I'm Baaaaaaccckk . . . (and I'm published!)

Hello fellow writers!
I took some time off from here last fall - I was busy wrapping up THE REDEMPTION OF PONTIUS PILATE and, to be honest, Query Letter Hell was getting me down. Don't get me wrong: it was a very valuable experience, but it was hard on the ego, so I took a break.

During that time I continued to polish up my queries and send them off, I finished REDEMPTION, and I started my newest epic, MATTHEW'S AUTOGRAPH.

And, yesterday, I signed a deal with a small Texas publisher called Electio Publishing for my first book, THE TESTIMONIUM. The book will be released on August 12 of this year.

So far, I have been very impressed with their dealings with me. They sent me an Email saying one of their readers had flagged my manuscript as something they might be interested in, their Chief of Operations read through it over the weekend, and Monday I got a 30 minute call that culminated with a contract offer.

I ran the contract by an attorney, a friend who is a published author, and my school's CFO. All of them said it looked like a pretty solid deal. I did ask a few more questions suggested by my attorney before signing, then did a last few revisions to my manuscript, and now it's in the hands of their editors. They'll send me a galley proof before it goes to print, but I have to agree to all their changes before it can be printed.

It's a really cool feeling, I must admit. I want to thank all of you here who gave me good advice along the way; I'll be checking in from time to time to let you know how things are going. I am actually going to be doing a book signing at our local Hasting's to kick things off . . . it's small potatoes, true, but it still feels pretty awesome!

Thanks again guys!

And for all those who haven't found a publisher yet - they are out there. Don't give up, and don't fall for the "pay-to-play" spiel! There are real publishers out there looking for writers!

Well, I will say this much - I couldn't find a single negative review about their company online, and I did several searches.
We'll see how this plays out.
As far as editing, what I was told was that there would be no substantive changes to the story, only proofreading for continuity errors, typos, misspellings, grammar, etc. Anything that offered a problem in terms of actual content, I have to fix myself (which I was told is very rarely an issue, unless someone included excessive profanity or sexually explicit material, which this company doesn't go for). I think I just didn't express myself very well on that count.
At any rate, I'll keep my eyes open and my head up, and let you all know how it works out as things progress.

And I appreciate the input! I did go back and re-read both the contract and the Email they sent me with the release date, just to be sure. They will clean up the manuscript as far as typos and misspellings go (I also asked them to check my Latin passages, since I did have to use Google Translate for those), and they will flag any and all content problems for me to fix. Basically, right now, I am at the "hurry up and wait" stage - they have my manuscript in-house and their editors will go through it sometime in the next couple of months. My role will pick up again about a month before press date, as I will be asked for input on the cover art, and then to read through the "final version" (with any and all suggestions, comments, and minor changes highlighted) before I sign off on it and we go to press. They are also expressing an interest in my second book, as well. My hope is that this will evolve into a long and mutually profitable relationship!

Not sure what to make of that. They are a new company, and I'm sure it's a hard field to break into. But they are growing fast - they've had several books that have taken off, and are branching out more. If I have a negative experience with them, I'll be the first to hang my head to all those who said "I told you so!". But that being said, I'm not going to assume the worst, either!