Keltora - How did you start getting published?
Moderator: JaNell
Keltora - How did you start getting published?
Keltora, tell us about how you started getting published.
Well, when I was about two years old...
Oh, wait, you didn't want me to go THAT far back.
I started submitting materials for publication when I was fifteen. I found issues of THE WRITER and WRITER'S DIGEST and read all the articles in thoses, as well as books on the subject of writing. At that time, I got my first rejection slip from producer Sheldon Leonard when I tried to sell him a script.
I got lucky at 18 and found a course through the noncredit school at UT where the teacher did not try to teach "writing" so much as marketing, and it was there that I learned all about querying and manuscript format and submissions. I made my first article sale not long after that.
I was writing fiction all along, and initially, I thought I would sell a mystery novel, but luck would have it that I rediscovered fantasy fiction and started trying to write short stories. Again, I did all the market research, read the magazines, submitted to them over and over until in 1987, Marion Zimmer Bradley bought my short story "Sword Singer" for SWORD AND SORCERESS V. That was such a wonderful moment. I was already selling nonfiction, and I had been writing book reviews for the Knoxville News-Sentinel since 1986, so this felt like my really big break...
It was two years before I sold another short story, though, to Appalachian Heritage, and the year after that, I sold "Harper's Moon" to Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine. After that, it seemed like a steam roller.
All along, I was trying to sell novels, of course, and back in 2000, I made friends with Selina Rosen, author of QUEEN OF DENIAL and owner of Yard Dog Press. Selina invited me to submit a story to her anthology BUBBAS OF THE APOCALYPSE, and she bought it right away. In the mean time, I had put together a chapbook of some of my short stories (three previously published and one new) and was selling a few copies here and there. I gave Selina one as a present, and on New Years Eve, Dec 2000, she called me and told me that she wanted to publish my chapbook BOGIE WOODS AND OTHER TALES OF CONOR MANAHAN, and "Oh, by the way, do you have a book about these characters...?"
Yes, I did. She bought ARD MAGISTER early in 2001. Embolded by this, I approached Embiid Publishing (after much market research) about an electronic collection of my short fiction called KELTORA, LAND OF MYTH, and found the editor Melissa Michaels, very receptive to the collection (which is available for download on their website). Additionally, Melissa asked to see one of my novels. I sent her THE BLACK HUNTER and her husband, who is Embiid's owner/publisher insisted they publish it.
Very shortly after that, I was contacted by the editor of Dark Regions Press. They publish a magazine by the same name that I had a couple of stories in, and they were also publishing limited edition trade paperback collections of short fiction. They invited me to submit a collection of my short stories, which resulted in the publication of TANGLED WEBS AND OTHER IMAGINARY WEAVING.
I thought myself super writer at this point, and approached another publisher who had been sitting on a collection of my short fiction (MAGIC'S SONG, TALES OF THE HARPER MAGE). They told me to go ahead and sent it elsewhere as they were backed up and unable to get to it any time soon. I turned around and sold the collection to Wildside Press and it is due out sometime this year.
Since then, I have signed contracts with Meisha Merlin for a duology titled "The Demon-Bound" which will appear in 2004 and 2005, and I have an option for more books in that series. That deal came about last summer. actually, though we did not settle on which books until last fall. Meisha Merlin publishes Selina Rosen's books, and she told them I was easy to work with and not plagued with all the ego problems some writers let get in their way. The results were, they were wooing me to get a book contract signed.
I can't say it's been smooth sailing since then. I still get rejections from some of the major magazines, but like a lot of short fiction writers, I find myself drawn more and more to novel marketing and less and less to short fiction. I still write and sell it, but novels do require more time.
What do I tell new writers and hopefuls...what I was told many years ago...
Be patient...it takes time to become an overnight success.
If you want to succeed in this business, you have to have the patience of Job and the persistence of stone.
Or as they say in Galaxy Quest... "Never give up...Never surrender!"
Laura J. Underwood
Oh, wait, you didn't want me to go THAT far back.
I started submitting materials for publication when I was fifteen. I found issues of THE WRITER and WRITER'S DIGEST and read all the articles in thoses, as well as books on the subject of writing. At that time, I got my first rejection slip from producer Sheldon Leonard when I tried to sell him a script.
I got lucky at 18 and found a course through the noncredit school at UT where the teacher did not try to teach "writing" so much as marketing, and it was there that I learned all about querying and manuscript format and submissions. I made my first article sale not long after that.
I was writing fiction all along, and initially, I thought I would sell a mystery novel, but luck would have it that I rediscovered fantasy fiction and started trying to write short stories. Again, I did all the market research, read the magazines, submitted to them over and over until in 1987, Marion Zimmer Bradley bought my short story "Sword Singer" for SWORD AND SORCERESS V. That was such a wonderful moment. I was already selling nonfiction, and I had been writing book reviews for the Knoxville News-Sentinel since 1986, so this felt like my really big break...
