Life After Death: The Saga of a Buried WIP Continues
If you’ve been following my writing career, you may remember back in 2009 a WIP called Digging Up Death and many posts like this one where after making the CBA rounds and burying my WIP, I dug it up again and reworked it!
Or this one where I got that final rejection and had to bury Digging Up Death for good:
“…Am I sad? Yes. Discouraged? A little. Confused and wondering what the heck I should do or write next? Yes! You betcha! I don’t want to think about pouring another year of my life into a book that will be rejected….Honestly, I’ve read worse books in the last month that got me wondering how in the world did THAT get published, surely if they can, I can. But God knows best! Sure glad he does, ’cause right now I feel like I know nothing!”
And that was all before I contracted my first novella in December 2010 after I BURIED it for a couple of years.
So a couple of months ago my agent encourages me to dig up Digging Up Death once again to pitch to an epublisher. I thought “what do I have to lose?” It’s just taking up space in my computer, and yes, I thought about indie publishing, but frankly, I didn’t want to do it on my own, and didn’t have the cash flow to do it right. And with other authors like Melody Carlson, Bill Myers, and Robin Lee Hatcher, and a reputation for selling lots of books, Stonehouse Ink looked like a sweet deal…if it sold! I learned better than to get my hopes up this time around.
But it sold, and I mailed the signed contract just this morning.
Okay, so NOT the best photo (note to self: Next time wear red and lose the forced smile,) and I didn’t get around to “staging” my desk area (notice piles in the corners,) but at least I got a photo this time around! When I signed the contract for my novella it was in the middle of Snowmageddon where I remained a cave dweller sans makeup and real clothes for the two week period.
So I’m noticing a pattern here. Write a book, it doesn’t sell. Bury it a few times, and eventually God will resurrect it!! Funny how my plans never work out, but it eventually all works together for good!!
Let that be a lesson to us all!
