Jenna -- here's my "how I sold my first book" story.
Several years ago, when I finished my first book, I sent it to a few publishers I'd picked at random. From most of them, I received those horrific, slap-in-the-face "Dear Author" rejections that look as if they were printed on an old hand-crank mimeograph machine. Then, Anita Miller at Academy Chicago read my manuscript and wrote me a full-page, handwritten rejection letter on their official letterhead--just like I was somebody important. She listed the parts she liked and explained in detail why it wasn't right for her. Then she called me a writer and said I was talented. Nobody had ever done that before. I'm probably the only person in the world who has ever cried from happiness over a rejection letter. I was so grateful, I wrote her a thank you note. And, of course, when I finished Letters in the Attic, she was the first person I sent it to.
The day Anita Miller called to say they wanted to publish my book validated me as a writer. The thought of people outside my immediate family and circle of friends reading my words was a real thrill. You know how it feels when you're not expecting something completely amazing to happen in your life and it does so that you go around for the next week smiling inside and out? That's how it was.
http://www.bonnieshimko.com
