Tag: publish

How Do You Get Published?

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This is one of super obnoxious chicken and the egg type questions. In an effort to get a book published, authors often run into the wall of platform and previous works.
Agents and publishers want to know that you have an audience. That people like your work. That you actually already know how to write. You know, the stuff you put in that all important Bio part of the query letter.

 In other words to get published, you have to already be published.

There’s always the slush pile. You can get picked out of inbox sitting on an editor or agents desk. It happened to me. This is one of those lightning striking kind of things though. Right place, right time, bottle ready to catch that lightning.

But there is another way grasshoppers. Build up your credentials. Enter Contests, start a super popular blog (I clearly do not have the machanics down on this one yet), submit short stories and essays to magazines, find places on the web looking for content writers.

Today I’m going to plug the first option: Contests.  One in particular.
Mormon Mommy Writers blog is having a contest. We are looking for personal essays, short stories, poems,  haiku, limmericks (just kidding), but you get the idea. The subject pertains to the title of our blog. Mormons, Mommies, and Writers. Write about one or all. You don’t even have to be a Mormon or a Mommy to enter. Just a writer. Winners and honorable mentions will be published in an anthology.
Mormon Mommy Writers

So enter hopeful writers. What do you have to lose. Nothing. What do you have to gain. A publication credit. Something to put on that bio section.

Good luck! For more contest info use the above link. Submissions must be received by July 31. And yes, I am one of the judges.

The LIST

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So right now I’m chained to my computer. I can literally feel it chafing against my ankle. It’s either that, or tweaked from running.
 The reason I am stuck here is a little thing called a deadline. As in my Work in Progress needs to be submitted to my editor by Tuesday. I started 2 weeks ago. Sound crazy?

It’s actually someone else’s book that was finished, but needed a whole lot of work. But his life is crazy and he needed some help to meet the deadline set by his publisher- which coincidentally is my publisher. So he asked me to co-author it with him. It needed some voicing fixes, plot fixes, and  brand spanking new ending. I am currently in the middle of said ending.

But while I am plotting of how to get Cynhtia (my character) out of the mess I stuck her in, in the back of my mind is the LIST.

There seems to be so much to do and not enough time to do it.  I need to meet my deadline, but I worry that the mountain of laundry might tip over and smother my 2 1/2 yr old. I’ve got three blogs to keep up with. Mormon Mommy Writers and Finished being Fat both have Saturday updates due. The kids are crying to go the park. Oh, and my marathon training says Saturday is a 14 mile day.

And that’s the shortened list. The longer list includes all the things I need to do before the years up. I’m going back to college. My father in law is getting remarried. All the edits and marketing work for the two books coming out in early 2013. The June marathon and 3 other half marathons I signed up for.

By this point in my worrying, I’m having chest pains. The underside of my blanket is starting to look really good.

The point of this post is to remind myself that I can only worry about one thing, one mile, one race, and one chapter at a time. Anything else is counter productive. I need to make a plan, then trust that plan will work as I follow through. I’ll let you know when I manage to stop sweating the details.