Getting "The Call" by Christine Johnson

Every author remembers her first sale. For me, I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to happen. After all, it had been 15 years since I received my first rejection letter. Crushed by that, I turned my attention to graduate school and getting my Masters degree in library science. It was a heady time in the field. The internet was just extending beyond research universities to the general public. New technology brought access to research materials to people like me who lived in rural areas.

I thought writing could wait.

A few years later, the stories couldn’t stand to be pent up inside me any longer, and I joined RWA. My first conference was an eye-opener! I attended 16 workshops and left realizing that my creative writing courses as an undergrad in no way prepared me for writing commercial fiction. That’s when the apprenticeship began.

Fast forward to 2008 when I received the email that two of my manuscripts had been named finalists in the Golden Heart Award. I thought I was on my way! Alas, nothing happened from that except a great reason to dress up and more rejection letters. 151 to be precise.

Here I am before the award ceremony trying not to look nervous.

Then, one day I received a telephone call from an editor at Steeple Hill (the predecessor to Love Inspired). She detailed at length what needed to be revised in the manuscript I’d submitted. I took copious notes on the scrap of paper by the phone, wondering all the time why she didn’t just send a letter because there was no way I would make sense of all my notes later. Then, to my utter shock, she said they were offering me a contract. I didn’t remember much of the rest of the call. I’m sure I muttered something unintelligible before hanging up. All I could think was that they wanted to buy my book!

The cat was the first to hear the news, since no one else was home at the time.

As you can see, she was thrilled.

Then I got on the phone to spread the news. Among the first to hear were my critique partners, who had been through every word of that manuscript with me. No one understands this moment like another writer. We screamed and laughed and cried.

And a year later, in November 2010, my first historical romance, Soaring Home, was published.

That book, dear to my heart and chock-full of years of research into early women aviators, was just the beginning. This month, my 12th and last Love Inspired Historical, Would-Be Mistletoe Wife, will be published. It’s a bittersweet moment. Love Inspired gave my historical romances a chance, and I will always be grateful for that. I have met many incredible readers and authors along the way an am so blessed by this journey. What’s next? I’m working on another book of the heart, and we shall see where the Lord leads.

Thank you, dear readers, for seven wonderful years.

Christine Johnson

Would-Be Mistletoe Wife (Dec 2017)

http://christineelizabethjohnson.com

My First Sale - Truth more Astounding than Fiction by Jo Ann Brown

Now things move at the speed of cyberspace, but that wasn't always so. Sometimes they move much more slowly, and they turn out in ways we couldn't have imagined ahead of time.
Come with me back in time. Your choice: Doc Brown’s Delorean or Mr. Peabody’s Wayback machine or...if you are of a certain age, just think back through your personal memories to 1987. That was the year I made my first sale. Actually it was my first sales.
I’ll admit that I made a LOT of mistakes on my way to get published. The only published author I knew was the cousin of a friend’s brother-in-law. In on our one quick phone call, she mentioned words like “proposal” and “synopsis,” so I knew I had a lot to learn. Finding a list of agents, I contacted the first three alphabetically and the last three. Though the others said no thanks, one got back to me quickly and asked for a complete, even though I was still figuring out how to write a synopsis. That letter arrived the day I went to my first local Romance Writers of America meeting. How thrilled I was to meet others who shared my dream and who assured me that the agent interested in my work was a respected guy! (Only later, when he arranged for us to meet, did I discover he was also Arlene James's agent.)
That first book went out to plenty of places, but no offers. In the meantime, I continued writing and I sent what I thought was my new best work, a western historical entitled Nothing Wagered Nothing Gained, off to my agent. While he read that, I kept writing.

