Computer Died - New Computer

What a time for your computer to die. And that's just what my computer did. I saw it coming, though. For the last few weeks, it had been going blank on me. Black screen. Not blue screen, but completely black. Knowing I'd have to take it in for service I changed my pass codes for the important stuff, like banking and such. But the computer fix-it guys told me that I had just better buy a new one.

So off to Fry's I go. Since it was shortly after the Christmas season, it was dead in there. Hardly anyone. I had never seen Fry's so empty. And not just of customers. Hardly anyone was working there. No customers, no staff, I was almost all alone. But so what. I went to look at computers. And I saw a couple that might work well for me.

I don't play computer video games. At all. Zilch. Not a one. So getting a computer for that was not a consideration. I was ready to tell a clerk or SOMEONE that I only needed a computer to write documents and to research information, like for my novels. I use Amazon and eBay, but that and email are the only things I do on a computer.

But, whatever, no one was there to help me. It was weird. I was used to people coming up to me and asking me if I needed help. And this time I did need help. But no one was asking. So I left. I went to Best Buy. And even though they, too, were far less busy than during the holiday season, at least there were people there to help me. And somebody did. He helped me decide on a good computer, on which I am writing this post right now.

So it was a bad time to have to transfer all my data. I've got my manuscripts on my computer, my songs, and a lot of research. Not to mention photos of my kids when they were small.

And I am pretty much involved in a semi negotiation with that publisher in Europe for my novel Second Chance; a Football Story. He said he likes sports novels, and is a fan of the Friday Night Lights series. So I guess it's going to happen. Second Chance will get published by JustFiction Edition. Whether the snobs like them or not.

I'll wait however on the submissions for The Vase and John Dunn. Since both are in the process of being submitted to agents and to publishers, it would behoove me to wait out the process. You never know. In the meantime, Second Chance will get published and we'll see how it goes. If by this summer there's no progress on my submissions to the agents or publishers, I may go with JustFiction Edition for those as well.

And that's that. We'll see.

Agents? I Wonder

Trying to land an agent again. My first effort resulted in finding an agent but that was short-lived. And nothing happened as a result. I went straight to publishers after that, and had some success. The Vase was seemingly the most popular. It was accepted by five publishers. I went with the publisher I thought would be the best, and it was in several ways. They taught me a lot about writing a novel. And I took that knowledge and applied it to all of my novels, and they are all better for it.

Killer of Killers drew a lot of interest as well. Not just from agents but from publishers. Although only one publisher offered a contract, compared with the five contracts offered for The Vase. But that publisher is still kickin'. Two of the publishers who offered contracts for The Vase, and with whom I signed, folded. Thus the rights are reverted to me. Another publisher with whom I signed had internal trouble, including lawsuits by former staff. I chronicled all of it on the blog here, so I don't need to get into it again. It was a frustrating experience

The bottom line I discovered is that people don't really care about you, or your contracts or your money. They only care about themselves. Of course, I knew that already. So it was no surprise. You can't really trust anyone. Not in the publishing business. Not in any business. It's what I teach my sons. As a matter of fact, my youngest son asked me recently what my most important advice to him would be. I said without hesitation 'Don't trust anyone.' I've told him before. Both of my sons. Many times. You just can't trust anyone is this world and it's a shame really.

Which means being an agent is an oxymoron. An agent is supposed to be someone you can trust. But you can't trust anyone. Still I'm seeking an agent. It's the best chance to make the Big Five. And I do want that. So I have no recourse. We'll see how that goes.

For me, it wasn't an agent, but a publisher who became an untrustworthy entity. Here's a lesson I learned and I did apply it the second time. You cannot trust a publisher who doesn't sign his own contract. I chronicled the happenings here on the blog some years ago. And when a later publisher tried to do the same thing to me, I told them that.

Here's the trick. A publisher will send you a contract unsigned by them. A first time author will sign it and send it back, thinking the publisher will then sign it and send you a copy. But that didn't happen. So I learned a lesson. Then when a second publisher did that to me, this time I knew better. I told them that publishers who don't sign their own contracts are publishers who cannot be trusted. I said that. Straight up. So then they got on the ball and signed it and sent it back to me.

