Last Chance for a Giveaway!

Today, I have a fun surprise that I’d like to share with you. I’ve teamed up with 20 fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of steamy contemporary romances to 2 lucky winners, PLUS a brand new eReader to the Grand Prize winner! You can win my novel FIVE MINUTES TO LOVE, plus books from authors like Kendall Ryan and Michele Arris—just by following me and other great steamy contemporary romance authors on BookBub! Enter the giveaway by clicking here:  http://bit.ly/steamyromance-apr18.

Good luck and enjoy!

Nevertheless, She Persisted

Nope, not talking about politics…this time. This time, I’m talking about writing. The best advice anyone will give you is to keep writing. Finished a manuscript? Keep writing. Submitted a manuscript? Keep writing. Ready to give up? Keep writing.

I did that, for months and months and months.

And today, I received my second contract with my publisher for another book. Also a romance, but not part of my series.

My younger daughter refers to it as the “lawnmower book,” because she was reading over my shoulder and happened to see that word. I suppose I should be very grateful that out of all the words in a romance she could have seen, that’s the one her eye picked out. J It has an actual title, though, or at least a working one--In the Moment. Not sure I love it, but the marketing department might change it anyway, so I’m not stressing.

As with the first book they accepted, I now have forms to fill out and will soon have edits to begin. That part does stress me out a little, since I’m still editing the first one, but this is way better than doing nothing.

Oh right, I wasn’t doing nothing. While I was waiting for an editor to bite, I was writing. I have four other manuscripts in the pipeline now. Three of them need editing before I can submit them, but I’ll be putting that on hold while I deal with more immediate needs.

Having them waiting for me, though, is good. It means I’m ready if someone wants them, because I never want to be without something if an editor or agent asks me what I’ve been working on.

So if you need me, I’ll be editing. And writing. And preparing my marketing plan. If I look a little bleary-eyed, you’ll know why.

The Dry Spell Is Over!!

It’s been three years since I last published a book (Miriam’sSurrender). Yes, I’ve republished both A Heart of Little Faith and Skin Deep during that time, but nothing new. It hasn’t been for lack of trying. I’ve been writing non-stop. I signed with an agent, which was a wonderful experience, but didn’t work well for either of us. And I was about to give up on writing.

There were things going on in my life that were pulling me in different directions and were making me miserable. When you’re miserable, it’s really hard to write romance. Sure, the black moments come easy, but the happy ones are tough.  And so I’d look around at all my author friends who were moving in the right direction and I really thought it was time to give up.

But I didn’t. After much soul-searching, I made changes in my life and decided to give writing one last shot. I freed up my time, finished the stories I was writing, polished the ones I’d already finished and made a plan.

The plan was imperfect. In fact, my getting published right now is kind of amazing, but that’s a story for another blog post. Suffice it to say that despite everything I did to work against myself, I found a publisher for a story that I can’t wait to reveal to everyone.

It’s the first in a projected three-book series. The characters are Jewish, but the story doesn’t revolve around any holidays. They happen to be Jewish, like I happen to have brown hair (shh, no comments about the grey). There’s a little religion and culture thrown in, but that’s all. The publisher is one I’ve been eyeing for a while—they have a fantastic reputation, put out great books and treat their authors well. Throughout the entire submission process, they kept me updated and they’ve answered every question I’ve asked. I signed the contract on my birthday and I’m looking forward to starting to work with them.

In the meantime, I’m continuing to edit my existing manuscripts and beginning to prepare for the marketing side of this business. I’ll be keeping my readers updated on my website (http://www.jenniferwilck.com) and on my Facebook author page (https://www.facebook.com/Jennifer-Wilck-201342863240160/), so be sure to pop over there regularly. If you want advanced notice of things, like preview chapters, exclusive contests to win copies of the book, etc., you might want to sign up for my newsletter (http://jenniferwilck.com/contact.html#newsletter). And if you want even more exclusive info and get to help me promote myself, you can join my street team (https://www.facebook.com/groups/749451931834130/).

The moral of this story is don’t give up. And I’m really glad I didn’t.

I've Got News

I’m very excited to announce that I just signed with a literary agent for my current work-in-progress. The book is a contemporary romance (of course) but is not part of my Jewish romance series.

I’ve wanted to look into agents for a long time. From the very beginning, I’ve pitched myself to them, without any luck. Many of them just said flat-out no; others made suggestions that I took and valued. And then I found Whiskey Creek Press and Rebel Ink Press, neither of whom required an agent and both of whom I’ve loved being part of.

I’m still with Rebel Ink Press and I can’t wait to continue to submit my stories to them. I love the editors there and I’ve made friends with many of their writers. I’m currently working on Book 3 (as yet, untitled) of my Women of Valor series and my vision for that series is at least 3 more full-length books, and possibly a novella or two.

But I also wanted to try my hand at getting an agent. Call it the challenge, call it career advancement. I don’t know exactly what to call it, but in publishing, it is completely possible to follow a variety of different routes, may of which are at the same time. It’s why some authors self-publish at the same time as traditionally publish, as an example.

So, as I’ve seen agents who interest me, or pitching events to agents, I’ve participated. One such event is #pitmad, on Twitter. Held four times a year, it’s where writers boil down their stories to approximately 125 characters, add a tag for the type of story and the hashtag #pitmad to their tweet and press send. Editors and agents who are participating that day “favorite” any pitches that sound interesting to them.

The first time I participated, an editor showed some interest, but since I was looking for an agent, I didn’t respond. You don’t have to respond, so I didn’t do anything wrong. This time around, an agent responded. Once they favorite your tweet, you follow their submission guidelines and your query goes to the top of their pile. There’s no guarantee they’ll like what you submit, but you have a better shot, similar to pitching at a conference.

Since the #pitmad event in December, my agent and I have emailed and spoken on the phone. Today, I forwarded the signed contract to her, so it’s official. I can’t wait to see what happens in this next stage.