Update from Louisa

So, I've been mostly missing for months. But that does not mean that I have been sitting around doing nothing.

As some of you know, I write fanfiction and have done for years. Well, this year I decided to get myself into gear and concentrate on my original fiction. I made a new year resolution to have something submitted to a publisher by the end of this year.

Well, when I saw an open call from an online publisher for Halloween stories for their upcoming anthology I just wrote and wrote and wrote.

Then I edited, re-wrote, edited again and finally, yesterday I plucked up the courage to submit it to the publisher.

Today I got an email back. My story has been accepted for publication.

I am in total shock that the first story I have ever submitted to a publisher has been accepted. I was so prepared for a rejection, or at best, some tips for how to improve the story for possible re-submission.

I am grinning like a maniac here since as long as I can remember I have wanted to be a writer. And now I finally feel like I am.

I still have a lot of stories to complete and work on and submit for (hopefully) publication as well. So, I can't promise to be around a lot.

But I at least hope that people will accept that I have been utilising my free time in a good way, even if it means I am not around here as much.

OMG! That's great news! Congratulations!! Getting published feels great, doesn't it?!

Will your story be available online anywhere so that non-UK fans can see it? Cuz I'd LOVE to read it!

CONGRATS AGAIN!!

LOL. Yes, it feels wonderful.

It is actually an online publisher based in the US though the registered office is in South Africa. So, not much to do with the UK at all. Their books/ebooks are available from the site itself as well as numerous online stores, including Amazon I beleve, so it should be available to most people in most countries.

And thanks.

Wow Louisa, congrats! Must take a lot of courage and work, but at least all the effort is paying off, right? I can't wait to read it.

Thanks.

I am still pretty much stunned with my good luck. Makes all these months of writing in every spare minute I have worthwhile.

Sounds great. Who's the publisher and when will it be available? Can you linky?

Well, the anthology is a Halloween one and is scheduled for release on the 30th October - so not long to wait for it to come out.

The publisher is Silver Publishing. They are pretty new and focus on ebooks of the romance genre.

You can find them here - [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Should warn you that they do publish some controversial genres as well. Though the only slightly controversial aspect of my own story is that it is male/male. And no, I would not expect anyone who does not read or like the genre, or who is easily offended, to read my story.

Well, I'm not really interested in reading romance or m/m pairings. But congrats anyways.

YAY!!! Congrats, Louisa!!!! I'm really happy for you!! That's awesome news! I sooo sooo can't wait to read it! Hahaha, I'm gonna be your first buyer! I'm soooooo gonna buy it once they release it!

Thanks Kev, I wouldn't have expected you to be interested in it, and like I said, I wouldn't expect anyone to read it if it was not something they were going to enjoy.

Kryptic - thanks and sending you a PM shortly.

Did you find writing m/m a particular challenge?

That's so cool! I'll definitely read it!

Great news!!! I am SOOOOOOOO proud of you, sweetie!!!!!!! And veeeery happy for yo!!! And i think you totally deserve it! Your stories (and I read some of them) are totally amazing, I think one of the best fanfic I read, even better than some official novels!
Have you stop screaming already?
I can't wait to read it either!!! I'm gonna buy too it once they release it!!!!

@ Kev - at first yes. In fact my first m/m story was for a "write something you have never tried before" challenge in a forum. But then it got a lot easier. But I write a lot of genres anyway, so often flit between one and another.

Thanks Diana.

Now, I just this minute got the first edits for the story from my editor, so I better go see what she has to say about my story.

YAY! Fantastic! I'll keep an eye out for it.

Thanks. I'll probably post closer to the release date with more details. It should be coming out on the 30th October, so not long to wait really.

Sorry for the double post, but I just got my book cover today and wanted to share.

It turned out that the Halloween releases are coming out as separate books instead of a single anthology and they all have the same cover art. This is mine.

The artist for Silver Publishing is just amazing.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Nice artwork.

Oooh, great cover art indeed! Loving it! And that's great that the Halloween releases will all come out as a single book, yay! So can't wait to read it!

I wouldn't ever expect anything less from Reese. She is truly amazing as an artist and the details she includes in her work are astounding.

You can see her portfolio on her website [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

She does a lot of covers and bearing in mind the volume she must have to do, she does stunning work on them all.

Just had a look at her portfolio and I have to agree, she does some great work in general!

I'll definitely keep her in mind for my own book cover, though I think I'll still try to make one on my own some time.

Wow, your book cover is GORGEOUS!! OMG, that's amazing! I looked at the other book covers she's designed too. She definitely knows her stuff. WOW.

How many pages is your story if you don't mind me asking?

I don't know how many pages but it is between 20,000 and 25,000 words. 25k was the limit for the submissions so I had to keep it below that. It is still in editing at the moment so I am not sure what the final word count will be.

Oh!! The covert looks great!! Aren't you jumping and screaming all excited? I am so excited for you!!!

I am trying to keep my enthusiasm to mild squeeing. But I can't help but keep grinning every time I see the cover.

Just had a message about the publishers getting all their titles translated into Spanish. I didn't know about that, but it sounds like even though they are fairly new they are getting the word out about their books all over the place.