Monday, March 2, 2009

New Publishing venture for The Wild Rose Press

It has just been announced that The Wild Rose Press has launched a new second company, White Rose Publishing, www.whiterosepublishing.com All the White Rose inspirational romance titles will be moving there, so when you have a chance, check it out. It's a beautiful website! This is really exciting news for all the White Rose authors. My book Chance's Return is on the "Coming Soon" page at the new site.
I'm a longtime member of the Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America, (and chapter president this year!), and in our chapter we talk a lot about never giving up when it comes to our writing and how perseverance pays off. In that vein of thought, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about the history of this particular book.
When I first wrote Chance's Return, I was very new to the publishing world. I had just sold a couple of short stories to Woman's World magazine, and though I'd finished several book length manuscripts, I'd had nothing but rejection letters for them. I joined RWA that year (1984) and attended my first RWA conference in Detroit, MI. I had an appointment with an editor there and when I pitched my manuscript to her, she loved it and asked me to submit when it was finished. I did and she accepted it. It was scheduled for release and even listed in that publisher's spring catalogue. Then, without warning, that publisher decided to cancel their line of romances. The rights to my book were returned to me and after submitting it a few more places, I gave up and put it in the file cabinet and went on with other writing projects. I sold more short stories and had other manuscripts rejected, and then I hit a very long dry spell. At the time, I was busy raising my family and working various jobs and after awhile I stopped submitting. But I didn't stop writing. I actually took a novel writing course by mail (this was of course way before online courses and workshops) and I kept going to chapter meetings and hoping someday I'd be published again. Then when my youngest went off to college, I decided to resurrect this book and rewrite it beginning to end. Took me a lot of late nights but I finally finished it (again!) and sent off a query. After a wait of several months, it was rejected. A short time later I heard of an epublisher that was starting up a new line for inspirational romances, so, what the heck I figured, and sent in my query. They ended up accepting Chance's Return and it became the launch title for their new line. It was an exciting ride while it lasted. My book garnered some wonderful reviews and won a CAPA (Cupid and Psyche Award) for best inspirational romance in 2006 from The Romance Studio and it was up against some very popular authors in this genre. Then a few months later that publisher filed for bankruptcy. The rights to my book were held up in the court system but eventually released when another publisher bought them up and released all rights to the authors. So once again the search for a publisher began. This led me to The Wild Rose Press and as you know, that had a happy ending, or should I say beginning? Chance's Return will be released in June and now will be a part of a new publishing venture. I keep thinking, the third time has got to be the charm for this book. It has come a long way with me, and in rewriting it several times, I have learned so much about the characters, ex-rodeo star Chance McCord and young widow Casey Girard. I hope you will enjoy reading about them as much as I've loved telling their story. In finding a home for this book, I've also learned a lot about perseverance and how it pays to never give up.

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