I’m ready for my chance

A brief story about myself (what could be more fascinating, huh?) and the kind of flexibility that would make a circus contortionist green with envy. 

I say often here that I wrote for ten years before I got my first book published and when that fateful day came that I received a contract, I had twenty finished books on my computer.

I think of this now as….NOT a decades-long slog spent in mole-like anonymity. (well, I think of it as that some!)

But mostly I think of it as the time I spent getting ready for my chance. 

I want to talk today about whether an unpublished author should write a series. This can be tricky because so many acquiring editors aren’t going to buy three books (or however long your series is) from a first time author. No, they want ONE book and if your book is tied up in a series, then does that ONE book stand alone well enough that they’ll go for the one and keep you in mind for the next two if the one sells well.

My first long book Petticoat Ranch ended up being a series. 

But Barbour Publishing just bought the one. When they offered me that contract I honestly didn’t pout and say, “HEY I’ve got two more books here, and now they are ORPHANS.

Nope, I was too thrilled to sell the one book, for the other two, all I had was hope.

So here’s the thing with series, especially when you’re unpublished. Those books need to stand alone but they need to have the potential for a series. The books I do now are often laid out in an obvious ‘series’ style. Three brothers. Three sisters. Three Army buddies. It’s pretty obvious who’s going to be the leading man in each of the three books. 

But if you’ve read Petticoat Ranch and can remember, that book wasn’t like that

. 

Petticoat Ranch had the heroine in it who ended up starring in Calico Canyon, but Grace was the school marm. 

Not particularly important, though she had some troubles. Mostly, Grace was just a secondary character who appeared in a couple of scenes.

So I wrote those books, very deliberately, to sell alone or together. But there’s more to it than that.

Also, in the original form, both Montana Rose and The Husband Tree were completed books that had nothing to do with each other. They were in different states. Belle Tanner was certainly not a character in Montana Rose. For that matter, Tom Linscott, who ended up appearing in six books, started out as a 'cranky area rancher who didn't mind bidding against Mort Sawyer for Cassie Dawson's ranch.' That was it. He had no part. All of these characters emerged as I put series options together.

When I sold, I was pitching a lot of different books. I took four one sheets to ACFW that year. Historical romance. Love Inspired Length. Heartsong Presents Length. Contemporary romance. One series I was pitching was a three book series with fraternity brothers, each with their own troubles after they got out in the world. At the time I called it From Here to Fraternity, which I still think is cute.

They were set in modern day Houston among the rich and powerful in the corporate world. Which ended up not being my thing, huh?

Two of those books have never sold, one sold as Clueless Cowboy in a different series. I have a really soft spot in my heart for Clueless Cowboy because it is the second or third book I wrote. (whether it was second or third has been lost in the mists of time-or more accurately, lost in the air pockets in my brain!) 

That book has for a hero, a burned out rich guy living in a derelict house far from  the nearest town, trying to ‘get back to nature’. You can maybe see how he used to fit with those powerful corporate types, though so much of his backstory got cut and changed I doubt anyone would ever think of it.

Well, when I had that three book series finished, I didn’t just set it aside. By this time I was learning enough about the market that I knew these books would be a fit for Heartsong Presents, Love Inspired or they could stand alone. 

The trouble with that is those lines are all different lengths.

So, I rewrote them, each three times. I wrote full length novels, around 90,000 words. Rewrote them again to Love Inspired length at about 55,000 words, then cut them each again to 45,000-50,000 words for Heartsong Presents. And as I rewrote them I kept in mind that they needed to stand alone or work as a series. And btw, when I say I had 20 finished books, I am NOT counting these as nine of them.

This way when I talked with editors at the ACFW Conference and pitched my book I could honestly say, “Yes, this is book is finished and it's the right length for an HP. It can stand alone but I've got an idea for a series....”

So I didn’t just write three books, I turned those three books into NINE books. And this is what I think of when I say, “You need to be ready when your chance comes.”

When finally Heartsong Presents wanted a book from me, it was clear by then that they were more interested in small towns and/or rural settings. 

