Vera Jane Cook, proud author of Dancing Backward in Paradise. I haven’t submitted anything to traditional publishers for months. I self publish. It feels good to call the shots, make decisions and get immediate results. I write, I publish and I don’t paper my walls with rejection letters. But I still feel that gulp of disappointment when my pride in writing a novel is somewhat tainted by that dirty little word ‘self’ published. The truth is that readers really don’t give a damn, they’re just looking for a good book. It’s all those people who wouldn’t buy your book anyway that smile slyly in response to your ‘self’ published novel, their insipid opinions falling from their hollow silence like spittle.
Truth is, you don’t need them. Despite that, I want to be able to call myself a writer. I want to own that title and maybe the only way I can get there is to be traditionally published. So I’m back in the game, like a crazed phantom from a Koontz novel I send out query letters. Though, I know what I’m up against, thousands of plots that sound a lot better than mine.
Still, I’ve taken the pictures off the walls and bought some empty frames. I won’t paper the walls with rejection letters, no not me. I’m going to create an altar, and like those people who wait for a vision of the Virgin Mary, I will wait for acceptance letters, the publishing contract, the sweet words of praise from a saint who thinks my plots are worthy of an advance.
So, in my decision to wait for the ‘yes’ and not the ‘no-thank you,’ I just might see the vision. In the interim, I’ll self publish.
Vera Jane Cook
Award Winning Must Read Women’s Fiction. Dancing Backward In Paradise was published in November 2006 and received rave reviews from Armchair Interviews and Midwest Book reviews, as well as an Eric Hoffer and Indie Excellence award in the Literary fiction category for notable new fiction in 2007. Hearts Upon a Fragile Bough, Ms. Cook’s second novel, was published last year and will be followed by its sequel, At the End of a Whisper. To learn more about her books you can visit her web site at http://www.verajanecook.com
To contact the author send an email to jane@verajanecook.com Ophthacare
