It is now official. My novel Dragon War Relic is going to be published by Cedar Fort, Inc., a publisher right here in Utah County. I'm now in a holding pattern waiting to get scheduled to work with an editor. I'm hoping the book will be out by next summer, but I don't know how the scheduling works, yet. In the meantime, I'm now working on the second draft of the sequel to the first book. Hopefully, I can finish it before work starts on the sixth draft of the first book. I did two and a half chapters today, but they were mainly just edits from the first draft. I'm now to the tricky part where the plot makes a significant change from before.
Anyway, I'm excited about getting this first book published. The way I see it, there are three hurdles (to pull an analogy from my old track and field days) writers have to get over. The first is to actually write the novel. I don't know how many times I've talked to people who want to write a novel, yet haven't even written one yet. So, my advice to aspiring novelists, you have to sit down and hammer one out. It probably will be awful, but that's how you learn and grow.
The second hurdle I just made it over, and that is getting a publisher/agent. I was very blessed to only get about 6 or 7 rejection letters before I was accepted. For most writers, it is a lot more. Of course, I feel I had divine help.
Then, the third hurdle, is getting the book to sell. I'm not over that one yet. This is the one that makes me nervous. However, the acquisitions editor that accepted my book enjoyed it without even being a science fiction fan. But that was my hope, that it would appeal to a wider audience than just the sci-fi/fantasy crowd.
For more information about my book, you can visit www.berinstephens.com.
