In 2006, ten years after I started to write, I finished my manuscript. It was time to find a publisher. But what made me think I could accomplish this task that first time authors find so elusive? The short answer is this: I believed I had a story to tell, I was willing to put in the work required to tell it and I believed, against all odds, that I would succeed.
I started by buying a Writer’s Market and writing over ninety query letters to agents and academic presses. I received many rejections in the process but followed each negative response with the sending of another query letter – one more chance to make publication a reality. I kept track of my correspondence on a spreadsheet and just kept working. I sent book proposals and sample chapters as requested and, finally, six of the ninety queries (three agents and three academic presses), asked to read the manuscript.
In the end it was the University of Alabama Press that gave me a contract, preliminary at first, following a peer review by two historians and an extensive rewrite, then a full contract in 2007 after a second peer review. In 2008, the final publication process began: more editing, then copyediting and finally production.
I’m very proud of this accomplishment – a project that has been the most fascinating, creative, cathartic and healing experience of my life.
