I am so excited to host a guest post by author and blogger friend Erica Vetsch today. Erica, I really enjoyed learning more about your journey to publication and it was wonderful to have a chance to read your recently released novel,
The Bartered Bride.
Cindy, thank you for having me here to guest blog today. I’m a fan of your blog and am excited to meet your readers.
Cindy asked me to write about my road to publication and to share some encouraging words about overcoming obstacles.
Recently I visited Devil’s Tower in NE Wyoming. It was spectacular, humbling, and exhilarating. Kind of like this writing life.
My own journey up the monolith of publishing began in the fall of 2004 when I completed my first manuscript. I had been writing stories for my own pleasure all spring and summer, and finally decided I might like to try writing for publication. Seeing the mountain from a long ways away didn’t seem as daunting. Mostly because I didn’t realize how big it really was. I was writing because I loved it, and I didn’t know anything about the publishing process.
I had so much to learn. I joined the ACFW, attended a conference, acquired critique partners, and wrote. When I finished one manuscript, I started another. I was scaling the mountain. One piton, one carabiner at a time.
I toiled away at writing fiction for four years, completing five novels before the idea for The Bartered Bride hit me. I had an agent who submitted my work. Four of those first five novels garnered some interest from editors, but ended in rejections. Then I wrote The Bartered Bride. Over a period of five weeks in the summer of 2007, the story fell out of my head. I pitched it at the ACFW Conference in Dallas. I sent the requested proposal in to Heartsong and waited.
An entire year went by. I wrote the sequel to The Bartered Bride, The Marriage Masquerade, just in case Heartsong wanted the series. And I wrote Clara and the Cowboy, book one in another series, just in case Heartsong didn’t want The Bartered Bride but would be interested in something else I wrote.
At the 2008 ACFW Conference, I was blessed to receive a contract for The Bartered Bride. Exhilaration! Elation! Excitement! I was so encouraged. Had I made it to the top? After all, publication was what every writer dreamed of, right?
The mountain of publishing was bigger than I’d ever imagined, but closer up, it was also more defined. As I went through the process of taking a book from contract to reader, I was learning every day what the steps meant. I read my first contract and understood the language. I got my first advance against royalties check. I got my first royalty statement. Content edits, copy edits, author bio sheet, cover art sheet, galley edits, fledgling marketing efforts.
What I’ve learned so far is, publication doesn’t equal reaching the summit. It means you’ve set your toe into the rock face and you’ve started to climb. There are folks farther up than you who will reach down and offer you a hand, and there are those toiling somewhere behind you that could use an encouraging word or two.
The two climbers in the picture were about halfway up the south face of Devil’s Tower, almost too small to be seen from the ground.
The writing journey is long, the climb is tough, but the sense of accomplishment and adventure is more than worth the effort.
Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us, Erica!
Here is the back cover summary of her book.
Can true love result from a business deal?
Jonathan Kennebrae is furious when his grandfather informs him that his future has been decided. He will marry Melissa Brooke or lose his inheritance. Jonathan has invested years of his life in Kennebrae Shipping, but heaven help him if Grandfather decides to take it all away for this.
Melissa, too, is devastated when her parents make their announcement. As little more than a bargaining chip in her father's business maneuvers, she feels her secure world slipping away.
Engaged to marry a man she has never met--someone "considerably older" than herself? What have her parents done?
Can Jonathan and Melissa find a way out of this loveless marriage or must they find a way forward together?
I was so delighted to have a chance to read
The Bartered Bride. The prose was refreshing, creating a world and such detailed scenes that I truly felt I was there with the characters. I found Jonathan and Melissa engaging and got pulled into their journey all the way to the end of the book. The inspirational theme was such an encouragement, the book was a blessing.
For those of you interested in reading the book, Erica has graciously offered a giveaway copy. To be entered into the drawing, simply leave a comment below. I will announce the winner this Friday.
If you haven't already, please stop by Erica's blog
On the Write Path to read more of her inspirational writing.
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