This afternoon author Jan Brogan responded to my call to writers to share a recent success story. She writes,

"Last year about this time, I was pretty gloomy. Although my first murder mystery, Final Copy had been positively received and named by The Drood Review, as one of the eight best murder mysteries published in 2001, it was a long way from being a commercial success. My publisher, Larcom Press, was a small regional publisher with limited distribution, and although several of the large New York publishers had inquired about obtaining paperback rights, none made an offer. Then it got worse. Just as I finished the sequel to Final Copy, Larcom announced it was going out of business.

I had a nearly complete manuscript and no publisher. Since all the big New York publishers had passed on Final Copy, what were the chances they'd be interested in its sequel, A Confidential Source?

My agent had an idea. The new book already had a different setting and a different time period. He wanted to know if I'd be willing to change the main character's name so
he could sell it as the first in a new series. It seemed a reasonable request.

Final Copy had been rejected by all the New York publishers, not once, but
twice. So I'd learned not to have high hopes. Amazingly, not one but three of the six top publishers were interested in A Confidential Source, and two made offers. I accepted an offer by Mysterious Press (Time Warner's mystery imprint), and my book will be released in April '05.

Needless to say, the gloom has lifted.

Jan Brogan
Visit my website at http://www.janbrogan.com

Do you have a recent success (in the past six months) to share? A success does not have to be as earthshaking as Jan's sale to one of the biggies. Anything inspiring in the writing dept. definitely qualifies! Email me. Scroll down to my entry of February 28 for more details.