So I tossed out the two books of the three set so firmly in Houston’s corporate world and dragged out another short book, Buffalo Gal, I’d written set around a Buffalo Ranch in Nebraska and pitched those when HP was doing their STATES books. 

I didn’t just promise to move Clueless Cowboy from a small town near Houston (thinking I could do it later if they bought it). NO! I did it. I rewrote it and set it in the Sandhills of Nebraska.

 And then pitched a third book that I had in mind for a secondary character from Buffalo Gal as the third book, this one still unwritten.

Heartsong Presents was interested but they’d already sold “Nebraska.” Could I possibly move my book to South Dakota?

You all know the answer to that, right? It is: “ABSOLUTELY I COULD! IT WOULD FIT PERFECTLY IN SOUTH DAKOTA!!!”

So I’d already rewritten The Clueless Cowboy to divest him of the connections to that original three books series AND moved him from Texas to Nebraska, now I uprooted him again and moved him to South Dakota, and I uprooted Buffalo Gal right along with Clueless Cowboy and then, finally, when that was all in order, I could write book three, The Bossy Bridegroom, set in the place it was always meant to be, a small town in South Dakota’s Black Hills, near a buffalo ranch and a strange hermit who’d turned into a heroic…if clueless…cowboy.

These three sweet contemporary romances are all available as ebooks these days if you'd like to read them.

This is what I mean when I say “Be ready for your chance.”

The answer to editors is always, “Yes, I can jump, and how high would you like me?”

You need to be able to say, “My books is done, I can have it to you today.”

You need to say, “I’m ready for my chance.”

Today I'm again urging you to GET YOUR AFFAIRS IN ORDER. We are gearing up for SPEEDBO. (James Earl Jones)

We are all trying to get ready for our chance.

So tell me what you can do to a book you currently have finished but that isn't selling? Can you move it? Can you connect it to a series? Can you rip it out of a series? I'm not saying you have to, or even should, but you need to open your mind to the possibilities. Don't limit yourself due to a lack of imagination--because if there is one thing a writer has it's a good imagination!!!

Leave a comment to get your name in a drawing for

THE FIRST EVER IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE GIVEAWAY OF SWEPT AWAY!!!!!!! 
I DON'T HAVE MY COPIES YET BUT TODAY WE'LL PICK A WINNER AND I'LL GET IT TO YOU AS SOON AS I CAN.

SWEPT AWAY 
coming in March from Bethany House Publishing

Swept away when her wagon train attempts a difficult river crossing, Ruthy MacNeil isn't all that upset at being separated from the family who raised her. All they've ever done is work her to the bone. She prayed for a chance to get away, and then came the raging flood. Alive but disoriented, she's rescued by Luke Stone...so unfortunately, there are more chances to die in her immediate future.

Luke is heading home to reclaim the ranch stolen from his family. But the men who killed his father are working hard to ensure Luke doesn't make it alive. He has no choice but to keep moving. Still, he can't just abandon Ruthy, so she'll have to come along.

Available for Pre-order on CBD.com

His friends--a ragtag group of former Civil War soldiers--take a fast interest in the pretty gal. Luke thinks that's rather rude--he's the one who found her. And the more time he spends around the hard-working young woman who is a mighty good cook, the more he finds himself thinking beyond revenge and toward a different future. For the first time in a long time, Luke is tempted to turn from his destructive path and be swept away by love.

~~~

FIRED UP
In the wild west being a pretty woman has it's advantages. Like if a lady can't cook, the men come to the diner anyway and are honored to accept her  burnt offerings. Glynna Greer, a woman with a powerful fear of rawness is on her way to being the richest woman person in town.
Jesus sent the disciples out to practice medicine without a license so Dare Riker figures he can, too.
The only thing stopping them from firing up a romance is: 
1) Her hostile son who probably isn't trying to kill Dare 
2) The fact that Dare killed her brutish first husband--which isn't that big a deterrent, still it's kinda awkward
3) The repeated attempts on Dare's life. 

Sort all that out and these two could be happily married and also make a fortune. Glynna feeding the local men, Dare treating stomach ailments. 

Newly available on Christianbook.com FIRED UP, book two in The Trouble in Texas series, in bookstores in August 2013

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http://www.maryconnealy.com