Hi Everyone,
After lurking on this forum for years I finally have something to contribute based on actual experience : )
I'd like to start by thanking all of you for your wonderfully generous and informative posts. Your advice and experiences have helped me achieve things I'd never dreamed possible.
After two years of re-writes, critique groups, free-lance editing, and more re-writes I submitted my first manuscript to the four best romance publishers accepting unagented manuscripts (thank you once again to everyone on this forum for your guidance). At the start of this year I signed my first contract with Samhain Publishing and 'Home' was released about a week ago. To say the experience has been amazing is a huge understatement.
Before I get into details I'd like to clarify that I'm a complete novice in the publishing world. I have however been lucky enough to be able to listen to approx. 2000hrs of podcasts tracking the careers of newbie writers so I was aware of most of the writing and publishing horror stories. I've also endured enough time serving multinationals to appreciate the realities of the corporate world. Taking all this into account I cannot recommend Samhain Publishing highly enough.
My editor, Sasha Knight, is simply awesome. She's as serious and enthusiastic about my writing as I am and her faith, patience, experience, and professionalism have been invaluable in helping me jump from hobbyist to professional. Sasha gets back to me straight away and never fails to answer my newbie questions. Writer's comment on the importance of the editor/author relationship and I cannot agree more, this whole crazy experience wouldn't mean anywhere near as much without her.
My cover artist Nathalie Gray aka Kanaxa has also been phenomenal...but I'm biased : ) I 'knew' cover art was important, but I didn't appreciate just how important it was and I'm so grateful Samhain contracted such a talented artist.
The entire Samhain team have also been brilliant. All paperwork has been processed quickly and without fuss.
I know I've been extremely lucky with my first few steps on this journey but I cannot recommend Samhain Publishing highly enough.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to let me know, I'll do my best to answer them.
Take care,
Jezz.