I particularly love the ones that arrive in my mailbox with some kind words for this blog, Chum Bucket, or QueryShark!
Thus it was that Christi Corbett made my day with this:
During the 13 years it took me to go from initial idea to contract I searched for all the publishing information I could find, which is why I'm a long-time follower of your blog. I sincerely appreciate you sharing your knowledge through your posts, the Chum Bucket, and QueryShark. Thanks to your feedback, I knew it was finally time to quit fiddling with the query and go for it.
I got 55 rejections before I queried Astraea Press, and then five more after I signed the contract, two more the week before it released, another on release day, and then another the day it hit #1 on the "Hot New Releases in Westerns".
It took so long because I had so much to learn, but I never gave up on my dream. Here's a link to "My Not So Glamorous Story of How I Got My Book Deal".
I love the part where Christi holds a yard sale to fund her trip to a writer's conference. Talk about tenacity!
I skedaddled over to Astreaea Press to buy the book.
16 comments:
I really like the fact that she chose to keep it her way. She believed in the stories merit and did not feel she needed to air the intimate laundry of the characters for the reader.
Which was probably in keeping with the time frame of her story.
13 years, good for her, gives me hope. Nice post.
God bless the writer who holds hard to her principles.
I love the line,"...write until you get it right."
I have
and
I will.
Congrats.
I love these kind of stories, too. :) Thanks for sharing!
Congratulations, Christi! Your persistence and determination to hold true to YOUR story, not someone else's vision of it, is truly inspiring. Congrats on your book's launch--as a fellow Oregon resident, I look forward to reading it! Loved the tale of your writer's journey, too.
Congrats! What a lesson for others. Persistence will pay off. I hope to keep high hopes in getting signed soon. Thanks!
Christi Corbett - congratulations!!!!
We all need this kind of sticky perseverance!
That's a great story! Good for her! We could all learn a thing or two from her dedication.
What a FANTASTIC surprise!
Janet, thank you so much again for all you do to help out struggling newbie writers, and another thank you goes to all the lovely and encouraging readers for your comments.
I hope every writer out there never gives up on their dream!
Christi Corbett
very encouraging!
Congrats to Christi!!
Thanks, Janet, for posting this, and thank you, Christi, for writing about your journey. Your story is an inspiration to many of us!
What great news! Way to go for it, Christi!
I self-published a children's story. Now I am trying to get the guts to submit short stories. Reading about Christi and her tenacity, I now might take the risk of many rejections! Thanks :)
Congrats, Christi. You deserve the best of everything! :)
This blog post went up while I was on vacation so I didn't get a chance to properly thank everyone for their kind words.
Until now :)
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! It means the world to me to know that my path to publication story is encouraging others out there to never give up, and to stick to their beliefs for the content of their story.
And though I can kill people off like a boss in my book, I'm really a big softy and I've teared up more than once while reading through these comments. Writers are the best!
Christi Corbett
Thanks for sharing your story, Christie. Writers like you are an inspiration.
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