How did you do it?

I want to say that your writings help shape me into the woman I am today. I read the entire Alice series starting in middle school and finishing my senior year of high school! I even wrote on the Alice forum back in the day asking you what I thought to be serious questions for a 12-year-old.

Now I’m 25 years old, with an interest in writing. I’ve written two novels so far, but I have no idea what to do with them. Quite honestly, I have no idea how to publish. Any advice on where to start?

Again thank you for all the literature you’ve produced. I’m sure you hear this a lot but you helped myself and so many others through your writing.

How I wish there was an easy answer to getting a book published.  The fact is there are SO many people wanting to publish a book today that it has become quite difficult for new writers to even get a manuscript read.  I hear horror stories from friends who tell me that all they have heard from a publisher is a postcard saying that if you don’t hear from us within a year, you may assume we are not interested in your manuscript, or something like that.  Why don’t you start out sending your manuscript to places like Amazon that has, I understand, some kind of competition for new writers.  I don’t know any more about it, except that I believe they will publish chapters of manuscripts online and readers comment and vote for which will continue, and perhaps the manuscript that goes the whole way through will be published in book form.  Ask around and someone can lead you to this.   Self-published books are another way to go, but that means you pay for everything, including how to get bookstores to carry your books.  Why don’t you start with a library reference person and ask about the Amazon competition.  In the meantime, if you love to write, continue, because you will be sharpening your skills regardless.

Things were so different when I began writing.  I started out writing “character building” stories for Sunday school papers (churches don’t hand those out any longer, I guess) and eventually I put nine of these stories together, all taking place in different countries, and Abingdon Press published the collection as a book.   I did the same with some teenage stories . Then I sent a novel length manuscript to a “first book” contest by a publishing company.  I didn’t win, but they sent back  a letter saying that if I would rewrite the whole thing from the perspective of one family member rather than the whole family, they would consider it again.   So I did, and they published it.  From then on, I had a publisher, then another,  then another….slowly…very slowly….I branched out, writing for all ages.  I wish it were so simple today.