See? Lessons learned and applied. But sadly three of the other publishers who offered contracts for The Vase simply folded. So that's another reason I'd prefer the Big Five. They won't fold.

But you take what you can get. When will I give up? Who knows. You keep trying. The Vase, Heart of a Zulu, and Second Chance will find homes again. We'll see which homes. Soon I hope.

John Dunn read-through completed

I had reported that in the first half of my newest book, John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu, there was only one typo. I had hoped that it would project to two typos for the entire book. Well, there's three. No worries, they're very minor typos. In the first half of the book there was a quotation mark where it didn't belong. It turned out that in the second half of the book there were two places where there was no indentation where there should have been.

Both places were in a section where there was dialogue. And for some reason, two times the next person speaking it didn't get indented. I suppose those things happen when the documents are converted from word docs to PDFs and then to print.

So three total typos. All three are minor, and don't impact the story at all. I had already noted that books published by the world's top publishers have at least that many typos, so I guess I'm right up there with them. Still, I'm a perfectionist, and I strive for perfection. I will see if in the future I can get those typos out of there. If not, no big deal. It's still good. So good in fact, that I'm with the impression my John Dunn book is my best book of all five that I've written.

My Killer of Killers book has no typos. That book is my personal favorite. I made sure it had no typos, but it took a Second Edition for that to happen, and I don't want to go that course again. I just want perfection if perfection can be achieved.

My book The Vase, I dare say, will be perfect. I'm still perfecting it right now. It's an amazing story. So amazing that it might end up being my best book. Hopefully it can break the Big Five. I'll need an agent for that. Finding an agent is not easy. But you never know until you try. So fingers crossed.

Second Chance - Editing Completed

As of yesterday, the editing to Second Chance, a Football Story has been completed. Dana, the publisher of Knox Robinson Publishing was the one who edited the story. She caught a couple things that I hadn't, and the writing is perfect now.

The only thing that I wasn't so keen on was the fact that she insisted the beginning be changed. I had it so that the main character was introduced in his current homeless state. And then after he tells his story to a reporter, the storyline returns to his homeless state. But now the story begins with the main story, and once that's over, the reader finds out it was a story that was being told to a reporter by a homeless dude in an alley.

Most authors have trouble deleting scenes that they considered well written, and it was like that for me. But Dana's the editor and the publisher of my book, so there's no room for debate there. I made all the changes that she, as the editor, advised to be made, and, like I said, the writing is perfect now.

I believe the book is due to be released next week. August 23rd. That's this coming Tuesday, which is a lot for me to look forward to. And in the meantime, I'm still polishing John Dunn. Oh, btw, The Vase has been submitted to two new publishers. Ignatius Press and Tumblar House. Both are Catholic publishers, which I think will be interested because of the role the Pope plays in the story.

So I've got things happening. Second Chance is coming out this week. John Dunn in November, and The Vase is being actively submitted. I was going to submit to agents, but I'm not doing that. Ignatius Press and Tumblar House didn't require agents, so I didn't bother. I know I said I was going to solicit maybe as many as six, and I might still, so we'll see what happens. I really don't have a good impression of agents. They've never done anything for me. Doesn't mean they can't.

We'll see what happens and I'll keep you posted. Stay tuned.

Agent Search? No Thanks

Well, my agent search for John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu has only been underway for a little more than a month, but I'm ready to forget about it. It's not worth it. I didn't need agents for The Vase. On my own I found no less than FIVE publishers who wanted to publish The Vase. Two publishers were quick to say yes. Aberdeen Bay and Spencer Hill both offered contracts for The Vase right away, but Victoria Strauss over at Absolute Write told me those were bad contracts. Victoria Strauss is probably the greatest lady on the planet, but that's another story for another day.

