The Submission Process

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers,

As you know I announced last week that I had signed with iuniverse to self-publish my first completed novel, “The Mark of a Druid” and the submission process was very interesting and informative as well as a challenge.

I want to thank all of you that voted for the elevator pitch. It was a tough decision and finally I made a decision. While I agreed and loved number two from the list, I was concerned about it sounding like a laundry list. Which is a big no no as I have been told on my forum. So I came up with a new pitch and I must say I love it.

Blood oaths and karmic debts of the past entangle with today in a way that makes the reader stop and wonder… Have I lived before?

So would you turn the book over and read the back cover?

The first run of the back cover blurb … drum roll please

Have you ever had a dream so real that when you awoke, it didn’t leave the recesses of your mind for days? Eve McCormick just did, and this experience will change her life and the lives of those around her permanently. A twenty-six year-old hypnotherapist who oversees a research project based on discovering the answer to an age-old question, “Is reincarnation fact or fiction?” must learn to trust a Welsh stranger. An ancient Celtic prophecy and long sought-after revenge entangles the past with the present in the struggle for existence that threatens to destroy her project. A druidess and a shape-shifter must join as one to save the Druid way of life, while a Queen conspires to kill Erin’s only High King. Will the oaths and agendas of the past reach across the centuries to strengthen or destroy?

Formatting for the submission guidelines gave me a fit as well. I have read many books on submitting your work to agents and publishing houses, but I must say that the submission guidelines from iuniverse were very detailed and comprehensive. I was even able to catch a few things I had not done correctly to meet these standards. For example, did you know that straight quotation marks are not an industry standard? Now I had not noticed that my quotation marks had turned straight and when I tried to change them my find search and replace function would not work completely so I had to go through the book line by line and replace the quotation marks with Smart quotes. This is supposed to be an automatic function in word but somehow my settings had shifted and I could not get it to work. Over 5000 quotation marks later (thank you hubby) for figuring out how to get the function back.

The frustration is now over. The submission is complete and now it is all about waiting for the editorial evaluation. Ahhhh I am so excited. This week will be recording the final promo podcast. I will be posting it here so come back and listen.

Announcements!!!

The writer’s forum that I have been a member of for the last oh 5 or so years have changed locations and moved back to our original home on the CompuServe network. See the links on your right of left for the new link. This is a great place to hang out and get help. If you ever wanted to write a book, poetry, a novel or even a tech book this is the place to go. The people are great and the information invaluable. There is an incredible research and craft section as well as a kidlit section and much more. I am formally inviting you to check it out and meet other writers. Some of the folks that frequent the forums are very successfully published authors and those trying to or even considering writing. It is a very diverse community and I am honored to be a part of it.

Keep Writing, I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

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