Where to begin? Probably with my fabulous CP, C.T. Green, nag, nag, nagging me (as a good CP should) to submit to certain e-publishers she had a ‘feeling’ about. Turns out she was right and I received not one, but two offers for my science fiction romance, ‘Alien, Mine‘.
I sent off a query letter to the first company and received a request the next day for a full. I couldn’t believe it! I’d opened that email all unsuspecting for surely publishing houses didn’t get back to authors that quickly? A couple of days later I submitted to Soul Mate Publishing. Not long after, I received a request for a full from their senior editor. I sent it off and on the 20th November, Debby (the senior editor of SMP) sent a nice reply thanking me, said she looked forward to reading the rest of the story and I could expect to hear back from her within four weeks.
Meanwhile I was managing the RWAus STALI (Single Title and Loving It) contest, so I was kept busy from twiddling my thumbs and not letting my head get too large, because ya know, I’d had two offers. Because both publishers are in the States, it was send an email one day and get an answer the next. So I busied myself with STALI duties, turned my attention to my current WIP and eyed the calendar.
On the 22nd November I heard back from the first publisher. I eyed the header identifying the sender of the email and swallowed. Moved the mouse to open it, hesitated. Grabbing my courage I opened the darn thing and discovered a contract offer. You could have knocked me over with a feather!
Five days later I received a reply from Debby at Soul Mate Publishing offering me a contract for ‘Alien, Mine.’ In her email she said:
“Normally I take about 4 weeks to respond, but I was able to spend time reading this weekend and couldn’t put yours down. You are an excellent writer with great world building skills and characterization.”
Oh dear, I feel a head swell coming on. Trying to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground, I requested some time from both publishers to look over their contracts.
Initially I decided to go with the more established publishing house, though their romance imprint is a new addition to the company, they have been around for nearly one hundred years. However, I did not contact them immediately to accept as I was having an agent look over their contract. But once I’d made that decision something kept nagging at me (I seem to get a lot of that) about Soul Mate Publishing. I kept thinking I’d made the wrong decision. So, I changed my decision to SMP and have been happy with it since. So on 15th December I signed with Soul Mate Publishing.
Now, oddly enough, I feel more of a sense of responsibility than elation. I have to get my next book finished and polished as well as ensure I meet with editing deadlines.
I’ll post my release date when I have it. 🙂
Sandy
