It's been three years since I published my last book. Three years. And in all honestly, it's not my fault. I self-published Not Just Another Catch (NJAC) on November 30th, 2014. By the time I published that, I was already about five chapter in on my next novel, Precipice of Discovery, my foray into Young Adult Science Fiction. I spent two years writing NJAC with my mentor and former co-worker helping me edit it, chapter by chapter. But, I screwed up. About a month before I actually published it, I changed the first four chapter of the book and basically undid all the careful proofreading that had already happened. There were certain elements in the story that I was unhappy with, so I changed them. If you go to Amazon and read the review of Not Just Another Catch, you will see that I was very unsuccessful in my re-editing of the story. There were so many errors that it was almost unreadable. I greatly appreciate everyone who was able to plod through that book. (And if you did, it's not too late to write a review)
To be honest, the flop of that book made me a little gun shy to publish anything on my own. Then my husband and I moved across the country from Long Beach, CA to Boston, MA in April 2015 and that also made writing a little more difficult. But then something amazing happened. My YA Sci-Fi novel. I wrote the first one over a period of eights months and wrote the second novel in three. I have had two or three proofreaders for each book and they are by far the two novels I am most proud of. Then I wrote Dream It True in about six months, right after I finished the second novel in my Precipice series. I was so proud of them that I decided to start submitting them to publishers. And that is why it's taken three years for me to release another book on Amazon.
Here's how the submitting process works. You submit your novel by email to a publisher. Since my books are gay-themed, I decided to send to gay publishing houses. Now, Gay Young Adult Science Fiction is a very new niche in the publishing world, so it took me a few weeks to find some places to send it. Once you submit your novel, you are told to wait 3 to 6 months before you get an answer. Every place that I submitted to also had a rule that I couldn't submit to anyone else while they were reviewing my novel. So, you send it off and then wait. Once the publishing house receives your novel, they send you an email saying they have received it and that if you don't hear back from them in the allotted time (3-6 months), then you are to assume that they are not interested. They don't even send you a letter saying thank you for submitting but no thanks, we aren't interested. It's just silence. And then you have to start the process over. This is BY FAR, the most frustrating part of the process and honestly, I hate it. In this day and age of electronic submission and instant gratification, I find it very hard to believe that someone and I mean anyone at these publishing companies can't just fire off a one sentence email saying, thanks but no thanks. I would think that even an intern could be put in charge of this. But, alas, no. It's just me staring at my calendar for three months or six months and then starting the process all over again.
This is what I've been doing for three years. And counting. I am still hopeful that I can find a publisher for my Precipice series. I think it is unlike other things that are out there and I am hopeful that someone, anyone, will think the same thing. So, I decided to release Dream It True and I am hoping to have the sequel completed by early next year. Please enjoy!