LDS Publisher's Summer Book Trek

 

 How fun! I haven't participated in a really fun reading challenge for awhile!

When I saw LDS Publisher's Summer Book Trek challenge, I decided to go for it!

Quick Summary:

Who: Calling all fiction readers!!! (If you’re under 18, you have to have your parent’s permission.) You do not have to be LDS to participate.
What: A summer reading challenge for August 2012! Read books by LDS authors.

First step, creating my reading list:

1. Persuaded...by Jenni James (released August)
2. Secrets After Dark...by Mary Higgins
3. 
   

Author Friends

Snowflake is bubbling over with authors. Who knew? My hubs encouraged me to ask a couple for advice on getting published.

David Bowman is an artist/author whose daughter goes to school with my oldest son. 1st day of Kindergarten my son told me about this cutest girl in his class. ;)

Alma Yates is the principal at my children's school. He's published 11 books and called me yesterday to give me his personal advice.

DeeAnne Gist, who included my name along with my mom's and sister's in her latest book, emailed me to congratulate me.

Friends...especially popular ones...are great!

Jenni James...Love her!

As per my last post, I have been looking over a contract from Walnut Springs Press to publish my first book. Since this is all new to me, I had no idea what to expect. I told my hubs that I wished I had someone to talk to who was in a similar boat and could give me advice. Thank goodness for facebook. I've made friends with fellow authors and remembered a favorite of mine who also published with the same publisher. Her name is Jenni James, and she writes the cutest YA novels. So, I sent her a message through facebook asking her for help, and she replied back and gave me her number to call her. And I just have to tell you that she is the sweetest. She answered all of my questions and helped me so much...while at the same time fixing her 7 kids lunch. Yes, I said 7. She's a single mother of 7 who just moved her family from Utah to Farmington, NM. Wowza. Anyway, she gave me some great advice. She talked very highly of Walnut Springs, and I'm ready and excited to be a part of their company. Here is Jenni James link (check it out):

http://authorjennnijames.com

July 10, 2012...a date to remember

Happy Dance!

2 years ago on Mother's Day I finished my 3rd book titled I'm Not Cinderella. I printed and bound a copy for each my mother and grandmother for Mother's Day and then sent the manuscript off to 4 publishers. During the span of 26 months, I've had 1 publisher reject my manuscript, another interested but requested alterations only to have the same person who was interested no longer work for the company and that 'said' company no longer interested, another publisher file my manuscript in the 'to be published' file but then write to tell me they are going out of business, and then 1 last publisher who emailed they were interested and gave me suggestions to fix my manuscript and requested to see it again. Well, I revised and revised and revised my manuscript and then resent it to that particular publisher 5 months ago and received the most glorious news on Tuesday, July 10th, 2012. It says:

Dear Tarrah,

How are you? I apologize for being out of touch, but I do have good news. Recently, I asked someone in my office to read the revised version of I'm Not Cinderella, and she liked it very much. (I've been so busy I haven't had time to read submissions; my coworker read your manuscript while on vacation. :) We'd like to publish the book if you haven't yet contracted with another publisher.


And then another email:

 Tarrah,

Thanks for your message. We are excited to work with you and publish I'm Not Cinderella. The next step is to get a contract signed. Please read the attached (our generic contract) and let me know if you have any questions. Once we have a signed contract, we'll chat with you about marketing, schedule, etc. My guess is that we'll want to publish the book in spring 2013.

Did you say there will be sequels to the book? If so, how many?