Trying to get published? I feel your pain...

You've written your book and you feel proud and accomplished. You offer it up to a few of your closest friends and family and ask them for honest, actually brutally honest opinions. You wait for them to finish the story and hold your breath when they say "I finished your book." Deep inside you hope they liked it but you also have that terrible feeling in the pit of your stomach. You think they will say something like "Nice story but not book material." Then they say... "I loved the book!" They tell you everything they liked. They tell you how your story swept them away and that it needs to be published for the world to read.

Then your best friend asks if she can give it to her sister to read. You say okay and the book gets handed off for yet another opinion. Several months later the phone rings and your friends sister is raving about it. She even thinks it should be a movie!

Finally you are feeling confident that you did write a story that people would enjoy reading and that a publisher might be interested in.

You take a deep breath and begin the search for a publisher.

You spend hours searching the web looking at publisher web sites and submission guidelines. Most say they will not accept unsolicited submissions; there are a many that say they only accept submissions by literary agents and finally you find a few that are accepting submissions.

You follow their formatting instructions to the letter... 1" Margins, 1.5 Line spacing for some, double spacing for other, indented paragraphs, no indents. You get the book formatted and printed. You type a query letter, do a summary and send your book off. Some publishers don't allow multiple submissions. Which means you wait months for a reply before you can even submit your work to another publisher.

After a month or two you open your mailbox anxiously every day. You reach in and pull out your mail thinking maybe today you'll hear something.

Then the day comes... you look into your mail box and there is a large package from the publishing house. When you see it, you know they sent your first three chapters and final chapter back. You open the envelope and find a faded looking form letter that states your story doesn't sparkle. (Your manuscript doesn't even look like it was touched) The letter is a copy run off by the thousands. They don't even give you the courtesy of an original signature.

You are now back to block one and the submission anxiety starts again. You prepare your manuscript and send it to yet another publisher.

Finally you get so frustrated you try a POD. I used Lulu.com. Their distribution package includes Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, etc.

I published my first book using a Print on Demand Publisher. I haven't sold a large amount of books but I have sold some. I've checked the consumer reviews and they all seem positive. Actually they seem more than positive.

After encouragement from a few friends I sent my book to Coffee Time Romance for them to review. I have to tell you ... I had nightmares. One nightmare was that they hated the book...that they thought it was the worst book ever written.

When the review was posted. I opened it almost afraid to look ...

I was very pleasantly surprised when it received a four out of five rating. I was so excited I couldn't stand it. I sent links to the review to everyone in my life that matters. http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/Derekbookone.html

Recently I did a small book signing and sold all the books I had (fifty) and I'm waiting for information about a library sponsored book signing event in my local area. I'm also trying to find out how to get my book in stores.

I keep plugging away at it with the hopes that a publisher will notice my book and actually take the time to read it.

For those interested in reading a preview of it here is a link to my web page.

http://www.rlarsenbooks.com/