My name is Shannon, and I'm from Delaware. I began writing over two years ago. I had no knowledge of writing a book, my grammar and punctuation was horrible, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
I finished my first draft of my novel in three months. And like many other newbies that I've run into over the years, I thought I was done. So not the case.
I rewrote the novel a couple of times, got tons of rejections from agents, and then put the story away and started another one. Finished the second novel, gave it to a couple of friends to read, researched agents and querying while rewriting, and then sent out my letters. I received about ten requests for fulls, a few for partials, and a lot of rejections. In the end, all my fulls and partials were rejected. The only comments I received were "love the premise but not for me" or "I didn't fall in love with the writing". So I started rewriting it again and stopped when someone told me about a writing contest.
I had done a rewrite on my first novel, but the format was all messed up. As I was fixing the story for the contest, I noticed many things I hadn't noticed before. So I began fixing them chapter by chapter. While I was fixing chapters, something magical happened. I had somehow found my voice. I heard agents and other writers talking about this, but I never knew what they meant.
I missed the deadline for the contest, but I decided to query this novel again. I had made some really drastic changes to it, including the title. I queried one agent and one publisher just to see if I would get a response. The publisher I queried asked me for the full within twenty-four hours. I was happy, but I wasn't getting my hopes up yet.
While I waited to hear back from them, I wrote a short story and published it through smashwords. The same day my short story was accepted for premium publishing, I got a rejection from that one agent, and was offered a contract from the publisher who received my full.
It has been a hard long road with many tears shed along the way, but I can finally say I did it.
My novel, Other Side Of Forever is coming soon from Crescent Moon Press! And my short story, After The Rain is available now.
I'm so happy to be here and I can't wait to interact with everyone in the forums!
Best!
I finished my first draft of my novel in three months. And like many other newbies that I've run into over the years, I thought I was done. So not the case.
I rewrote the novel a couple of times, got tons of rejections from agents, and then put the story away and started another one. Finished the second novel, gave it to a couple of friends to read, researched agents and querying while rewriting, and then sent out my letters. I received about ten requests for fulls, a few for partials, and a lot of rejections. In the end, all my fulls and partials were rejected. The only comments I received were "love the premise but not for me" or "I didn't fall in love with the writing". So I started rewriting it again and stopped when someone told me about a writing contest.
I had done a rewrite on my first novel, but the format was all messed up. As I was fixing the story for the contest, I noticed many things I hadn't noticed before. So I began fixing them chapter by chapter. While I was fixing chapters, something magical happened. I had somehow found my voice. I heard agents and other writers talking about this, but I never knew what they meant.
I missed the deadline for the contest, but I decided to query this novel again. I had made some really drastic changes to it, including the title. I queried one agent and one publisher just to see if I would get a response. The publisher I queried asked me for the full within twenty-four hours. I was happy, but I wasn't getting my hopes up yet.
While I waited to hear back from them, I wrote a short story and published it through smashwords. The same day my short story was accepted for premium publishing, I got a rejection from that one agent, and was offered a contract from the publisher who received my full.
It has been a hard long road with many tears shed along the way, but I can finally say I did it.
My novel, Other Side Of Forever is coming soon from Crescent Moon Press! And my short story, After The Rain is available now.
I'm so happy to be here and I can't wait to interact with everyone in the forums!
Best!
and congrats on your novel.
