The journey to publication is never what you expect it will be, but then there isn’t always a rhyme or reason to how your dreams come true. I’ve had to learn this over several years as I worked to get published. I started writing my first story when I was twelve. I wrote adult fiction and sci-fi and everything in between. It wasn’t until I started writing YA fiction that I worked heart and soul to become a published author. Until I took a little break to work on myself. I’d queried and gotten critiques and read craft books and joined contests, but I still hadn’t found an agent or quite reached my goal of getting published. When I thought I had no more outlets for one particular story, I entered it in a pitching contest that ended up with an editor request. When I got notified that my publisher wanted to offer me a contract, I was thrilled. But that wasn’t my first book to be published. Once we’d discussed several paths, my editor actually offered publication on another book. The only one I hadn’t queried. The one I wrote for me. The one I thought no one would want because it’s about me. About real life. About all the things I was scared of sharing with the world for years. That book was Paper Girl, and it’s my debut YA novel. Like I said, the journey to publication is never what you expect it will be. And sure, sometimes there isn’t a rhyme or reason to how your dreams come true, but I believe there’s a purpose for why it happens the way it does. In the timing it does. Because now I get to reach other people with my words, other people who might share the same issues and fears I do, and people I never thought I’d reach with something very personal to me.
Cindy, a single mother of three girls who give her plenty of material to mine for stories, is also available for interviews or guest posts.
For more information on Paper Girl visit: https://entangledpublishing.com/paper-girl.html and on Cindy, visit: https://cindyrwilson.com/