Then there was Virtual Tales with whom I actually signed, but they folded, so I signed with Cogito next, and that came close to fruition until they had some kind of internal strife. Smack dab in the middle of editing The Vase, my Cogito editor quit Cogito and was suing them. The Vase got lost in all the chaos so I pulled out. Turned out I'm glad it didn't work out with Cogito. They're one of those publishers who want half of your money if your book ever becomes a movie. That alone makes a contract unsignable. No publisher has the right for even one percent of your money if your book becomes a movie. I ultimately signed with Penumbra Publishing, and I'm glad I did. They taught me a lot about editing and writing.

For John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu I want to take the next step. I want to move up from POD publishers to a publisher who gets your book into a real brick and mortar bookstore. And having an agent is the best way to get that done. But not the only way.

There are publishers that get your books into book stores that don't require agents. So if I go it alone I don't doubt I'll have at least equal success I've had with Killer of Killers, Killer Eyes and The Vase. And if I can find a publisher that gets their books into bookstores, then I will have succeeded in taking the next step. And without the useless agent. Fingers crossed and we'll see how that goes. The publisher search begins.

Second Chance over 67,000 words

...and counting. Because my WIP Second Chance hasn't even reached the story's climax yet, after which the resolution or denouement will follow, which could put the word count up to 75,000 words. That's a guess of course. It might reach 80,000 words or over. Even if it does, it will still be my shortest novel. But anything 75,000 words or above will still qualify as a novel.

I certainly don't want to put anything in there that shouldn't be in there. I think I've done a good job up until now. It's a sports story, a football story, and during my search for an agent for John Dunn, (which isn't going very well, btw,) I've seen agents who represent sports stories, so I'm keeping tabs on those guys, just in case I'm still looking for an agent when it comes to Second Chance. (And by the looks of things right now, I probably will be.)

Speaking of agent searches, I am discouraged. When I first started querying agents way back for my debut novel, Killer of Killers, I was getting bites left and right. Requests for partials and fulls, it was encouraging, and I did land an agent. (Well chronicled on this blog.) Even though that agent didn't work out, my point is there was interest out there for KOK.

But then a strange thing happened. For The Vase, a novel that I thought would garner even more interest, garnered next to no interest from agents. Although the flip side of that is that The Vase attracted a lot more interest from actual publishers than KOK did. I was offered four different contracts for The Vase. I actually had a collection of publishers from which to choose. That was very encouraging, and I guess having publishers interested in publishing your book is better than having agents interested in representing it. Although that is arguable, since it's the agent who get you into the Big Six.

KOK got just one publishing contract offer. But that's all you need. And Killer Eyes will be published by the same publisher, meaning the contract has already been offered and signed.

Next up is John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu. I thought that historical novels were popular. But so far no agents are interested. I've been rejected by about a dozen agents at this point, but that's not what's bothering me. What's bothering me is that no agents have requested a partial or a full. It's reminding me of what I went through with The Vase. And that's discouraging. Still you keep at it, you don't give up. If I had given up, KOK or The Vase would never have been published. Or Killer Eyes.

That's all.

Waiting for Responses

...from agents, and while I am, I'll just continue to polish the manuscript. And when I get a request for a full, that ms will be ready to send. Just hope the agent that signs me will not want to change too much. That will probably happen with a publisher, though. And if it's a Big Six publisher, then that will be okay. Even if it's not a big publisher it's okay. Just hope that whoever it is who publishes it will be able to get the book into a bookstore. That means I'm looking beyond POD publishers. That's the only knock on them. They don't get their books into bookstores.

Still I'm glad that Killer of Killers, Killer Eyes and The Vase are published. Even if it's by POD publishers. I'd rather they were in bookstores, but I couldn't make that happen. They're getting read at least, and that's the bottom line.

But it's time for me to make the next step. Meaning get my books into book stores. Meaning find a publisher who can do that. Meaning not a POD publisher. Meaning find an agent who can sell the book to a publisher who sells their books to bookstores. That's a tall order. It may never happen. The authors who make that happen write MG/YA books. Or women's fiction, like Romance or Chick Lit. Stuff like that. I may write a MB/YA book. Maybe Second Chance could qualify. Or the book I have on the back burner-called Inside the Outhouse. But that one's still a ways off. We'll see.

