Please Welcome Guest Rose Ross Zediker

Writer’s Go Green!

As private citizens we are all socially conscious separating our glass, aluminum, and plastic into the appropriate recycling bins. Happily, we sit the recycling container on the curb on the designed day, knowing we are making a difference by going green.

However, as a writer are you doing the same?  Are you recycling your work?

We’ve all heard the adage, research your target market, tailor your manuscript to fit the publishers specific need and you have a higher chance of publication. I believe this adage is true but what happens when you’ve do all of that and all you gain is another rejection?

Like that plastic water bottle or an empty soup can you throw in your recycling bin, you need to recycle  that manuscript to fit another market. 

I decided to target a publisher who likes their books set in towns with unique names.  I found just the town in South Dakota. Faith. It worked perfect. After doing extensive research, I discovered that the town of Faith had an interesting historical and contemporary history. That gave me two shots at placing a manuscript with that publisher. So, I brainstormed and wrote up two proposals. It took three months for a rejection on the historical proposal. Then I submitted the contemporary idea. That rejection took a mere twenty-four hours(you’ve just got to love email!).

I really liked both story ideas and when Harlequin opened up submissions for Heartsong Presents, I immediately thought of these two proposals and what I could do to make them fit the Heartsong Presents word count guidelines.  Here’s what I came up with:

·         I pondered if the 80,000 word manuscript could become a two book series using a secondary character from the first book as the hero/heroine in the second book. Mine couldn’t but that doesn’t mean yours can’t!

·         I looked for sub-plots that weren’t necessary to the hero/heroine’s journey or the overall story arc and cut them.

·         I pared down secondary character’s importance in the hero/heroine’s journey.

·         I gave them each one major problem to overcome and one thing in common.

·         I revised the opening from establishing the setting to the hero/heroine meeting by the second page of the manuscript weaving in the setting later in the chapter to fit the new publisher’s guidelines.

·         I changed the ending of the contemporary story. I wanted the hero to chase down the heroine when she left town (you know like they do in movies) to declare his love but with fewer total words, he had to stay put in Faith.

My efforts resulted in two contracts. The contemporary book, Wedding on the Rocks, releases in May 2013. The historical, Living in Faith, is contracted and set to release in February 2014.

By recycling your work after a rejection, you may earn an acceptance and carry your “green” all the way to the bank!

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I’m giving away one copy of my May release, Wedding on the Rocks. Leave a comment to be entered!

Wedding on the Rocks

JENNIFER EDWARDS IS BACK HOME AGAIN...


When she traded small-town life for the bright lights of Chicago, Jennifer Edwards yearned to discover a world beyond Faith, South Dakota. So when her father's illness calls her home to run their cattle ranch, she tells herself it's temporary. Then why is she even thinking about a future with archaeology professor Brett Lange-the boy she left behind-whose life's work is digging up the past?

Twelve years ago, Brett had a crush on Jennifer the size of the T-rex that put his hometown on the map. Now she's a citified magazine editor who prefers designer duds to dungarees. Except that's not the real Jennifer. Brett needs to make her see how a little faith can go a long way in uniting two perfectly-in-sync hearts.

Bio:

Wedding on the Rocks is Rose Ross Zediker’s fourth Heartsong Presents book, and is under contract for two more with release dates in 2014. Barbour Publishing is releasing her quilting series as a three in one in late 2014.

Rose lives in rural Elk Point, SD with her husband of thirty-one years. Their son and daughter-in-law blessed them with two beautiful granddaughters. Rose works full time at the University of South Dakota and writes during the evening or weekends. Some of her pastimes include reading, sewing, embroidery, quilting and spoiling her granddaughters.
Find Rose online: http://roserosszediker.blogspot.com/