You never forget your first...

It's October 9th, and today I'm thrilled to welcome debut author and fellow Scarlet Rose Lynne Roberts! First Date is out now from The Wild Rose Press Wilder Roses, and to commemorate popping her publishing cherry, Lynne is celebrating in a big way on her blog and elsewhere. And I'm happy dancing with her! She generously wrote up this great post about her journey to this day, and I hope all of you enjoy it as much as I did. Then go off and buy First Date! ;)

Take it away, Lynne!

In the spirit of my first release, First Date, I’m here to write about being published for the first time.

When I sat down and to write this blog, I thought I could focus on the road to publication or the tricks of the trade (not that I know many).  Definitely, I could write about perseverance and how to handle rejection. But as I thought about it, I realized that the road to publication is different for everyone. So instead of going into generalities, I thought I’d stick with a brief glimpse of my road I’d like to call: There is a contract with my name on it. Ready?

There it is, in your email. You feel the excitement bubbling up inside of you, perhaps a little squeal escapes. So what do you do? Well, tell everyone. You receive the congratulations with a kind of stunned disbelief. Yes. This is really happening to you. I bet you’re even looking forward to the editing letter. Hello! It’s. An. Editing. Letter! Like from a real editor, at a real publishing house.

It seems like you’re waiting forever. And then you get it. Deep breath, okay, you can do this. You’re a writer *teehee* At this point you giggle because it still feels kind of like cheating to say that.

You work hard and send that editing letter back way before the deadline. A few weeks later, here it comes again.

Mmm. Not quite so excited to see this one, but okay, obviously you didn’t get all the kinks out. You glance through the letter. Holy Moly! No kidding didn’t you get all the kinks out. Who knew you could even use the word ‘pull’ that many times. I mean pull? And how many times can there be ‘as’ in 8K words? Hold on a minute:  1,2,3…20! Yikes. 20!

So back to work and the manuscript you slaved over becomes a puzzle. You can’t use groan here because you’ve used it on the prior page, but growl is out too. Twine, wind, bury…. It’s time to play the synonym and clever rewording game. I’m not even going to go into the autonomous body parts—my mind is wandering.

Okay screech stop.

Somewhere around this point you get to see your cover for the very first time. This is truly an overwhelming moment. And yes, you’ll celebrate… as soon as you get those revisions done.

Suddenly it dawns on you. This book is actually getting published. You need someone to buy it! So, you jump right into the promotion whirlwind, which begins to feel more like a tornado. Blog? Website? Trailer? Oh my! Yes, you will feel like Dorothy.

Eventually, you finish the last revision (after try number 6) your editor said it’s a go and by this time you don’t want to see the !@$%^ manuscript for a long time.

No! I’m joking. It’s great! Buy it. Please.

Okay seriously. You’ve worked hard and under a deadline and you’ll celebrate, as soon as you get a little energy. *cue dramatic music* and then here come the galleys.

Galleys, piece o cake right? Um, no.  Galleys:  in which you pick apart every single word you’ve written... several times… to get them all just right… again.

But then comes the day, the long awaited release day. There it is, your book, available for purchase and suddenly, everything was worth it.

And then you get your first review… LOL I haven’t gotten yet. Stay tuned. : )

Cari, thank you so much for letting me borrow your blog! You rock! 

Right back at you, Lynne! Huge congratulations and wishing you many more release days! Now I'm off to buy First Date...

Edited to add... because I was a remiss blogger last night...don't forget to pick up Helen Hardt's Blood Wolf, and J.A. Saare's Soft as Moonlight. Both released TODAY!