovely and easy to read. That’s when I got THE EMAIL…you know, the one that led to THE CALL.
I received the email while waiting in line to pay for a fab pair of shoes at a local retail store. I opened it and cried…like tears rolling…in the middle of everything.
THE CALL was incredible. A small-press publisher, Filles Vertes Publishing, had read my manuscript and were completely taken. They shared my vision for it, and had a plan moving forward. I loved the fact that they were open to my being an active part in the process, even allowing my input on the final cover design. It took a month to negotiate all the contract specifics and then call in my outstanding submissions. In the end, I knew FVP was the perfect place for MTBB.
August 2017: I signed the contract to become an FVP author, ironically just in time for another birthday.
September 2017: I began developmental edits on the manuscript, which included adding in the male protagonist’s POV.
May 2018: My cover and book trailer are released.
July 2018: MEANT TO BE BROKEN officially debuts on July 2.
That’s the timeline in a nutshell, y’all. I’ve had some people tell me I’m a unicorn because I became a debut author with the very first manuscript I wrote. And while that’s true (to some degree), it wasn’t so much an effortless ride as it was my stubbornness to let go of a story I believed in. The MEANT TO BE BROKEN that (hopefully) many of you will read is quite accurately the third major re-draft of the original story.
So, after all is said and done, the final query stats of my completed third draft of MTBB stand as this:
- 14 Total Queries Sent
- 4 Rejections on Query
- 1 CNR
- 2 Partial Requests
- 7 Full Requests
- 1 Offer of Publication
- 1 Offer of R&R
- Signed with Offer of Publication/Filles Vertes
For me, third time was the charm!
I hope this piece gave y’all some insight into what my path to publication looked like—at least for this book! Once again, I find myself in the query trenches with another YA contemporary romance, and so far, this process and results have proven to be completely different! When I find a home for this one (see what I did there? When, NOT if!!), I’ll revisit this blog post and do a direct comparison between the two.
After reading all of this, there are two points I want to drive home:
- Every path to publication is unique and beautiful in its own right. Whether it’s long or short, straight or twisty, easy or hard, it’s part of YOUR story and is exactly what’s meant to be. Enjoy the ride. Cry, laugh, celebrate and/or whine—feel it all because in the end, it’s all just one more step to THE GOAL.
- Don’t be an island. There is a wonderful, strong writing community out there filled with other writers eager to connect and collaborate. We’re all in this together, all traversing the same mountains and valleys. When you’re down, ask for a hand, and when the tables turn, be there to give one. If nothing else, connect with me. I want to personally champion every one of you lovely writers I’ve met. WE GOT THIS!
Stay tuned for Installment #2 in The Long and Winding Road (to Publication): Brandy answers specific questions from the mentees.
Thank you for this Brandy! I loved reading your full story, your struggles, and your joys! Thanks for sharing and your story gives me hope and the drive to keep going no matter what! Can’t wait to read your book:)
What a great story! You, despite the meltdowns, never gave up! That’s the real story. Blood, sweat, tears, copious amounts of coffee, and some serious grit, you made it girl! Not to mention loads of talent! I knew you were going to make it the first time I read your story and fell in love with your character. ♥
You are such an inspiration to all of us! So proud of you, Brandy!😄
I will forward my list of questions.😉