Every writer dreams of getting the call.
Share your experience with us.
Where were you when you received the call?
What did you do to celebrate?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Welcome To SORMAG's Blog
About Me
- LaShaunda
- I believe in promoting authors and their books. Let me introduce you and your books to online readers.
I'm also a happily married mother of three who's trying to break into the Christian writing field. The writing road can be rocky.
I’m available for:
Online promotion coaching
Lectures
Seminars
Freelancing
Contact me at:lchwriter@gmail.com
6 comments:
I was at work when I found out I'd received the call. My editor, Monica Harris, had left a message on my home voicemail and followed up with an email.
I'd mailed the proposal on my mother's birthday and received the offer on my deceased grandfather's birthday, my mom's dad. So, of course, my mother got the good news first.
My critique partners treated me to dinner at our next meeting, but I celebrated by making sure the full manuscript I submitted was the best it could be.
And don't tell anyone, but I've saved Monica's message to this day and still listen to it on occasion. Two-and-a-half years later it remains a magical moment.
Stefanie,
Thanks so much for sharing your call.
Monica has started many new writer's careers. I'm grateful for all her calls because I know SORMAG wouldn't have started if she hadn't made those calls.
I think I would have kept the message too.
I was working in my office at home sorting through some papers when the phone rang. I always look at the caller id before answering and all the papers I had in my lap slid to the floor when I saw BET Books on it id.
Demetria Lucas gave me the news and I thought I was dreaming. I couldn't believe it.
The first person I called was my mother, because it was the day before the anniversary of my father's death. The next person was Jacquelin Thomas who told me that the Lord had told her that I was a writer. She was the reason why I submitted my story in the first place.
What a wonderful experience. One that I will never forget.
I came home from work on a Friday afternoon and discovered the voicemail from Joylynn with Urban Christian. All she said was "she'd like to speak with me".
I called my author friend Ebony Farashuu and said "It has to be good news right?" and she thought that it was but of course we couldn't be certain.
So I spent a suspensful weekend waiting to return her call. She wasn't in, so I left a message and when she called back to make the offer I was at work.
So my co-workers heard it first as I wasn't very quiet about it.
LOL
My call was kind of a weird experience. I never got excited enough to scream. Urban Christian had requested my full manuscript in April and by late August when I hadn't heard from them I decided to shop it elsewhere. (I know that's not normally a long time, but UC had been getting back to authors very quickly so I figured they didn't want me.) I sent it to another publisher the 2nd week in September and on November 1st I got a call. I was driving on the interstate and when I saw the area code on my cell phone I nearly wrecked the car I was so excited. When I answered it wasn't the acquistions editor, so I my excitement was quelled a bit, because I'm thinking surely "SHE" makes the "CALLS". Her assistant introduced herself and told me they were very interested in my manuscript, but wanted me to rewrite the first chapter and add some more "drama". They asked me to send it to them by the end of December. So I spent November and December toiling over the opening of this book and on Christmas eve I Federal Expessed it to the publisher, fully expecting to have a sale by February 1, because it really was 200% better. Well on December 28th Joylynn Jossell calls me and I was kind of like "Hah?". I swear, it was like, who are you and what do you want, I'm in love with this new house, I have a new home. So I got off the phone in a weird place, seriously. I called Sherri Lewis, Dee Stewart, and Tia McCollors who screamed for me, but I'm telling you the call pulled the rug out from under me. I'll scream when I see my book on the shelf and cry for two weeks for sure. I am thrilled to be with UC. They were my first choice, but I guess I just kind of convinced myself that it wasn't going to be.
Funny thing is Joylynn called on Dec 28th. I had told myself on January 1st of that year that I was going to finish and sell my novel that year. Did God come through before the year was up or what?!! He's a good God, all the time.
Oh yes, Zaria you and I got our calls on the same day. It was Friday, Dec 28th! I had just arrived at my parents new home in South Carolina. Literally had just come out of the S.C. woods where there was no cell phone signal, otherwise I would have had a message on the voicemail, too.
Post a Comment