My Publishing Journey

With only 20 days left until the publication of my debut YA sapphic novel, Does Love Always Win?, it’s made me reflect on the arduous journey that got me to this point. I’ve also been thinking about how grateful I am that I’ve been able to publish a novel with another one being published next year.

I’ve been writing stories since I was six years old; I even still have my first story that I wrote and illustrated entitled Up the House. When I was in sixth grade, I can still vividly remember the day I looked at myself in the mirror and made a promise to myself that I would be an author.

I started writing my first full-length book, a women’s fiction story, in 2016. I had gone through a rough point in my life and writing was therapeutic. I started querying this in 2018, but found it wasn’t right for the market, and now upon self-reflection, it wasn’t at all ready to be queried. During that time, to keep me sane, I started writing a new book, which turned into Does Love Always Win?

Right from the start this book seemed different. I had never tried writing YA before, but I loved reading it, so I thought I’d give it a go. At the time there wasn’t as much YA sapphic fiction, so I decided I wanted to write the book I wished I had read in high school. I wasn’t sure if it would be right for the market or not, but I had thought maybe by the time I was finished, the market would be more interested in sapphic books.

I started querying Does Love Always Win? in 2019 without any luck, so when 2020 came around, I withdrew all my queries, rolled up my sleeves, and got to work. It was the perfect time to hunker down since it was the height of the pandemic. I also hired Brianna Wyble as an editor and her thoughts really helped re-shape the book to what it is today.

Once I started re-querying in 2021, I actually started to get requests for my full manuscript! Things didn’t seem as hopeless, but when I got rejections on those fulls that hurt more than I ever expected. I can remember the one time my husband and I were on vacation in Vermont and I found two rejections on fulls in the same day. I made sure to treat myself to some delicious cupcakes to mourn. But after the trip, I was back in action, ready to send out more queries.

My luck changed on my birthday, January 8, 2022. I had queried Creative James Media on January 6th and only two days later they had requested my full manuscript. It felt like a sign that they asked me for a full on my birthday! Then at the end of February, they requested a video call and on that call in March, they offered to publish my book. My dream was coming true!

It took so long to get to this point and the actual publishing process has also been a lot of work as well, but now that my publication date is almost here, I’m so proud of my final product and the fact I never gave up.