I didn’t start writing with money in mind – I just had a story to tell. But when I began to investigate publication I found out about the Jerry B. Jenkins First Novel Contest. First prize was $50,000 and a book contract. Second and third place got special consideration and a shot at publishing. You can bet that lit a fire under me to finish my project.
As I targeted the contest, I learned many of the things I’ll be talking about in this blog. But to fast forward a bit, I finished my novel by the deadline, prepared a proposal to go with it, and sent it in. Several weeks later I received notification that I had been selected as a top-ten finalist, and that I should prepare a short video about myself in case I made the top-three cut.
You can imagine how excited I was to find that my very first novel had proved to be such a success. However, I found within a very short time that I was not in the top three. You can’t imagine the disappointment I felt unless you’ve been there. But then up we go again because my top-ten position allowed me to sign on with one of the leading agents in the country. And so began a series of ups and downs over the next several years as I sought publication.
At the same time I pursued publishing of my first novel, I wrote five more novels, began a third, and came up with a couple of dozen ideas for books that I’ve yet to begin.
But back to that first novel – that one continued to be an interesting story as it made the rounds of the publishing houses. I’ll talk about that journey in a bit more detail in my next post.