Queried First Scottish Agent

During my agent search last night I found an agency located in Scotland. They indicated they were in Scotland on their website and it got me to thinking. Maybe they would be particularly interested in the John Dunn story, and why? Because John Dunn was the son of a Scottish immigrant. Yes, Robert Newton Dunn, the father of John Dunn came from Scotland to South Africa where he met his English wife and got married. They had three daughters and a son, John Dunn.

Unfortunately for the senior Dunn, however, he was trampled by a bull elephant during a hunting trip. John witnessed it, and from that day on he harbored a hatred of elephants. He killed them all in the Berea, which is the undeveloped area in the colony of Natal at the time. It's just a piece of trivia about John Dunn, and it's mentioned in my book, John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu. Another piece of trivia which I don't mention is the name of John Dunn's horse. He named his horse Napoleon, but I don't point that out in the book. I thought about it, but the book is not about Dunn's horse. I make only a couple references to his horse, but he never calls his horse by name in the story. At least not yet.

That might change. If I find an agent who then finds a publisher, who knows what that editor might want me to change in the book. It could be he or she will want the name of the horse in there, or maybe they'll want more than just a reference to Dunn's father being killed by an elephant. Maybe they'll want it depicted in a flashback or something. We'll see. Let's find that agent first.

Being American Might Hurt Chances

...of finding an agent in the UK. I have concluded this because one UK agency's website said UK editors are less likely to work with American authors if they haven't been published yet. I've been published, but by POD publishers, so I don't even know if that would be acceptable for UK editors. Won't know until I find out, anyway.

But that doesn't mean I'll stop trying. I'll continue looking for an American agent too, of course. Until now no UK agent has sent me a rejection. That bodes well. They say no news is good news. Some American agent have sent rejections though. That's par for the course. And I've queried about an equal number of UK agents and American agents. I'd say about a dozen each.

And out of that dozen, about half a dozen American agents have responded, so I still have the other half dozen that might at least ask for a full. And the UK agents? Why no response yet? Maybe they just take longer to get through their submissions. Or it could be that no answer means no. That's very possible. Only time will tell. We'll see. Fingers crossed.

UK Agents or American Agents?

I'm wondering if being an American will hurt my chances of finding an agent in the UK. My John Dunn book has nothing to do with America. It has everything to do with the UK and the Zulus. So maybe an American writing a story about the Anglo-Zulu War is like a British person writing about the American Civil War.

But whatever. Enthusiasts come in all different nationalities. So who's to say there aren't British Civil War enthusiasts? And who's to say there aren't American Zulu War enthusiasts? It's just that I'm not sure if being an American won't be counted against me. It could be that a UK agent might be interested in repping a book about the Zulu War, but then lose interest when he or she finds out it was an American who wrote the book.

So what am I to do? Well, I'm querying American agents, too. It's just that all the books and TV shows and movies that have ever been made about the Zulus and the Zulu War have been UK publishers and UK movie makers. It's a UK thing. Which is why I'm not limiting my agent search to American agents. You can bet I'm also querying UK agents. Fingers crossed.

Agent Replied Anyway!

This is actually kind of funny. My last post on Tuesday about sending a blank page to an agent resulted in a response last night! That's even hilarious! Many queries get no response at all. But one that was sent in error, with no text in the body of the email, got a response the very next day!

Maybe it was the subject line that drew an interest. I hope so. All the agent said was to check out her website for the proper guidelines to query. Yeah, that's what I do. But as I said Tuesday, I must have hit 'send' instead of 'save as draft,' and I wasn't going to retry that agent, because I was under the impression the agent wouldn't respond after that.

But there it was, a response as if the agent was curious as to what I had to offer. So I went ahead and pasted the message and sent it. Let's see what happens now. If it's going to be a rejection, at least it will come quickly. You would think.

One Agent Got a Blank Page

I'm still querying agents for John Dunn, but when I checked my 'sent' emails I discovered one of them was a blank page. Don't know how that happened. I suppose the agent who got that must have said to herself, "well, there's nothing here," because it was literally true.

When I query an agent I cut and paste first the email address, and then I cut and paste the query letter, and then change the wording so it applies to that specific agent. I guess I got the email address pasted, but somehow hit send before I pasted the message.

