Guest Author Judy Walters

When Samantha at JKS Communications sent me the synopsis  of the book written by today’s guest, I knew that I had to share it with you.  Not only is she stopping by today, but will be here tomorrow to tell you more about her book and has offered to give away a copy to one of my readers.  Please help me welcome Ms. Judy Walters.

JUDY WALTERS

After many years working as an editor in non-fiction publishing, Judy became a Stay-at-Home Mother to her two girls, conceived via infertility treatment. She wrote Child of Mine as an homage to the struggle nearly 1 in 6 couples go through in order to have their families.

GUEST POST

Thank you, Cheryl, for allowing me to guest post on your blog today! I am so excited.

When my younger daughter was three, an idea for a book came to me.  The idea bothered me for a long time, so while my daughter was at preschool, I wrote it.

I had a book in four months – or so I thought. I gave it to a couple of friends to read, and luckily for me, they were honest. It was terrible.  I put it away and forgot about it. I was busy being a fulltime mother and didn’t have time to be a fulltime writer, too.  I was glad I’d gotten it out of my system.

A few years later, another idea came to me.  I wrote that book, and it got much more praise from friends than the previous.  I wondered if it could be something, but after searching for an agent and coming up empty, I put that book aside.  This time though, instead of forgetting about it, I forged ahead and wrote another book.  I searched again for an agent. More agents than ever wanted to see it, but still, I did not get an offer of representation.

I told my husband I was going to write one more book, and if I did not get agent representation, I was going to stop. Truly stop. I was going to get a job.  My kids were older by then, and we needed more income.  It was ridiculous to keep this up. Writing a book and then revising and editing it nonstop for months or even years was exhausting, and if nothing would come of it, then I was done. Truly done.

This time a couple of people I knew who had editing skills gave me valuable feedback. I thought, “This is finally it.” When I queried agents more responded positively than ever before. They all wanted to read it.

Months later, after dozens of rejections, one agent offered to represent me. I was ecstatic.  My Mother-in-Law had died only a few weeks before, and I was desperate for some good news.  Within twenty four hours of that offer, shockingly, another agent offered to represent me. I was in an enviable position: I would get to choose between two agents.

I chose the one with the bigger name and bigger agency, based in New York.  She asked me to make some revisions, which is not unusual, and those took about three months.  I sent the manuscript back to her on a cold February day. Three weeks later, she sent me a one line email. “I am not the right agent for you.”  I was shocked. Wasn’t she already my agent? I had a signed contract.

After weeks of feeling sorry for myself, I made more revisions and started to query again. Eight months later, I got another offer of representation, from my current agent.  We made even more revisions and then we sent that manuscript out to editors, hoping one would want to publish the book.

A year later, none did. I had started writing Child of Mine by then, and felt good about it. It took about a year and a half altogether, and this time, I paid a developmental editor to help me.  My agent and I went through the agonizing process of trying to find a publishing company again, and again, it didn’t happen.  Maybe it was changes in the industry, maybe it was just bad luck, but my agent really believed in my book. She said, “Let’s publish this as an ebook through my company’s ebook division.” That was last October, and now here I am, five months later, Child of Mine is finally published, and my younger daughter just turned 15!

Can’t wait until tomorrow to hear more?  If not, check out these sites:

Judy’s website, FB, Twitter, GoodReads and LibraryThing.

Don’t forget to visit tomorrow when you can have a chance to win a copy of Child Of Mine.

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