It's been some time since I've blogged on my own site. Funny, considering the fact that I write dozens of blogs a week for other people's sites through my freelancing gig, but I can't seem to ever form a personal blogging habit.
Anyways, I'm already off track here. The reason I'm finally blogging again is to announce that I'm doing something that I don't think any traditionally published author has ever done before: I'm getting ready to start querying for the first time. It's strange, because I feel like I'm doing everything backwards. I've been published by an incredible publisher, and yet I've never sent a query letter. But hey, I guess there's a first time for everything, right? If you're wondering why I'm just now querying, here's what's happening.
Parting Ways with Inkitt
If you've followed my publishing journey or read the guest post I did on Tor Teen's blog, you know my path to publication was unusual. I was picked up by a (at the time) brand-new company called Inkitt, whose goal was to find and publish aspiring authors. Because they found me, I never had to query an agent, and they helped me get published with Tor.
However, several years have passed, and Inkitt's business model has evolved and changed into something entirely different from what it was before. Their focus is now on their interactive reading app, Galatea, and they simply no longer do what they did for me. (In fact, they never acted as any other author's agent, to my knowledge.) So, with a new manuscript ready (more on that later) and the goal to continue publishing traditionally, Inkitt was simply no longer a good fit for me.
I have absolutely no hard feelings towards Inkitt, and our parting of ways isn't even a complete break. I'll still be working with them on another project in the near future. They've simply grown and changed, as new companies are wont to do, and so we're just not right for each other any more.
Backwards Learning
And so, I'm off on this new journey that most of my fellow authors already spent years on. Frankly, I feel a little lost and confused at the moment, just trying to get my feet under me and trying to find even a basic understanding of where to begin. I'm so grateful for the online writing community that I've found and for their help, advice, and encouragement as I get started on this.
I'm looking forward to gaining some much-needed knowledge on the publishing industry as I step back and start at the beginning of the traditional publishing path, and I hope to provide updates (much more regularly) here as I do so.
I may be doing this all "bass ackwards," as my mother would say, but this is my journey and I'm gonna own it, no matter how jumbled it may be.