Dec 28 2007

My First Sale by Patrice Michelle

037361778×01mzzzzzzz.jpgAccording to the bio, Patrice Michelle is “a natural with a point-and-shoot camera, likes to fiddle with graphic design and, to the relief of her family, strums her guitar to an audience of one.” To those members of the online romance reading community, we know Patrice to be a straight shooter and all around nice person which puts paid to the notion that nice folks finish last. As Patrice’s first sale stories tells us, the road to writing, from inception to delivery, can be a long one, but one that can be done.

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When did I decide I wanted to be an author? When I was fifteen.

When was I mature enough to tackle writing a book? When I was in college.

When was I experienced enough to follow through and complete a book? Twelve years later, after I thought the computer file holding "the book from college I never finished" was erased from the computer.

It's amazing how motivating that scare was. After that, I started writing again. I was a woman on a mission–"an author who'd finally found her passion!

Fast forward nine months, and I sold my first manuscript–"a vampire novel–"to a small publisher. I guess you could say I have two "First Sale" stories. My first sale was to Ellora's Cave, who went on to publish several more of my books in eBook and print. The whole time I was working on novels for EC, I attended conferences, made industry contacts, worked on promotion and continued to learn.

Four years later, I met my agent at a conference and a few months after that, in a whirlwind that made my head spin, I had my first New York sale, a trilogy actually, to Silhouette Nocturne! If someone had walked up and told me, while I was pounding away on that dinky community computer in my college dorm, that my first New York sale would be an "action-oriented, suspenseful romance about vampires, werewolves, and other paranormal happenings– , I would've peered into that smudged monitor at my flowery, historical romance in the making, and said, "Are you out of your ever-lovin' mind?" But then I would've quickly followed up with, "At least tell me it'll be sexy." *g*

The moral of this first sale story is–"Take chances, always believe in yourself, and never say never, because that one story you thought you'd never write may be the "one" that finally lands you your first sale.

Related posts:

  1. REVIEW: A Taste of Control by Patrice Michelle
  2. My First Sale by Liz Maverick
  3. My First Sale by Sharon Shinn, Every Sale Is Cause for Celebration
  4. My First Sale by Meljean Brook, Geek Girl Makes Good
  5. My First Sale by Sasha White, Bartender by Night. . . Writer by Day

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