Claudia R asked: Was it real difficult getting your foot into publishing?
A: The publishing world can be extremely difficult break in to – it can seem as times as if there might be an invisible wall…however, it’s not as difficult as one might think.
It’s all about perspective.
Early on, Dee Henderson, who is one of my favorite writers, told me that the best thing I could do to get published was to write all sorts of things, for anyone I could, for free, if I had to. So, that’s what I did – I started with my newsletter, (we were missionaries in Russia) and then I went on to a newsletter for my organization, then devotionals, then magazine articles, then novellas for contests…until finally, my writing had improved enough to catch the attention of an editor. And even that was through a contest! Those Nicholas Sparks stories of people sending in a book to a publisher and landing a cool mil for an advance is SO rare – the norm is that authors work for years and years behind the scenes before they are “discovered” and make it big.
So, I pass on that advice to you – Write, for anyone, all sorts of genres, let it hone your skill and build your audience, and keep walking through those open doors – who knows where you’re end up!