An Acceptance!

I subbed "You Don't Have to Cook in the Clink" to agents, and over and over, I got the same response: too short.

Fifty eight thousand words is novel length, but barely. Several agents said that anything under seventy five thousand was too short for them. I had a problem.

Then I realized that e-books are typically shorter than paperbacks, and the e-reader market (Kindle and Sony, amongst others) is really heating up right now. So I began researching E-publishers that served those markets.

At first, I met with disappointment. It seemed like every publisher that specialized in the e-market wanted Romance or Erotica and just about nothing else. Then I found Lyrical Press.

Lyrical Press offers its books in formats compatible with every e-reader I've heard of and several that I haven't. I've been in communication with several of their authors who report satisfying royalty statements and great publisher/author relationships. And getting accepted by Lyrical means something: they have high standards for what they'll accept. That's better for everyone, really. For me, it means a legitimate publisher. For readers, it means they don't purchase a novel that's not up to snuff.

So when will my novel be available for purchase? That depends, but it could be up to a year, or even more. If I had to guess (and right now, that's all anyone can do), I'd say probably 6-8 months. That's because Lyrical Press's editors have to go over my novel with a fine-tooth comb, then send it back to me to fix, then wait for me to send it back to them, then go over it to make sure I didn't make an even bigger mess of things, and then, if I haven't, get it ready for print in various formats.

Again: publishing is slow. If you want to make money quick, get just about any other job in the world.

I'm still waiting to hear back on the revisions to my short stories. Even they're slow.

That's just how it is. But that's okay. While I'm waiting, I can write another book...

And for now? I can do a happy dance. :)