Writing as an Art.

For the last five to six years I have worked on three different series of books. All of them are first responder romance. Not that it really has anything to do with it, but it gives you an idea of where I'm coming from.

In those years I have tried different publishing platforms. I have found more negative than positive so this is just some information for what you should, and shouldn't do if you are looking to publish your novel, novella or poetry.

When you start it's like a courtship, you still have stars in your eyes keeping the love of the story with you no matter what. Even now I find my characters standing in the corner with their arms crossed tapping their feet saying, "Look at me, look where you left me. Don't you think you could do something with me other than leaving me here?" No I'm not crazy, I'm a writer/author. If your good at your craft the characters will jump from your book to your audience and draw them into the story as if they were observers or as part of the story. It's something I've always wanted to do.

When I chose a career way back when, I went the smart route. The area in which I live didn't have the opportunity for what I chose so I went with my next choice, Nursing. Must my first choice was Journalism. I wanted to write, or possibly go into photo journalism, anything that told a story. Being an only child in the 70's, you didn't see many women in journalism. Not to say there wasn't there just wasn't many, and there weren't many jobs in journalism in Southern Ohio.

I started writing as a teen as a requirement for the annual Arts Fair my school held each year. If you were in an English class or an Art Class it was part of a grade, so it had it's own rules. By the time I got to College it became part of the curriculum for my courses to graduate. English Composition and Technical Report Writing became my favorite seconds then. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a English major. If you seen my writing before corrective software you would know that for sure. I am far from the worst, but it is no way near perfect.

For my first book I found a vanity publisher that would publish the first book in the series but refused to work with the second because of the content. Long story. To this day they are still trying to get me contact them for marketing. The bottom line, I paid a lot of money for them to do the cover design, edit, line edit, and proof read along with another short list that ended up costing a small fortune. I retained my rights which is something you want to be sure of as some of your work could be tied up for years and never receive royalties from them.

Something else I've been told is that if you are self-published, which I have also done, Literary Agents will not look at you. I don't know how true that is either, but I do know that I have sent Synopsis, pitches, proposals ect. along with introductions, biographies, and so on only to be rejected without little more than "Your work is not what we are looking for at this time, we look forward to further submissions and wish you much luck in the future." Well that tells me nothing of what they felt they were looking for, or what the manuscript was lacking.

I hired an editor where there again, was a mistake. More money was exchanged in large sums, and ok, call me a sucker, but I wanted this bad. I knew, and still know I have a good story. My manuscript was more or less held hostage after I paid over half of the monies for the services, and they requested more. What could I do but do as they asked? My work remained in their hands until they got what they wanted.

I am now in search of a literary agent and most of them want unsolicited work. It takes me about a year to sit down from start to finish to write a single work. That's a lot of time folks. Will I make it? I don't know, but I know what not to do. It's cost me a lot of hard earned cash ,but I don't intend on quieting. The story will be told.

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