Today I sent a query to an agent and a submission to a publisher. I really don’t think either will respond positively, but I won’t know if I don’t try.

This takes me back to the early 1980s.  That’s when I decided I wanted to write a book. I was reading The Writer and Writers’ Digest magazines and going to the library to copy agent and publisher addresses and submission guidelines from the annual (very expensive) Writers’ Market. I was totally naive back then, and I’m still surprised I an agent (Denise Marcel) actually said she’d represent me. She spent over a year before she taught me enough about writing to call me and say “Harlequin is offering a contract.” She was my agent for 18 years, and over those years she continued to help me become a better writer and continued getting me contracts with Harlequin, Silhouette, and Bantam (Loveswept).

The end of the 1990s, I decided I wanted to write mysteries. Most of my later romances had a mystery or suspense as part of the plot, and I love reading mysteries, thrillers, and suspense stories. Also, most of the romance publishers I was writing for stopped the lines I wrote for or took the lines in a new direction. At the turn of the century (that sounds so old) I started looking for mystery publishers. It took me a while and I didn’t have an agent, but I finally found Five Star (now Five Star/Cengage Learning) and in 2007 my first straight mystery, THE CROWS, was published. I loved writing for Five Star, but wouldn’t you know it, in 2017 they dropped their mystery line. I had three “Crow” books published and a fourth ready to send to them when I received that information. I ended up self-publishing SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT (I didn’t know of any publisher willing to pick up the 4th and last book in a series).

I released SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT in February 2023. It hasn’t done that great, primarily because I suck at marketing. Meanwhile, I started another book, one set in Florida where I’d been spending my winters for 13 years. I’m usually a plotter, but my husband and I had decided to make some moves, and between selling condos (One in Michigan and one in Florida) and buying a condo, Covid-19, and breaking my back (L3 compression fracture), the new book has come together in bits and pieces. It’s now finished. Well, sort of finished. I’ve had it edited and 4 people have been Beta readers, I received good feedback from everyone, but in my opinion a book is never finished until it’s actually published. (And even after that I find things I wish I could change.) For now, at least, it’s called TWO JADE BRACELETS.

So here I am, starting over. Looking for an agent. Looking for a publisher. I will say it’s easier than it was back in the 1980s. On the Internet, there are lists of mystery publishers willing to accept submissions from un-agented writers and lists of agents interested in representing mysteries.  Most will accept submission either in an email or as an attachment to an email, or through Query Tracker, or their own in-house submission methods. No printing out 300+ pages, paying a fortune to mail it, and if you want the ms back, paying for a SASE (Self-addressed Stamped envelope). Instead of waiting around for the mailman to bring a yes or no, most agents and editors will come back quickly with an email response or tell you if you haven’t heard in 4 to 6 weeks to assume the response is NO.

If you’re interested in my journey, I’ll be blogging every other week about my writing, my attempt to get TWO JADE BRACELETS traditionally published, and tidbits I learn about the business of writing and getting published. Either sign up to received notification of my blogs or click on the URL I post on Facebook and other sites.