My First Sale Story: All Things Work Together for Good

There’s a few things in life that a girl really dreams of. Her wedding. Her first child. And her first book contract! We spend years dreaming, planning just how these things will turn out. And while my wedding was pretty much spot on except for the awkward first dance (we attempted to Fox Trot) and the band forgetting to play the tarantella, my first child decided to come four and a half weeks early. Not part of the plan and looked nothing like me with blue eyes.

So technically, I had a fifty-fifty chance of my first book contract turning out the way I had planned. My agent would call and congratulate me on my three book deal with a huge publishing house and a very generous advance. Yet, the way my writing career had been slugging along over the last six years, surprising me with rejection after rejection while other writing friends raced on by in their careers (and three book contracts,) I should have know my path would be different.

When my anthology group asked me if I wanted to resubmit the Cherry Blossom Capers project to Barbour again after having been rejected, I was reluctant. When Barbour turned down the collection the first time, I decided to add 36,000 words to pitch to other publishing houses. My agent tried to sell it, but It wasn’t a fit, so I buried it and went on to the next project.

Fast forward a couple years later, and my novella partners want to resubmit to Barbour. For most people it would be a no brainer. But for me I had to weigh the pros and cons. If it sold, I’d have to scale down the story which from 56,000 to 20,000 words. And it wasn’t as easy as going back to those first 20,000. The story had evolved and was better, I believed. The thought of cutting it down was daunting, but what other choice did I have?

It was December 2010 when I said yes to resubmitting.

Enter January 2012. My son had been begging me for a pet snake. And though I dug my heels in, he had a pretty good argument for those ugly creatures. No smell, minimum care and it only ate once a week. So I gave in and decided we’d just take a look at the pet store. While we were waiting to take home a snake (yes, I know…) and were browsing the other furry animals, I got a text.

It was my anthology partner who had facebooked me wondering if I had checked my email. No…I hadn’t because I couldn’t afford one of those fancy phone data plans. All I had on my phone were simple voicemail, texts and facebook message forwards. But her message wasn’t hard to decipher, and I had this surreal moment of knowing, yet at the same time not believing it was true. It had only been a week since we turned in the anthology, and I was standing in the middle of the rodent section of the pet store.  Not how I planned on getting the message of my first sale!

Now with the official launch of my full length mystery, Digging Up Death, the story my agent signed me with 4 or 5 years ago (I’ve lost count)but couldn’t sell because it wasn’t a fit, I’m reflecting again on how my plans for this story didn’t work out the way I hoped. And I’m more than okay with that now.

Getting to that OKAY place with my first full length book being published by a small ebook publisher not yet recognized by ACFW was NOT a short, easy road. But it was necessary for God to get me to a place of surrender, to a place where I can honestly say that I am excited about the way things are unfolding! No, it’s not a three book deal with a major publisher and no big advance, but that’s okay.

I don’t think I could have said that a year ago. I guess I was learning the same lesson my protagonist Mari Duggins was learning on her journey. To let go of her dreams and surrender it all to Jesus. Funny how similar my journeys seems to be with characters I write. Could that be part of God’s plan?

So did my first or second sale go according to my plans? No, and I’m okay with that now because I know God sees the bigger picture. I’ve learned through Mari’s journey and finally can agree with her words that “God made all things work together for good. It may not be the way I would have planned it, but God knew we’d come through this, bruises and all.”

Bruises will heal, but growth is priceless.

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Digging Up Death released this weekend!

You purchase your copy for $2.99 and read sample chapters at Amazon NOW!

Check back this week for the FIRST blog tour on Dec 5th and where you can read the first reviews of Digging Up Death!