Packing for a Road Trip to Paradise

The publishing path for Haunted in Paradise

Are you a fan of spine-tingly thrillers? A lover of the paranormal? Or a fan of the paranormal who loves to read jump-scary thrillers? Or a… well, you know. Please consider any or all of my books – if you’re a reader, you’ll enjoy them.

For a listing of all my books and published short stories, visit my website at www.susanerogers.com. There are links to short stories and podcasts to read online for free, and links to purchase any of my books or anthologies. You can also get to each book from my Amazon page. If you’d like a signed copy, my email is sneirish@gmail.com.

I started writing my first novel, Haunted in Paradise, in March 2019, shortly after we moved to Florida.

Uncovering Norman was published in June 2018 and the following months were a flurry of marketing and publicity. At the same time, we were working on our plans to move, getting both our houses ready and on the market. I had to sort through thirty years of accumulated stuff and decide what was going with me to Florida and what had to be sold, given away, or discarded. There was a lot more involved in getting the move done, but I’ll spare you the gory details.

We arrived in Tampa Bay at 1 a.m. on December 31, 2018. By the end of January 2019, we found a place to live and settled in. I started writing in March and never stopped!

Haunted in Paradise is a supernatural thriller, very loosely based on some of my own experiences. The story is about a psychic, divorced and recently moved to the Gulf coast of Florida, who finds herself haunted by the ghost of her just-deceased ex-husband and stalked by a determined and dangerous real-life predator.

Since this was my first time writing long-form fiction, I had to teach myself along the way. I was always an avid reader, especially thriller and horror. This became my foundation, noting what and how my favorite authors wrote and incorporating the craft and style of their books into my writing as I developed my own style. I knew grammar and the basic rules of writing. But, without a formal creative writing education, I needed to learn as much as could from other sources. So, I then turned to reading books on the craft of writing. My first, and still favorite, was Stephen King’s On Writing.

Most of all, I put my intrinsic gift for story-telling to work.

By August, the 260-page first draft of Haunted in Paradise was complete.

Over the next few months, I worked on my own editing and revisions and had beta-reads done by Hardy and my friend Donna. I joined WordSmitten, a writing critique group run by well-known local author Kate Sullivan, in September 2019, which was invaluable to move forward with my understanding of the craft of editing as well as writing. The more I developed my critiquing skills for others, the more I could use those same skills on my own work.

A second fully revised draft was done by March 2020. My book was ready to start the query process. And I had plenty of time to figure it out, since Covid-19 had arrived.

Like every novice writer, I had the dream of finding an agent who would fall in love with my story and sell it to the perfect publisher so it became a best-seller. It wasn’t about the money; I wasn’t counting on writing to provide me an income. For me, it was about validation, proving to myself and others that I was the writer I always knew I was supposed to be.

Once again, I embarked on a self-learning journey. This time, of how to query a literary agent for a novel. I was determined and convinced that I wouldn’t need to self-publish Haunted in Paradise, as I had chosen to self-publish Uncovering Norman.

There are a number of resources available online for learning to write effective query letters and understanding what literary agents are looking for. By that time, I had a few writer friends and learned from their experiences as well. I wrote draft after draft until the letter met all the guidelines I’d read yet had a flavor of my own style and writing. This template was to be my adjustable go-to for all my agent queries.

There were actually three versions of my letter that I would use depending on the information I had for the agent. I also created a document with several versions of my bio, pitch, query blurb, and story synopsis. Every letter included the basic information on the story (word count, genre, audience, etc.), a pitch and summary, comparable books (comps), and a bio. I could interchange components as needed for any particular agent.

I researched the agents on Publishers Marketplace, Manuscript Wishlist, and Query Manager, the three most popular and extensive listings of agents online. I subscribed to several newsletters and blogs about finding an agent or publisher. I looked to see who the agents were that represented other books with themes similar to mine. This also helped me identify the comps that I needed to include in the letter.

From that search, I created an annotated list of the agents I wanted to query, what they were looking for, how to contact them, and any other bits of information I thought would be helpful. The list was prioritized according to which agents I thought would be the most interested in my book. I set up a spreadsheet to track the queries sent and the responses received, along with the dates and any other notes.

I was ready and prepared for the onslaught of agents wanting to represent Haunted in Paradise for publication.

I emailed my first query on March 22, 2020. And waited…

What’s Next?

This is what I waited for???