A "Golden Oldie" and Update while vacationing

I'm on a fabulous trip-of-a-lifetime adventure right now (which I will blog about after my return), and while I'm gone, I'm going to follow my vacation tradition of pre-scheduling some Golden Oldie posts I made previously to my blog and giving an update with each one. I won't be able to respond to your comments until I return (there's very limited Internet where I am), but I hope you'll let me know what you think anyway so I can read your comments and respond when I return. So, here's the first Golden Oldie from February, 2009:

Even Published Authors Get Rejections

My literary agent is still trying to place my whitewater river ranger mystery series with publishers, but given the current economic climate, it's been a very tough uphill climb. We just received a rejection from one editor who said:

"There’s a lot of good writing here but unfortunately given the economic climate that we are faced with I fear that this book would fall into mid-list hell."

A few weeks ago, another editor said:

"The concept for this series is fabulous and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the manuscript. Unfortunately, however, I'm going to pass."

When you are SOOOO close, the rejections seem to hurt even more. I have faith that the series will find a home, though, eventually. I had so much fun writing the first one, and I'm looking forward to writing more. This character is just itching to find another dead body. :)


Now here's the update:

My agent did sell that series, a two-book contract, in fact, and the first one, Deadly Currents, will be released by Midnight Ink in March of next year. I've turned in the second book (so my river ranger Mandy Tanner DID find another dead body!) and I'm awaiting my editor's feedback on it. The lesson learned? Never give up! And another lesson is to find the best literary agent possible, who will work like a bulldog to place your work. I thank my lucky stars that I have mine every day!

Do you have a perseverance story to share? I'd love to read it, and I'm sure my other blog readers would, too. We all need those success stories to keep us motivated.