But one Friday at the end of March 1987, I got a call telling me that someone was interested in my “new” book. My agent would let me know early the following week if it was a go. So now I waited.
Then the storm hit. A big spring nor’easter in eastern Massachusetts. Power out, phones out and our fence now lying in the neighbor’s garden. My husband alerted my agent from work, where the phones were working. Still no call, so more waiting. I’d love to say I was patiently waiting, but I think I wore out a pair of shoes and our 100-year-old hardwood floors with my pacing on Monday and then Tuesday. Finally late on Tuesday, the phone rang for the first time since the storm started. It was my agent with the news that there definitely was going to be an offer, but he didn’t have all the details and I’d have to be patient a while longer.
More waiting and pacing and I didn’t even share the news with my writers’ group that evening because I wasn’t sure whether or not the deal was going to go through. Thursday I get a call with the request to come to New York to meet with my agents in a few weeks as well as the comment that it should be a contract “for at least two books.” Our family had a trip planned to Washington, DC the week mentioned, so I agreed. We’d take the train and I’d get off in New York and meet them in DC. My big worry was if I could hail a taxi to take me back to Penn Station after the meeting.
When I reached the publisher’s office, I was greeted warmly by my agent, his wife, and the editor Kate Duffy (who started so many romance writers’ careers, though I didn’t know it at the time) as well as the publisher. Tudor Publishing was a very new publishing house, so Kate and the publisher and a secretary constituted the full staff.
My agent and I went into Kate’s office to talk, and he informed me that the contract offer was for four books with options for fourteen more if we were happy with how the first four were published. I’m seldom speechless, but I don’t think I spoke coherently the whole time all of us went out for lunch. I felt so blessed to have this opportunity. That was thirty years and many books and hailed cabs ago, but I still remember those astounding weeks so well that I get goosebumps now just relating the events. It’s always a special day when dreams come true...and I got three of them over a period of several weeks.

And when I got home from our vacation to DC, my critique partners proudly presented me with a certificate they’d made. Not for my first sales, but for being able to get a New York City cab on my own for the first time! It’s hung on my wall since right next to the cover for that first book as proof that truth can be much more astounding than fiction.

First Sale Friday: From Dream to Reality

by Lisa Jordan, @lisajordan

When I was sixteen, I read The Promise by Danielle Steel. By the end of the novel, I knew I wanted to write books--I wanted to create that same heart sigh with my readers. I majored in fiction writing in college but then left to marry a handsome Marine and have a family.

Over a decade ago, I decided to get serious about becoming a published author. I wrote during NaNoWriMo, joined ACFW, attended conferences and worked with amazing writing mentors. I wrote a novel, making many newbie mistakes, and ended up shelving the book several times. 

Then, in 2009, I entered the ACFW Genesis award, taking 2nd place in my category. Additionally, I had pitched it to Love Inspired editor, Tina James and literary agent, Rachelle Gardner. Both requested the full manuscript, but Rachelle asked me to send it to her first. After submitting to Rachelle, she offered representation. She submitted my manuscript. 

On January 7, 2011 at 3 PM, I received the call that turned my dream into reality--Love Inspired editor, Melissa Endlich had read my manuscript, loved it, and wanted to offer me a book deal. I cried so hard my poor husband thought someone had died. 

Lakeside Reunion debuted in November 2011. The following year, it won the ACFW Carol award in short contemporary romance. 

This is the story of my heart and a love letter to my husband because Lindsey's fears about her former fiance's job keep her from finding her second chance at love. When Hubby and I were married, he was a military policeman in the United States Marine Corp and dreamed of becoming a police officer like his dad. I was so afraid of losing him in the line of duty that I begged him to give up his dream. And he did. At the time, I wasn't a Christian and didn't have God to carry my anxieties. When I told him this novel was my way of having closure of keeping him from his dream, he reminded me he was the one who made the choice. 

With the encouragement, mentorship, and prayers of good friends, I've been able to fulfill my dream of becoming a published writer. Since then, I've had the privilege of working with Love Inspired to publish 4 more novels. The thrill of seeing my name on a book cover doesn't get old.