herstory

My friend Jennifer Echols (Major Crush, Simon Pulse, ’06) is answering questions for a college creative writing class on her blog. The first question is about how she got into writing fiction. She’s looking for other people’s stories, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to share mine:

Fall 2001: Having graduated from college, I decide that if I’m ever going to do this novelist thing, I’d better put my keyboard where my mouth is and give it a whirl. In a bout of serendipity, I pick up a romance novel for my plane ride to New York City on September 11, 2001. To get me through my hellish, hellish day, I read that book over and over again about three times. (It’s a great book. Exposed!) Afterwards, holed up in my boyfriend’s dorm room, I decide to write to the author to thank her for writing that book, and keeping me sane. Turns out she’s from my hometown, Turns out she’s super awesome. At the time, I think it’s very bizarre that a romance novelist would set a romance in my hometown, rather than Dallas or New York City or Paris or a Greek Island somewhere. I decide to write an article about her and her hometown-flavored books for my local newspaper, and since I’m doing all this research into category romance for the article, I start writing one. It sucks!

Summer 2002: Having moved back to Florida, the super awesome romance novelist (Julie Leto) suggests I come to her RWA chapter meeting. I do, then I finish my book, then I cough up the $100 bucks to join RWA because I think the chapter members are the most supportive and helpful group of writers I have ever met. I’m now in three chapters, and I still think that about TARA. I realize that the book sucks and I start on another one (#2) that I like more. I also submit a query for manuscript #1 to Harlequin editor.

Winter 2002: Having attended RWA meetings religiously for several months, I finish manuscript #2. I also get a request for the partial of manuscript #1. I enter both in the Golden Heart contest.

Spring 2003: Continue to study craft and industry religiously. I’m a writing fiend. Have written a partial (book #3) for this upcoming female action-adventure line Harlequin is launching called Bombshell, the first chapter of a single title romance (book #4), half of another category romance, and a very sexy romance novella. recieve a score of ONE (lowest possible) for #2. Send out partial of #2 to editor. Receive rejection for partial of book #1. Receive rejection for novella. Final in local chapter contest three times, with #2, #3, and #4. Begin working with both of my critique partners. Am also working full time at the newspaper.

Summer 2003: Receive full request for #3 from editor after she learned it finaled in the contest. Attend my first RWA National Conference, in New York City. Get a request for a partial for #4 (from Berkley). Think this means something. Sure I’m about to sell, and having learned that it’s a good idea to have an agent for single title, I query an agent who is a friend of a friend. She requests the partial of #4 in a day, the full in another, I tell her I don’t have the full, and could I send her #3 instead (which I have high hopes of finishing soon). She agrees.

Fall/Winter 2003/2004: Move to Australia. Receive full/revision request for #2. Finish #3. Enter #3 in Golden Heart (and have high hopes of it winning, as think it is best work I’ve ever written). Send out #3 to agent and editor.

Spring 2004: Move back from Australia. Start working at newspaper again. Begin a few projects that don’t go anywhere. Receive rejection for #3 from agent (who still wants to see #4) and from editor. Begin sending editor proposals for other stories, none of which fly. Decide that either editor and I don’t click, or I’m not really getting the idea for the line (when it debuts that summer, I realize it’s the latter foremost).

Summer 2004: I begin to feel the weight of all the rejections and my productivity drops tremendously. I receive a rejection from Berkley for #4. I final in the Jasmine and Molly Contests with #4, and the Maggie Contest with #2. I attend the RWA National conference, where I receive a blind request for a partial of #4 from and editor and from an agent. I get home and, having decided that a good agent is the best way to get anywhere in this industry, I query 18 agents with #4. I get 17 rejections, and one partial request, and a rejection from the editor who requested it at Nationals.

Fall 2004: I live through four hurricanes, coordinate a contest, work in hurricane relief, and win a Maggie Award with #2 and a Molly Award with #4 (I come in second in the Jasmine, owing to the fact that the final judge is also the one who just rejected it, though the Molly judge had rejected it, too). The two partial agent requests turn into full agent requests. I enter #2, #3, and #4 in the Golden Heart, sure I will final this time (after all, I won all those other contests!).

Winter 2004/2005: I get the idea for book #5 and move to Washington D.C. I finally get off my butt and finish the revisions to #2 and #4, and send them out to the editor (#2) and three agents (#4) who wanted it. As a reward for finishing, and in a fit of pique and frustration after finally finishing the coordination of the contest, I begin #5 with an eye towards breaking all the contest rules.

Spring 2005: I receive a rejection for #4 from two agents. A month later, one of these agents calls to say she’s considering it (???) and will give me an answer in a week. (She doesn’t contact me for another month and a half, leading me to wonder which was in error, the rejection letter or the phone call?) That week, I finish a partial of #5 and tell my critique partner about it. She pitches it that weekend to a bunch of editors and agents, who all clamor for it, even though it’s unfinished. I send it out to them, and also to the third agent still considering #4 (who was the agent who turned down #3) and also to another agent I met at a conference. In half an hour, the third agent offers on the basis of #5. Two more offer within days. An editor looking at #5 writes to express interest. I sign with my agent, and we sell the book a week and a half later based on the first five chapters, in a two book deal, in a heated six-way auction.

So that’s what happened. Three and a half years, five manuscripts, a few dozen rejections, and finally a deal.