The Bumpy Road to Publication by Margaret Daley

The names of the Genesis semi-finalists were announced this week. Congratulations to all who made it on the list! Unfortunately so many of my writer friends did not. If you are suffering discouragement and battling frustration and fatigue, wondering if you will ever sign a contract or final in a contest, wondering if it's worth the time and effort, I hope and pray Margaret's story encourages and refreshes you to continue on your journey. Love you all! Dora

Scorned Justice
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This last year was my thirtieth year since my first book came out from Silhouette Romance called Second Chance on Love. 

I thought once I sold my first book, things would become easy. I would continue to sell, and I wouldn't receive the rejections I did before I sold my first book. It didn't take me long to see the folly in that thinking. My second book was harder to sell than my first one. After finally selling it, I was fortunate to continue to sell eighteen more. 

Then came the eight-year dry spell. The publisher I was selling to the last few years before the dry spell stopped publishing their category series line--Dell Ecstasy. I was out of a job. I tried to sell books, but I had hit a wall. I'd come close, but I couldn't get the contract.

After eight years I went to RWA National Conference in Dallas and heard about a new line opening called Kensington's Precious Gems line. I had a book, and when I got home from the conference, I sent it to them. That was the start of my comeback. 

I sold five books to them and four more to a small press before I found my true home--Christian romances and romantic suspense. In 2000, I sold to Harlequin's Love Inspired and since then, I have been blessed to sell to date fifty-four more books to Love Inspired, Summerside Press and Abingdon Press. But even that journey had its ups and downs, and I'm still receiving rejections.

Rejections are the red badge of courage for a writer. It proves you have written a book and pursued a publisher. Many writers don't get that far. They never quite finish writing the complete book, or if they do, they rewrite their story over and over rather than send it to a publisher and possibly get a rejection. I'm not going to deny getting a rejection isn't hard. It is. I have a huge file of them, but I have survived it. I won't kid you. They often caused me to doubt myself as a writer, but I wouldn't let them stop me from writing. If I had, I would never have gone on after my dry spell to sell sixty-two books.

So the moral of this journey is not to give up. Perseverance and determination are half the battle to become a published writer. You've got to learn the craft, tell a good story and have a bit of good luck and timing, but it is possible with a lot of hard work to become a published writer. 

On that bumpy road to publication, I have sold eighty-four books over a thirty-year span. Check out my website at http://www.margaretdaley.com and read some of my excerpts from my books. 

Dora here. What about you? 

Where are you on your writing journey?

How do you perceive rejections?

Margaret Daley, an award-winning author of eighty-four books, has been married for over forty years and is a firm believer in romance and love. When she isn’t traveling, she’s writing love stories, often with a suspense thread and corralling her three cats that think they rule her household. To find out more about Margaret visit her website at http://www.margaretdaley.com.