The Long Road to Getting Published

Just remember, it only takes one "Yes" ...

“How did you start your writing career?” 

Ask a hundred writers/authors this question and you’ll probably receive a hundred different answers. Someone asked me that question the other day. Mine actually started by itself.

While I was raising my three daughters, I used to write about the funny and insightful things they said, or asked, or did, in the course of a day, or week, in notebooks. They were my documentation of things I never wanted to forget. I hoped to use the notebooks someday to remind them how funny or clever, even brilliant they were as children.

Even more far-reaching, when their children ask me someday what their mommy was like as a child, I could share the notebooks with them, too. So, when one notebook was full, I started a new one.

Eventually, as my daughters graduated college, married and started their own families, my new inspirations came from my grandchildren. They now number eleven.

One day, my middle daughter, Bethany, was visiting. We had all been outside at the pool and I was scribbling a few notes in a notebook, based on a silly observation one of the grandchildren had made while playing in the pool.

Beth asked, “Mom, what are you writing over there?”

I said, “Oh, nothing really. I’ve always loved writing about you girls and now, the grandkids —it might be your only legacy someday.” Then laughing, I went to the kitchen to get all of us some iced tea.

When I returned, Beth was reading one of my notebooks. “Mom! These are good and I love what you’re doing. You should DO something with these. Seriously.”

I pooh-poohed the idea and yet the more I thought about it, the more I considered doing something with the idle ramblings. So, I started putting the jottings from the pages into little poems. The next step was starting a website, a place where I could post the poems I had written.  What better way to see if anyone was interested?

I started to get emails and comments from parents, teachers and other readers in general, asking where they could buy my ‘book’ of children’s poetry. So I went one step further. I decided I would try and find a publisher.

I was working full time then and even the thought of taking on such a task seemed daunting. Still, I wanted to be published so badly I could taste it, so I bought a copy of Writers’ Digest for poetry and I began …

I got so busy printing manuscripts, typing submission letters, searching for publishers who accepted poetry for children, running to the post office to send the manuscripts out —-I was driving myself crazy.

I did the only logical thing I could think of: I quit my job and gave myself six months. If I didn’t get a publishing contract in six months, I promised myself I would get another job and just enjoy my sweet little hobby —writing poetry for children that was inspired by my growing family.

To make a long story a little shorter, after a knee-high pile of rejections and just two days before the six months was up, I received a letter and a contract from a publisher.

Finally, a “yes”. I was going to be an author.

Published Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018
Substack is a reader-supported publication.
If you enjoy reading my work, please
consider a paid subscription. Thank you.