Hello fellow writers!

I’d like to talk about my journey to publication in the hope that my story will inspire other writers too.

It’s the stuff dreams are made of, well, my dreams anyway.

December 10^th, 2015, I was on Twitter and came across #SFFpit, a Twitter pitch party. For those of you who don’t know, a Twitter pitch party is where you compile a tweet about your completed, polished, unpublished manuscript in the hope of attracting an agent or publisher.

I’ve done Twitter pitch parties before, including #PitMad, and I had a few pitches ready. So I went for it. I tweeted my pitch and waited to see if someone favourited/liked my pitch. Going on my past experiences, I knew it didn’t always happen, but I enjoy taking part. If nothing else, I’ll know if my pitch is good or not, and I love reading all the other pitches too, seeing which ones get a favourite and why, then learning from them.

You can probably guess I got a favourite.

WHOO HOO!

But hold on, I had to do my research, make sure the person who liked my pitch was someone I’d be happy to send my manuscript to.

Another WHOO HOO!

The favourite came from an editor at Tirgearr Publishing, a publisher on my submission list.

After a sleepless night, I sent my manuscript and waited. And waited.

So while I was waiting, I sent out more submissions. Christmas came and went. So did January.

I got back a few standard ‘no thanks’ replies to my submissions, but I was also getting a number of what I call positive rejections. Rejections that were encouraging rather than disappointing. And I’d had a ‘nearly but not quite’ rejection last year for another submission, a sci fi romance. The editor there had been kind enough to write a long, insightful email explaining the reasons why she rejected it, so I’m rewriting that one based on her advice.

But back to my journey to publication. I got impatient. Three months went by and I’d heard nothing from several publishers and agents, so one Friday afternoon, February 12^th to be precise, on the spur of the moment I decided to send a gentle nudge.

Within twenty minutes I got a reply from Tirgearr Publishing. ‘Yes, I’d like to contract the manuscript.’

WHAT??

I couldn’t believe it. I questioned it. It can’t be true. They’ve sent the email to the wrong person, surely? My stomach churned, my hands shook, I started to laugh.

Real life took over. It was time for the school run. I couldn’t wipe the ridiculous smile off my face as I picked up my kids. ‘Yes, I’d like to contract the manuscript.’ Those seven words kept repeating in my head. I must have looked like a mad woman, but I didn’t care.

I returned home to find another email—with the contract attached.

So that’s how I got my publishing contract. My advice to aspiring writers out there? Give it go. Take part in Twitter pitch parties, you never know where it might lead 😉

TOUCHED, my debut paranormal romance is available to buy now.