I don't even remember that happening. I think I I was distracted by something before I could paste the message and meant to click 'save as draft', but hit the send icon by mistake. That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

So now the question is should I try again to query that same agent. Maybe, maybe not, because she may think I'm some airhead and thus not worth even seeing if my story might be something she would represent. If I do query her again, she'll see that same heading in the subject line and then delete it before even opening it. So whatever.

In the meantime, I'm still polishing up the John Dunn manuscript, which I will continue to do until someone asks to see it. Fingers crossed on that. As for my history on querying agents, it was an unpredictable process. I got a lot of requests for partials and fulls for Killer of Killers, but not for The Vase. I think that for The Vase, the mere thought of a story that involved Hamas terrorists was too scary for agents. They wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

But the John Dunn story is historical fiction and it takes place during Victorian times. And it's in South Africa, involving the Zulus. That's always been popular. There's a huge fan base of Anglo Zulu War enthusiasts everywhere in the world, like American Civil War enthusiasts. That should bode well for my John Dunn story, because he was in the thick of the Anglo-Zulu War and I cover almost the entire war in the story.

So we'll see.

Gathering a List of Agents

I learned how to get an agent. It took me a while, but when I first started looking for an agent for my first book Killer of Killers, I eventually found one. Again, it wasn't a great experience. So many things went awry, and I don't want to rehash that experience. Bottom line is the agent did not get Killer of Killers published. I did. On my own, shortly after my agent and I parted ways.

But this time around, I'm going to apply what I learned during that process. First thing is you have to complete your manuscript. And it better be polished, edited, revised, and that means utilizing everything you learned about writing books. Of course with my first two books I hadnt' reached that level yet. It was only after finding publishers and then learning from those publishers, I was able to hurdle that hump, so to speak. But it happened and I'm there now.

Which means this time around, I'm more qualified to find an agent, based on my experience and knowledge gained. An effective agent, that is. And that is important. If you are a writer looking for an agent, especially if you're an unpublished writer, the search will be very difficult. It really is true to an extent that agents are the gatekeepers to the publishing world. At least when it comes to the Big Six.

I have achieved limited success as a writer. My first three books are published. Killer of Killers, and the soon to be released sequel, Killer Eyes, are published with Melange. And The Vase is published with Penumbra Publishing. But both of those publishers are POD publishers. Which means they are not sold in bookstores. You order them online. But at least they are published and available for purchase. I didn't have to resort to self-publishing. And I'm not dissing authors who are self-published. It's just not what I wanted to do, and for many different reasons.

So as a published author, I want to take that next step. Making it to the Big Six. And for that I need an agent. Because all six of the Big Six publishers only take submissions from agents. And like I was saying the first step is having a completed manuscript. The next step is gathering a list of agents who represent the genre you write. Or the genre which your manuscript fits. And for John Dunn, it's Historical Fiction. I've collected a list of about ten agencies now, and I'm planning on submitting to them this weekend. Because that's when I think my revisions will be done. At least done well enough to submit to agencies. We'll see how that goes. Stay tuned.

Agents, Anyone?

Now that I'm close to finishing the first revision of my fourth novel, John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu, I am considering getting an agent again. Hoo boy. That is not a refreshing thought. Because agents, like reviewers, think they know more than writers. They think they are superior to everyone else out there in the publishing world. No, I'm just kidding. Agents are the gatekeepers for the publishing world. Aren't they? At least that's what they think. And it is true to a certain extent.

Of course they're like anyone else. They have opinions. Like reviewers. And their opinions vary. Like everyone else. So. What to do. I found an agent before. It was a long process, and it took a lot of queries, but I found one. That experience is well documented on this blog. Back in the earlier days of this blog. To make the story short, turned out to be a waste of my time.

But--if you want to get into the Big Six, you need an agent. And I think the John Dunn novel could have a chance at the Big Six. It's historical fiction for one thing. And the Big Six are big on historical fiction. The John Dunn story is based on a true story, real life characters, and real historical events. The era is also a popular one. The Nineteenth Century. It includes a great deal about British Imperialism, when the British Empire was at its height.

