Marja McGraw's Journey to Publication
Marja McGraw |
Everyone takes a different path to publishing, and mine was rather bumpy, but it could have been a lot worse.
When I first started writing I lived in a small town in rural Nevada. I didn’t know any other authors, and I had no idea about finding information on the Internet. I was truly a babe in the woods. I sent out a few manuscripts to publishers and most of them didn’t even bother to reply. I have to admit, the book I was sending out was pretty bad. I kept it for many years because it had sentimental value, no matter how amateurish it was. Somewhere along the way it disappeared.
Anyway, a family member sent me a newspaper article about self-publishing. It sounded wonderful. I submitted a different book, and they just loved it. Oh, yes, they accepted it and told me I was every bit as good a writer as Sir Conan Doyle. I was going to be the new Agatha Christie, too. Looking back, I have to laugh at how gullible I was. I fell for it and submitted another book. And I waited for people to start buying my books. It was a long wait.
I have to admit that when I received the first batch of books, I was so excited I cried. I held that book in my hand like it was a new baby, and to me, it was. I’m excited every time a new book comes out, but that first time was different and special.
Okay, so I learned that it’s pretty difficult to market and promote a self-published book, especially when you have no idea how to market or promote.
So I moved on and submitted my third book to a traditional publisher. They asked for an “exclusive”. A year and a half and one rejection later, I learned that I would never again give anyone an exclusive look at my other stories. By the way, during that year and a half I kept writing. No grass was going to grow under these little tootsies. When I did find a publisher, I’d be ready with multiple books. And I was having fun creating the stories.
The next stop in the journey was an agent. Yippee!! I’d found someone who would make sure the right publishers saw my work. I never quite figured this woman out. She did nothing for me, except suggest I talk to someone she knew who would charge about $1,000 and tell me what I could do to make my writing better. The interesting thing was that this agent made comments about the book that had absolutely nothing to do with the story. Go figure. We had a year-long relationship before I said I’d had enough.
I cultivated a few friendships via groups on the Internet, including Sisters in Crime. Dorothy Bodoin, H. Susan Shaw and I became great friends. And Dorothy suggested I look into epublishing. Huh? I’d heard the term, but had no idea what it was. Dorothy was being published by Wings ePress and she seemed happy, so I looked into the idea of ebooks. I submitted a manuscript to Wings and not only did they accept it, but it was only a matter of a few months before the book was published. I was thrilled with them, and five books later, I’m still happy.
Ah, but then I started a second series. What to do with it? I began researching, having learned a lot over the past several years, and decided I’d prefer to go with a small publisher. Oak Tree Press crossed my line of vision and I was hooked. I asked a few people I knew, and who’d had experience with them, what they thought. Everything seemed good, so I submitted a query letter. They were interested, and they were going to be at a conference in Las Vegas, which is only an hour and a half from where I live. Would I come to the conference and meet them? Absolutely.
What a week that was. My husband and I lost a very dear friend to a horrendous accident. By the time I met Billie Johnson and Sunny Frazier at the conference, I wasn’t even sure what I was doing. Fortunately for me, they knew exactly what they were doing and offered me a contract right on the spot, at the conference. Talk about a week of extreme ups and downs. Whew! Don’t want to have anything like that happen again.
So here I am, writing two series: The Sandi Webster Mysteries and The Bogey Man Mysteries, and I have two publishers whom I’m delighted with, finally. It’s been a long journey, but it’s also been a fruitful trip.
For those of you writers who are just starting out, persist. Don’t give up, and use your common sense when dealing with anyone. I don’t care if it’s a publisher or an agent, use your head. Don’t waste time. Learn from others and maybe you can bypass a few of our mistakes.
Marilyn, thank you so much for allowing me to share today. It seemed like a shorter journey until I began writing about it.
Bogey’s Ace in the Hole – Release date February, 2012 from Oak Tree Press
Website: http://www.marjamcgraw.com/
Marja’s Mystery Blog: http://blog.marjamcgraw.com/
Bogey's Ace in the Hole Blurb:
The only people who might strike terror in Chris and Pamela Cross’s hearts are the Church Ladies, who want them to find a missing friend. When the friend turns up on her own, Chris finds a new kind of terror—a Murder for Hire plot the woman has overheard.
Ride along in Chris’s 1950 vintage Chevy with the Church Ladies, his wife Pamela, their son Mikey, and two wild and crazy yellow Labrador retrievers while they try to find not only a potential killer, but the intended victim.
Ride along in Chris’s 1950 vintage Chevy with the Church Ladies, his wife Pamela, their son Mikey, and two wild and crazy yellow Labrador retrievers while they try to find not only a potential killer, but the intended victim.
Marja’s Bio
Marja McGraw was born and raised in Southern California. She worked in both civil and criminal law for 15 years, state transportation for another 17 years, and most recently for a city building department. She has lived and worked in California, Nevada, Oregon, Alaska and Arizona.
McGraw also wrote a weekly column for a small town newspaper in Northern Nevada, and conducted a Writers’ Support Group in Northern Arizona. A member of Sisters in Crime (SinC), she was also the Editor for the SinC-Internet Newsletter for a year and a half.
She has appeared on KOLO-TV in Reno, Nevada, and KLBC in Laughlin, Nevada, and various radio talk shows.
Marja says that each of her mysteries contains a little humor, a little romance and A Little Murder! Books include Bogey Nights, the first in the Bogey Man Mysteries, and it’s soon to be joined by Bogey’s Ace in the Hole. A Well-Kept Family Secret, Bubba’s Ghost, Prudy’s Back!, The Bogey Man and Old Murders Never Die are all part of the Sandi Webster series.
She and her husband now live in Arizona, where life is good.
Comments
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
Madeline
Morgan, Thank you for stopping in. I hope to see you at another conference, too.
Madeline, Thank you, also, for stopping in. It's been an interesting trip to publication. I hope to see you at another conference, too.
Best wishes to you & Marilyn, both. :-)
Marilyn, Thank you so much for including me on your blog today. I admire you and your writing, so I'm feeling pretty good about being here.
Monti
Mary Montague Sikes
Marilyn
Jake, Thank you for dropping in, and for always being there. :)