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I’ve been writing romances since 2008, mostly in Afrikaans. I received a lot of help when writing the first few, but lately the procees usually goes like this: I send the manuscript to the publisher, I get an email thanking me for my story, a possible publishing date is set and we’re ready to go. But I’ve been reading love stories for as long as I can remember and usually in English, so I had this dream to publish a romance in English.<\/p>\n
So I sat down and wrote a story about a romance writer and a science fiction writer who meet in a lift. And then I found a list of publishers and very confidently sent my manuscript\u00a0off, hoping to hear from them soon.<\/p>\n
It was right about that time\u00a0I heard about the custom where a publisher phones a writer when they want to publish your story. A phone call? An acual person talking to one? Wow, I couldn’t wait for this to happen.<\/p>\n
It took months before the first rejection email arrive. And then the next, and the next – you get the drift. I was crushed. My lovely story, why didn’t anyone want to publish it? I was determined to get it published, though and began a second round of sending off emails.<\/p>\n
I won’t bore you with the whole story about My Year of Waiting Patiently but eventually I received an email – there was an actualy publisher out there who was willing to publish the story. No phone call, though, all done by email.<\/p>\n
But within a few months the company closed its virtual doors and I had to start from scratch. Which I did. And I found a wonderful publisher in Australia who published that first story and a second one. Each time I received and email. I was happy and so pleased\u00a0and I thought maybe publishers don’t call anymore, so I stopped thinking about it.<\/p>\n
I wrote three more stories I found another publisher for each and each time the whole process was finalised by\u00a0email, all very civilised.<\/p>\n
And then I pitched to HarperImpulse during our ROSA 2015 conference. I was asked to send the rest of the story. And I waited. And waited. Forgot about it. And waited. And then I received an email with the wonderful news – I was going the get The Call!<\/p>\n
I don’t think I heard a word of what the lovely Charlotte Ledger said when she phoned, I was way too excited, but an actual person was talking to me on the phone, saying she loved the story! It was such a surreal experience, for the first time I understood why authors talk about The Call in capital letters.<\/p>\n