So, yeah, it's got a chance. I'm making sure everything is right about it, and I'm almost done. The POV is correct, the continuity, the prose, the factual information, the cultural clash between native Africans and the British colonists, it's all there. And then there's John Dunn caught in the middle of it all. If you've never heard of John Dunn, the white chief in Zululand, go ahead and Google him. It's a true and fascinating story. Would be a great miniseries on TV, too.

So these are the reasons an agent might be interested. It's a 124,000 word novel at this point, by far the longest of the four books I've written. Let's see how the agent search goes. I'll be starting that search maybe as soon as tonight. Stay tuned.

Thanksgiving is a day I'm thankful for being Published!

It was a long and hard road for me. Writing books, finding agents, and getting published, that is. Only thing is, it wasn't an agent who got it done for me. It was me. All me.

I was glad I found an agent who loved Killer of Killers. But as I've chronicled on this blog, that agent retired soon afterward, and the subsequent agents who inherited KOK in that agency, imo, did not share the same enthusiasm, and nothing really happened after that. So I became unagented and published shortly thereafter.

That's seems weird, doesn't it? But that's how it happened. So what would any writer prefer? Being agented and unpublished or being unagented and published.

Well, I choose the latter, and that's what I am. And for that I am thankful. And, by the way, I'm twice published. With two different publishers. And that was a long road, well chronicled on this blog, too. Especially for The Vase. A long and winding road for that one.

Strangely, Killer of Killers was accepted by the second publisher to whom I submitted--Melange, and I have been pleased with them, especially their willingness to cooperate with my perfectionist ways. But they have done everything I've asked them to do. And more.

Oh, make no mistake, I am very happy with Penumbra, too. If not for them, I wouldn't have the knowledge with which I could be that perfectionist. It's all a great collection of events, and results, and all of it thanks only to my own hard work, my perseverance, and willingness to stick it out. I never quit. I came close to considering it a couple times. But in the end, here I am, and with two more books still in queue.

Killer Eyes, the sequel to KOK, and John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu are up next. Stay tuned.

Great to Have More Than One Book

While I'm waiting for Penumbra to publish The Vase, heck, to show me a cover, even, I've been preoccupied with my rewrite of Killer of Killers. And it's been a blast. Every time I read this book, and revise it further, I have so much fun. It's a fun book, after all. The martial arts master, Trent Smith, his mission of vengeance, the adventure he has in America, the training he had in Japan, the lovers he had in Japan and America, it's all such a great story, I never get tired of it.

And for all of the Dustin Clare fans out there, this is a role for him. I've already pointed out how Amber Heard would be great for Samantha Jones, the female lead. I can't wait to get this done. I hope to find an agent to send it to moviemakers, but I'm not sure how that works. Is it the same for movies that it is for books? I mean there must be movie agents, like there's literary agents. I suppose I'll find out. And when I do, I'll let you know. Stay tuned.

Sent Final Edits, but no reply

I have learned in the past, more than once, that when you send an important email to a publisher or an agent, make sure they got it by requesting a reply of confirmation. I remember when I emailed my literary agent, (back when I got a literary agent,) that I agreed to be her client, I received no reply, and after a week I emailed again, and then she replied that she never got my first email. So a week was wasted there. Another time I remember sending an email to a publisher, but they never got that email either. That time, however, I emailed the next day asking if they got it, and they answered no. So I resent that email. And then they got it.

So now, after a day of no response from Penumbra, and with a very important attachment, (my final edits to The Vase,) I emailed again last night, just asking if they got it. Of course, after only one day, I don't expect that they had time to review it yet, but just let me know they got it is all I'm asking. I don't even want to remember the fiasco that occurred with Cogito. That situation was the worst it  could get. They never responded, even to my emails asking for confirmation. So now I'm waiting for Penumbra to respond. I mean, anything is possible. Could be they're out of town, out sick, busy with other projects, some emergency, or they got it, and are delving into it right away... That's why I recommend confirmation. Communication -- very important.

Agents, Anyone?

