Writers, Don't Give Up! Publish That Book On The Web, by Lana Waite

I know vast numbers of you have been writing for years. I know you send manuscripts with SASE to editors and agents without cease. You join groups to get a handle on why you can't sell. You go to conventions of fellow writers. You study "How To Write" books. You surf the Internet. And--maybe--at last you give up. It happened to me.

I have written, over twenty or so years, five complete books. Not all were professional enough to publish. The last one, "Buried In Burrywood," seemed good to me and I started sending it to editors and agents. The first letter I received said, "Your opening is excellent, the writing is terrific, and the characters are appealing." But the book was rejected. Fifteen agents and twenty-two publishing houses later, I gave up.

What the story didn't have, and what everyone seemed to want, was a lead character who had some special quirk--cats, quilting, driving taxis, antiques, private eye. My characters in Burrywood were interesting but ordinary small town people dealing with a murderous crisis. I simply could not sell it. Here were a few more years of my writing life gone down the drain. And here's what some published writers have said about that: "Writing is the hardest way of earning a living with the possible exception of wrestling alligators." - Olin Miller. And another: "The profession of book-writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business." - John Steinbeck

But what my story did have was readability. I knew that. The characters were clearly written and interacted in an interesting way. They weren't psychotic. They weren't mean. They worked things out. The story was pleasant, and sometimes made you smile. I really wanted people to read it. I put it away, with reluctance, but I didn't forget it.

I changed course and taught myself how to design Web pages. That seemed like a good second choice for someone who enjoyed creating things.

In surfing the Web day after day for the Web design business, I found publishers; places where I could produce "Buried In Burrywood" as an eBook and/or a trade paperback on my own. I studied these, and the words written about them, for over a year. There were many choices. At first glance it seemed like throwing money away to pay to be published (and there were various prices). But the longer I thought about it, the more interesting it became.