It was two years before I sold another short story, though, to Appalachian Heritage, and the year after that, I sold "Harper's Moon" to Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine. After that, it seemed like a steam roller.
All along, I was trying to sell novels, of course, and back in 2000, I made friends with Selina Rosen, author of QUEEN OF DENIAL and owner of Yard Dog Press. Selina invited me to submit a story to her anthology BUBBAS OF THE APOCALYPSE, and she bought it right away. In the mean time, I had put together a chapbook of some of my short stories (three previously published and one new) and was selling a few copies here and there. I gave Selina one as a present, and on New Years Eve, Dec 2000, she called me and told me that she wanted to publish my chapbook BOGIE WOODS AND OTHER TALES OF CONOR MANAHAN, and "Oh, by the way, do you have a book about these characters...?"
Yes, I did. She bought ARD MAGISTER early in 2001. Embolded by this, I approached Embiid Publishing (after much market research) about an electronic collection of my short fiction called KELTORA, LAND OF MYTH, and found the editor Melissa Michaels, very receptive to the collection (which is available for download on their website). Additionally, Melissa asked to see one of my novels. I sent her THE BLACK HUNTER and her husband, who is Embiid's owner/publisher insisted they publish it.
Very shortly after that, I was contacted by the editor of Dark Regions Press. They publish a magazine by the same name that I had a couple of stories in, and they were also publishing limited edition trade paperback collections of short fiction. They invited me to submit a collection of my short stories, which resulted in the publication of TANGLED WEBS AND OTHER IMAGINARY WEAVING.
I thought myself super writer at this point, and approached another publisher who had been sitting on a collection of my short fiction (MAGIC'S SONG, TALES OF THE HARPER MAGE). They told me to go ahead and sent it elsewhere as they were backed up and unable to get to it any time soon. I turned around and sold the collection to Wildside Press and it is due out sometime this year.
Since then, I have signed contracts with Meisha Merlin for a duology titled "The Demon-Bound" which will appear in 2004 and 2005, and I have an option for more books in that series. That deal came about last summer. actually, though we did not settle on which books until last fall. Meisha Merlin publishes Selina Rosen's books, and she told them I was easy to work with and not plagued with all the ego problems some writers let get in their way. The results were, they were wooing me to get a book contract signed.
I can't say it's been smooth sailing since then. I still get rejections from some of the major magazines, but like a lot of short fiction writers, I find myself drawn more and more to novel marketing and less and less to short fiction. I still write and sell it, but novels do require more time.
What do I tell new writers and hopefuls...what I was told many years ago...
Be patient...it takes time to become an overnight success.
If you want to succeed in this business, you have to have the patience of Job and the persistence of stone.
Or as they say in Galaxy Quest... "Never give up...Never surrender!"
Laura J. Underwood
Black Hunters, Demons and Bogies--Oh, MY!
ChRONICLES OF THE LAST WAR available from Yard Dog Press
ChRONICLES OF THE LAST WAR available from Yard Dog Press
Actually, I didn't put it up. BOGIE WOODS AND OTHER TALES OF CONOR MANAHAN was picked up by Yard Dog Press (who will be publishing another chapbook of mine later this year or early next--date not set), and they sell through Amazon.com.
It is possible for authors who self publish to do so, but you do have to have an ISBN (about $250 for a set of them) for them to link it into their database.
At this point, four of my books are on Amazon, a couple (the e-books) are on Powell.com and there's no telling how many are on abebooks.com and a few other sources...
And Meisha Merlin assures me that I will be in bookstores as well when my two novels with them come out...for that matter, so does Wildside.
The hardest thing to get into bookstores are POD, but they are one of the easiest to get on Amazon.
Laura J. Underwood (yes, like the typewriter)
It is possible for authors who self publish to do so, but you do have to have an ISBN (about $250 for a set of them) for them to link it into their database.
At this point, four of my books are on Amazon, a couple (the e-books) are on Powell.com and there's no telling how many are on abebooks.com and a few other sources...
And Meisha Merlin assures me that I will be in bookstores as well when my two novels with them come out...for that matter, so does Wildside.
The hardest thing to get into bookstores are POD, but they are one of the easiest to get on Amazon.
Laura J. Underwood (yes, like the typewriter)
Black Hunters, Demons and Bogies--Oh, MY!
ChRONICLES OF THE LAST WAR available from Yard Dog Press
ChRONICLES OF THE LAST WAR available from Yard Dog Press
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doctorthoss
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chaps
I've thought about putting together a chapbook. What can you tell me about the process, cost, etc.?
There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots. -- http://www.despair.com
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