The Learning Curve of a New Author

March is here and spring is right around the corner for those of us in the north, which means my writing time will soon become limited as the flower garden needs planted, the yard work will begin and life will be bustling with activity. The good news is I’ve worked with my wonderful editor for over a year now and know pretty much what she expects from me. J

After selling RANCHER TO THE RESCUE and one other book to Harlequin Romance, I’ve been ahead on the scheduler and have had some down time since the holidays. During this break, I did some reading and worked up three detailed synopses for my editor. She got back to me this past month and let me know I had come up with some “great ideas.” J Then she went on to tell me which story we’d be working on for book #3.

She called me on the phone to discuss her thoughts on the story. Her input was very helpful and streamlined the story. Then came the task of writing up the formal proposal, but not so fast, I had some personal things creep up that took precedence. I told my editor and we worked around them. Being up front and honest about meeting deadlines is something I’ve always made a practice of doing and in this case, there were no problems.

As such, I was late to begin writing my requested chapters and had to hide in my writing cave to meet my deadline, but I was determined to succeed. And I did. My formal proposal is now on my editor’s Kindle waiting to be read. J

This submission makes me a little nervous as Harlequin Romance is making a change in their editorial direction—more of a global appeal. If you are interested, you can find the guidelines here.

If you're unpublished or are an author targeting a new house, pay attention to those editorial guidelines. They are important. Editors are always working in the future and those guidelines represent what they are looking for in current submissions.

For example, you may be reading a current series about zoos and you have a great manuscript written about zoos but before you submit, check the guidelines. Most books are written a year before they hit bookshelves. If you check the editorial guidelines, you might find that instead of zoos they now want museum stories. Your zoo story though it may be great, won’t work.

So keep a close eye on the guidelines, they’ll change a lot of times without any big fuss being made.

And one more milestone in my journey, my debut is now up for pre-order from Amazon, Amazon UK, B&N and the Book Depository. This is so exciting for me as it means my lifelong dream is really going to come true. Soon I will be able to hold my book in my hands. *sweet sigh*

Now it’s your turn, does anyone have any other questions for me? I'd love to chat with you.

Jennifer Faye is hard at work on book #3. Her debut, RANCHER TO THE RESCUE, will be released July 2013. She’d love to hear from you via Twitter, her website, or Facebook.