Searching for Mr/Ms Right

I recently, and reluctantly, asked for a reversion of rights for two of my culinary mysteries in the “Dinner is Served” series. Mission Impastable was in print. Prime Rib and Punishment waited in the wings.

It was very difficult to admit it was time to move on. My publisher had been wonderful to me, but her health issues over the past many years had made the future of the company precarious. For my own career, I decided to sever the connection.

It was clear it was the right decision, but that didn’t make it any easier. In fact, I delayed the actual request for rights until several months after I had made the decision. Maybe, it will work out. Maybe the company will right itself. But Maybes were all I had.

Last spring I compiled a list of small publishers of mysteries. There were quite a few of them who were open to submissions without an agent. Not a huge number, but still a respectable number to pursue. I prioritized them and wrote a query letter template. Still I stalled.

Procrastination. What caused it? Reluctance to start over. It’s a hard road, submission is.

Grieving for what had been was another cause. I thought I was done with submissions for this genre, and I liked where I had landed.

Fear of rejection was another. I’d been “accepted” to traditional publishing. Why did I have to prove myself again?

What if no one picked up my series right away? Did I abandon it? Indie publish? Continue submitting until I grew too old to hit the send button?

Serendipitously, I encountered an acquisitions and development editor for a small press at a conference I attended over the summer. I hadn’t come to the conference intending to pitch to anyone, but I quickly pulled something together and pitched my series while handing over a printed copy of the first book. I described book two. Told him I had three books completed in the series beyond the published one, and that books four and five were outlined. He loved the titles of books three through six: Potluck, Ancient Grease, Tequila Mockingbird, and Cooks in the Can.

He asked me to submit the traditional submission materials: a query letter explaining book two and the series, synopsis of book two, the first fifty pages, and a brief bio. I asked if he wanted a marketing plan, also. He seemed surprised I had one, and agreed I should attach that as well.

I sent it all off three months ago. And so the remembered-wait from previous submissions began. I am hopeful but not confident. Small presses only put out a few books a year. I was asking for one of those slots. So were hundreds, maybe thousands, of others. Did already having completed manuscripts give me an advantage? Or was it a liability to commit to a series before sales data on book one was in?

Another piece of the equation always is: so what if they do want me? Do I want them? Am I willing to sign with the first one queried? Shouldn’t I be searching for other publishers to get this process moving in multiple pathways and to soften the blows of rejection? I can always tell myself, “Oh, well. ‘Mysteries Are Us’ didn’t want me, but I still have ten more publishers to hear from.” 

But the procrastination continues. I’ll wait to hear from the conference publisher. If the highly-likely (given publishing odds) rejection comes, I do have my fall-back list of small presses to pull out, make my spread sheet, and send off submission materials. And wait again.

But my fingers, toes, and eyes are crossed in hope that won’t be necessary. You’ll be the first to know how it ends. Well, not really. But you know what I mean.

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