Author Life: My Publishing Story

I get asked about my journey into publishing fairly often so I thought I would go ahead and share my story here.

There are various points at which I could begin but for the purpose of answering the main question that I get: "How did you get a publishing contract?", I'll start at the point after which I had already self-published ROAM.

In fact, by the time I received my first publishing offer, I had already self-published four books.  I knew that I wanted to seek out a traditional publisher as well and had sent out a couple of query letters which were rejected.  One to a publishing company that responded that my book wasn't "what we're looking for right now" and one to an agent that auto-replied that they didn't have time to review new queries.  A lot of authors get a ton of rejections so I wasn't too upset but their responses made me decide to take some time to research querying a little more and just focus on self-publishing for a while.

In 2017, a year after I had stopped querying (it was perpetually on my "I'll get to it eventually" list), I ended up having a very unfortunate summer in which I broke my foot and was laid off from my job as a graphic designer where I had worked for nearly ten years.  The boredom of the recovery process and my overall "What have I got to lose?" mentality spurred me into action.  I spent time researching publishing companies that I thought would be a good fit for my M/M Paranormal novel, ROAM, and also freshened up my query letter.

I decided that NineStar Press would be the best place to start and I sent in my submission.  Three weeks later, I received an offer and the next day I was signing my first publishing contract!  

I recognize that not every author gets an offer so easily.  I do feel that perhaps the stars aligned in my favor at that time because if I hadn't been injured and entering unemployment then I probably wouldn't have felt the drive to go outside of my comfort zone and take that next step.  I also feel that I had more success the second time around because I did do my research on finding an appropriate publisher for my story and updating my query letter.  If you'd like for me to go more in depth about writing query letters then please let me know in the comments and I'll work it into a post!

I sent in my submission to NSP for HUNTER shortly before ROAM released and it was accepted as well.  I definitely plan to submit my manuscript to them for the third book and anything else I write that I feel would be in alignment with their company as they have been a pleasure to work with.

I also plan to continue self-publishing certain titles.  If you'd like to learn more about my self-publishing process, let me know that in the comments as well!

Thanks for reading and I wish you all the best of luck with your own creative journeys!

- Dez

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COMING SOON - April 8th 2019

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Author Q&A: Querying, Word Counts, and Series

It seems about every six months or so ends up being a good time to do another Author Q&A.  I've had enough questions roll in recently that now it's time for another one!  I plan to round these all up into a F.A.Q. section soon.

So, without further ado, here's what you guys have been wanting to know!

Q1.  What tips or advice do you have for querying books?

There are a lot of great resources already out there on this topic that will guide you through a professional structure for actually writing a query.  So, my advice is to do a little research first.  Write a "generic" one and then put the rest of your time into really exploring different publishers or agents that you'd like to contact.  Don't just send them out to everyone you find.  Truly make sure you feel that your book and their company or agency would be a good fit.  DON'T send them the "generic" query.  Make it personal from there.  Tailor your query to that publisher/agent in a relevant and meaningful way.  Almost always, they will have guidelines on their website that they want you to follow.  After you've done that, be sure to include why you want to work with them specifically and how your book will either fit or even improve their catalog of titles.

Q2.  I read both ROAM and HUNTER when they were originally posted on Wattpad.  With the re-release of ROAM coming, I have to wonder, do you have a time-frame for a release on the third book?

First of all, I want to say a huge THANK YOU with many hearts and hugs to you (and anyone else) who has stuck with me over the past few years.  It's extremely exciting to have you all along for this journey with me!  Now, onto the answer... It's probably not one that you will want to hear.  Most of you may have noticed that with the announcement of ROAM being picked up by NineStar Press for an official re-release later this year (October 1st), I pulled both titles from the market.  For now, ROAM is contracted as a stand-alone novel but I do hope that they will end up picking up the entire series.  If such occurs, it is reasonable to expect HUNTER will have a re-release date another year out from ROAM's and, in turn, the third book would be at least another year out from that.  However, if I end up self-publishing the rest of the series then there is a chance you might get it sooner but, even then, you're still looking at sometime around Autumn 2019-Winter 2020.  I hope that isn't too discouraging!  I'm just trying to be realistic.  But there is a silver lining.  While waiting for that final book to reach fruition, I do plan to publish another ROAM series prequel (The draft is 75% complete as I type this.) and several short stories that include the same characters.  So you will still have fresh ROAM universe material to read while you wait.

Q3.  I really enjoy your M/M books but do you have any plans to write F/F?

The short answer is: YES!  But when?  I can't give an exact date.  I do have two F/F stories on my TBW (To Be Written) list that I am excited to tackle in the future.  One is YA and the other is Gaslamp Fantasy.  And while we're on the topic, I suppose I'll go ahead and divulge that I also have another Gaslamp Fantasy novel about an asexual main character in the works as well.

Q4.  The word count per chapter for my story is 1500-3000, with some shorter ones sprinkled around.  For Wattpad & Tapas, is this scroll hell, especially on the phone?  This contest I entered has a 500 word min. per chapter, so would 500-1000 be more ideal for every story?

In general, posting chapters on a platform like Wattpad is definitely a different beast than self-publishing an ebook.  With an ebook, I think anywhere from 2500-4000 words is acceptable for a chapter but, in my experience, Wattpad readers insist that they prefer shorter chapters so that they can get their fix in smaller doses.  So, for Wattpad, yes.  I would say 1000 per chapter is probably the sweet spot and, if more are needed to flesh out the scene, then I'd try staying under at least 2000.  That is my opinion anyway.  Other authors might have a different point of view.

Q5.  How many books do you plan to write for the Dead Oaks series?

As of now, it's looking like it will be a five book series.  But I am open to writing more if I feel inclined to after that fifth book is released.

That's it for this round of questions!  I'll do more Q&A's in the future and I'm also planning on doing a few "writer tips" style blog posts.  So, if you have more questions to send my way then please feel free to contact me any time on social media or through email at dezschwartzauthor[at]gmail[dot]com.  I always love to hear from you guys!