Writer’s Relief: Help for Aspiring Authors
“Is there some deep, dark secret to getting published? Why won’t an editor buy my book?”
As a book writing coach and multi-published author, I’m asked that question a lot.
Believe me, I can empathize with the pain of aspiring authors! Even after I’d achieved success as a business writer and had earned prestigious non-fiction awards, I still couldn’t figure out how to bust through the fiction barrier. It took me 10 years to learn how to write commercial, book-length Romance novels and get my debut novel, Texas Outlaw, bought by Bantam Books.
For me, the great “A-Ha” that eventually led to the publication of Texas Outlaw came when a published Romance author looked at my manuscript and pointed out, line by line, how to correct a Romance editor's vague criticisms (such as, “There’s not enough conflict in this scene").
I was blessed early in my career to have wonderful mentors. I started writing in Houston, Texas, which was a hotbed for Historical Romance novelists, including Susan Wiggs, Barbara Dawson Smith, and Christina Dodd.
After I moved to Austin, I was invited to join a critique group that included Harlequin authors Patricia Wynn, Cara West, and Pamela Ingram.
I am absolutely certain that I would NOT be published today if these talented Romance writers had not given so generously of their time and knowledge. I vowed that I would someday give back to the writing community the way my mentors had given to me.
That is why I developed my website, WriteRomanceNovelsThat.com. That’s why I offer professional story critiques and private coaching to fiction writers. And that’s why I teach fiction writers how to recognize the difference between a “valid” writing criticism and an Urban Myth or a “personal prejudice.”
My passion is to help aspiring authors live their publishing dream.
