I think two of the most common questions I get when I do public events are 1) How long does it take to write a book? …and… 2) How did you get you first book published?
Question #1 always makes me chuckle a bit because the answer varies depending on the book. Question #2 is kind of a long story.
So, I thought I’d share the answer two both questions today in regards to my very first book, Escaping Fate.
How long did it take me to write it? Well…I started writing Escaping Fate when I was fifteen, back when I knew next to nothing about writing and thought I was really good at it. I wasn’t. Anyway, a lecture in Mrs. Hume’s history class about Aztecs performing human sacrifices really got me interested and I started researching. Back then, that involved digging out an encyclopedia and scouring the library for resources since my parents weren’t big fans of the internet at the time.
The first version was super short. It fit inside a chunky 6×4 inch paper notebook. Yeah. It was short. Eventually, I started transferring it to my first laptop, which was a brick and weighed a ton, and I started adding to the story. Actually, I removed an entire character and rewrote the story with only the MC, Arrabella, and her grandfather. That took a while. A long while. REWRITE #1.
Some time later, I met my future hubby and found out he was into writing too. Don’ tell him I told you that, though. He likes to keep his writing on the DL even though it’s really good. And I’m not just saying that because he’s my husband. Seriously, it’s good stuff, and if he ever actually lets anyone outside me and his brothers read it, you’ll agree.
Anyway…my hubby and I chatted about writing and when I mentioned nixing poor Tanner from the book, he talked me into putting him back in. After all, every story needs a little romance, right? REWRITE #2.
Years later, after getting married and having two kids and doing some college here and there, I pulled Escaping Fate back out, reread it, decided it was still missing something, or several somethings, and went back to work ironing things out, changing POV and tense, adding in more story elements to keep things interesting, and who knows what else. REWRITE #3.
By the time I was ready to submit it to agents and publishers, I was 25-ish. Yep, it took me ten years to finish this sucker. And guess what happened? Zip. That’s right, not a single agent or publisher was interested in it. I had no publishing credits, no social media presence, nothing at all that would convince an agent or publisher to take me on.
I didn’t give up, though. I decided to publish it on my own. At the time, I had no clue how to market, but I learned how to format for print and ebooks, painting a picture of an Aztec god for the cover art, and put together a pretty good book. Escaping Fate is a book that will always be close to my heart because of the journey it was to share it with readers. Even though it’s not a big seller for me, it got my toe in the door, forced me to learn a lot about writing, publishing, and marketing, and put me on the road to some pretty cool things.
Escaping Fate was published in 2010. Since then I’ve published 15 other books, including a sequel to Escaping Fate that I never planned to write (Soul Stone), have made the USA Today Bestseller list as part of a wildly popular box set, got a pretty good review from Kirkus, and have more than one book in a top 100 category on Amazon. Even if Escaping Fate is never one of my more popular books, it was the first step. Sometimes, that’s all it takes to get yourself moving in the right direction.
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USA Today Bestselling Author DelSheree Gladden 