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This is about growing as a writer.
I’ve decided that it is, without a doubt, easier to get published than it is to get an agent.
Now…once upon a time (say, oh, a decade or so ago), I had an agent. A lovely, fabulous woman named Christine Bolley. She signed me on the basis of a project I was working on called Sea Breezes and Mountain Winds, which a “fictional devotional” – in other words, short stories with a devotional message. You can see one of the samples in the extended entry.
Chris loved it. Her assistant told me it made her cry (which is a good thing!). But they couldn’t sell it. Every editor they submitted to gave her the same response: “Great writing. Hard to sell.” Finally, I sent it to two editor friends and asked why it was getting that response. They were more specific: “You have a great voice, very distinct, but it’s too edgy and the topics too risky for the Christian market.”
Now what they did not say, but what I heard was, “You can’t write for the Christian market.” After a year, Chris and I went our separate ways, and Sea Breezes went on the shelf.
I pursued the secular market, to no avail. Short stories went nowhere, and I didn’t believe I had the umph to finish a novel. Finally, I focused on Rachel and work. And I didn’t write anything else for several years.
It was eating me alive. When I don’t write, I go a little nuts.
Finally, I tried to sell Sea Breezes one more time. It didn’t sell, but the editor I sent it to asked me if I’d like to try another direction. I agreed, and sold A Moment with God for Single Parents.
Then came the idea for the strangest short story ever, “Dream Killer.” When I finally finished it (which is a story for another time), it still didn’t sell, but it spurred me on. I then turned a fan fiction piece into a straight (i.e. non-fan) novella, and Venganza sold. The same company bought my first novel (When Angels Fall), then “Dream Killer.”
I felt like I’d launched a ship.
In the meantime, God was still tugging on me. I wrote A Murder Among Friends, and it sold to Steeple Hill, who now wants the second book. In the meantime, I sold a second devotional, Secrets of Confidence, to Barbour . . . who subsequently turned down Sea Breezes…. [Hey, I never give up completely....  ]
Yet agents still turn me down because my work is hard to sell….which is the latest verdict on Picture Perfect Murder…“great writing; hard to sell.”
I’m slowly, slowly becoming convinced that God does, in fact, want me in the Christian market. WHERE is yet to be determined.
Which is where the word “branding” comes in….
(more on that one later)
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Sea Breezes and Mountain Winds
Sample Devotional
The Victory Path
The rocks pressed through her thin-soled shoes, and her thighs ached, but she pressed on. Laura knew the goal that lay ahead was well worth the pain. From the top of the ridge, the incomparable view spread before her as the woods of the steeply sloping mountain gave way to first suburban streets, then the entire city. The skyline glittered as the rays of the late afternoon glanced off the tower windows.
Her goal, however, was more than a great view. The ridge was silent, with only the trees and birds making soft, rustling sounds. Laura stopped finally, gasping and massaging her legs, bending and taking short steps to keep her muscles from cramping. The sound of her hard breaths eased, but she could still hear the harsh voice of her husband Frank in the back of her head. She had come here to escape the nerve-grating noise of her marriage, to seek the quiet that had always calmed her and helped her regain her balance.
Laura sank down on a stump and put her fingers to her stinging eyes, her heart growing tight in her chest. I can
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