Happy Anniversary Day #21

Thanks to everyone who entered to win Diane Tolley's book. The winner is ...Roberta!!

Today's prize is super fun - two middle-grade fantasy ebooks by author Andrea Pearson. 

Jacob Clark's life is thrown into chaos when he discovers a path to a different world near his small-town home. The creatures of this new world are strange and have odd customs, and he is surprised to learn that everyone knows everything about him. Even the evil, immortal Lorkon, who stole the Key of Kilenya. They are jealous of Jacob and wish to control powers he doesn't know he possesses.

You can purchase the book from Kindle, Nook, or Smashwords. Or, you can purchase the paperback version of the book from Brigham Distributing, Amazon, or Createspace.

Even though he has the magical Key of Kilenya, Jacob Clark’s quest in the world of Eklaron has barely begun. Aloren is trapped in Maivoryl City by the Ember Gods, and he’s just starting his first year of high school. Balancing between his two lives has become nearly impossible. He feels pulled by both sides, hoping he’ll figure out his special powers to save Aloren in time.

You can purchase The Ember Gods, Kilenya Series Book Two on Kindle, Nook, or Smashwords. The print version may be purchased through Amazon or Createspace.

You will receive both books in the same download as an anthology.

To enter, just leave a comment on this blog!

Okay, it's time for more questions and answers. Or I should say, one question and one answer - this one's a little bit more involved, so I'm dedicating one blog to it.  :)

Mikey asked: How did you get your start? What were the challenges presented at the beginning?

I answered: Because I write primarily for the LDS market, my task at the beginning was not to get an agent like you do if you write national - I needed to talk directly to the LDS market publishers, and there are only a small handful of those. That's one of the difficult thing with the LDS market - once you've tapped out those few publishers, your choices are pretty limited - you can self-publish, or you can change your story and go national. 

I submitted at first to a fairly large LDS publisher, feeling that they were the best choice. They made some suggestions and asked me to revise and resubmit, which I did. All told, I had a baby while I waited for their response - literally.  I really did.  They had the book nine months, and my cute little blond boy had just been born when they rejected the book. 

They didn't pick it up, however, so I sent the book to another LDS publisher. They had it for a while and really liked it. I received e-mails from several of the employees at the company telling me how much they liked it and wanted to work with me. But then I got a surprise ... they asked for some money to help pay for printing, and I didn't have the money. We were actually unemployed at the time. 

I was pretty depressed by that turn of events. Publisher loved it - hooray! I was poor - boo!

I did what I usually do when faced with something that feels insurmountable. I went to bed and cried for a little while, and then I got mad. The getting mad part is the most important part of my process.  :)  I got up, went to an all-night copy shop, printed off six copies of the manuscript (this was before electronic submissions came into vogue) and send them out to all the remaining LDS publishers in existence. I was going to get a contract if it was the last thing I did.

I got a phone call from Granite Publishing about a month later, I believe it was. They asked if I could come in for a meeting. I dry-heaved all the way there. (Hey, it's better than actually throwing up.) They offered a contract, I accepted it, and they did my first two books for me.

I would say that from the time I started submitting until the time I got my contract, it was about two years. That's actually pretty fast, just so you know. Then it was another little bit until the book came out. 

The biggest challenges had to do with being patient, facing doubt and discouragement, and waiting. Which ties in to being patient. Did I mention that I don't like waiting and being patient? I also had to be teachable and listen to the advice I was given by the first publisher as they requested a revision. 

My challenges since then have had to do with finding new publishers. If you've been reading my entries throughout the month, you'll notice that I've published in several different ways. Two of my publishers went out of business (I'm not bad luck, I swear), I had a parting of the ways with one, and I self-published. So far my current publisher hasn't died of leprosy or anything, so I think we're good.  :)  But it has been a challenge for me to keep pushing forward through dry spells where it felt like everyone in the world was getting published but me. I'm over that now.  :)

Okay! Leave a comment on this post to enter to win the two middle-grade fantasy books by Andrea Pearson, and we'll chat with you tomorrow!