Nathan was talking about literary agents yesterday, whether they will stick around. It was interesting that he brought that up, because, as one commenter pointed out, he didn't stick around. Not as an agent, anyway.

Well, finding an agent, if you're a new author, is not easy. I found one for KILLER OF KILLERS, and it wasn't a good experience for me. And not just because my "agents" didn't find me a publisher.

First of all, my agents didn't stick around. Imagine that. The one who signed me retired shortly thereafter. The second one didn't stick around, either, having quit to go back to college. The third one, well.... it's been documented in detail on this blog.

Pointedly, I've found publishers without an agent. Sure, it wasn't a smooth ride, and that has also been documented in detail here on this blog.

Ultimately, I think agents do have a significant role to play in the world of publishing. But it takes a good agent, meaning one who is committed to the client. But that's the way it is in just about everything. Yeah.

Agents Need Not Apply

Yesterday I talked about why I needed no agent. But that was specific to KILLER OF KILLERS. So I thought I’d talk about THE VASE today.

A little more than a year ago, I had decided to submit THE VASE to publishers on my own, because the agents I had at the time were unwilling to represent it. The only explanation I received was because it dealt with the Middle East. It was like, Okaaaayyy… Most disturbing to me at that point was that they never even bothered to read it. Had they at least read it, they would have learned it wasn’t the standard Middle East terrorist yarn. Although there were terrorists involved in the plot, there was so much more to the story – really unique and original stuff. But they just blew it off. Other agents blew it off, too, and I realized the agent thing was a waste of time.

So I submitted it myself to the publishers who didn’t require an agent. And in my first round of submissions, I received three contract offers. The first one I decided not to sign, but the second one I signed. That was Virtual Tales. As I’ve chronicled on this blog, after the first round of edits Virtual Tales folded. So I got busy advising the publishers who had expressed interest from that first round of submissions and the third contract followed. That was Cogito.

But after another round of edits, Cogito flaked as I explained in last week’s post. Fortunately, there was a clause in Cogito’s contract that enabled me to terminate that contract and I did.

And it’s where I stand today. Right now, two other publishers are still willing to publish it. But I’m not quick to sign contracts anymore. Another publisher, in England, is still looking at the full, and three pretty good publishers right here in the States have requested the full. And I will most definitely wait to see what their answers will be.

All writers know about waiting, but I feel good about my chances because every publisher who requested the full, after having read the partial, has offered a contract. Stay tuned. It’s a heck of a ride, and I’m not jumping off.

Agents, Who Needs 'em? Not Me

KILLER OF KILLERS was initially represented by literary agent Anita Kushen. I mentioned just last Friday how she called me to tell me she loved KILLER OF KILLERS and that she wanted to represent it. But unfortunately, as I've chonicled on this blog, she retired soon after that.

The two agents who took over did nothing. Nothing that I know of anyway. I'm not even sure they read the manuscript. And soon one of them parted from the agency. And soon after that the remaining agent did not renew our contract. I'm still bothered that I never got a list of publishers to whom she submitted. I asked her for one. Never got one. So I was OK with not having an agent who wasn't getting anything done on my behalf.

After a bit I started to submit KILLER OF KILLERS myself, and you know what? The second publisher I submitted it to offered a contract. You read that right, but I'll say it again. The SECOND publisher I submitted it to offered me a contract. It's chronicled on this blog. (And when I advised the first publisher it was no longer available, he advised me that he hadn't had time to get to it yet, so it wasn't as if it was rejected.)

The lesson here is don't expect any agent to represent you as well as the agent who signed you. That's the person who loved your manuscript. That's the person who wants to go to bat for you. Not the person who inherits you. Sure there will be exceptions. Sure someone else might have a similar story with a different experience. But that was my experience.

As for how it all turned out? Well... KILLER OF KILLERS is getting published. But not for any agent's hard work. It turned out I never really needed an agent. When it comes to landing a contract, it's just as much about timing and luck as anything else.

But I've learned another lesson along the way. I've learned that contracts in and of themselves are NOT a journey completed. When your manuscript is published and in print... then you will have a journey to publication completed. So stay tuned. August is just around the corner.