I try to choose my agents wisely before submitting, as I don’t want to waste their time or mine by pitching a book they don’t typically rep. However, this means my lists are very short.

Thankgfully, it’s a little more open in the middle grade and YA genre.

I know it’s a matter of time/timing, but sometimes I get impatient!

When you go to your conference make an announcement that you’d like to start a group in your area. Maybe there will be other writers from your area. ACFW has many local chapters now. Check with them as well.

I have two writing groups. One is an online group but we take retreats together as well. We’ve been together for more than ten years. These writers have become like sisters to me. My local in-person writing group is no less important to me. We are serious about writing and critiquing but we’ve become forever friends. This is a tough business. Having friends to share it with makes it so much more palatable. It’s one of the best things you’ll ever do for yourself.

You might want to stick with the more commercial for a start– especially since you know that market so very well. It may make it easier to break into publishing there and then save your family stories (the stories of your heart) until you’ve built your readership.

Deciding on a direction is always one of our hardest tasks. The way we usually do it is to set out in one direction until a door gets slammed in our face and then off we go in the other direction. It’s more time-consuming and more painful but sometimes we don’t know until we try. Oh for that crystal ball. . .

I live in a small Southeast Texas town, unfortunately many hours away from any organized groups or conferences. I did actually sign up for my first conference, the DFW Writers Conference in Dallas (Grapevine)in April, and I’m SO excited about that opportunity. Just to be in the company of that many writers at one time…has got to be a heady experience.

Thanks for all your helpful info, Wendy!

I’m thinking about trying to start up a critique group locally…maybe place an ad and see if there are any other loner writers in my area besides me, looking for an outlet! I used to own a small bookstore years ago, and I know we have many readers….surely there are a few writers in the bunch.

Then, fueled by family stories, I began exploring just in this last month a totally different genre–and immediately found someone already published willing to critique in this genre only.(But not the other.)

That is frustrating to me. Do I go with the genre I thought I should be writing in with no critique and what I’ve built networking around, or change to the other genre with critique?

Ok, I will try finishing both, but it takes so much energy. And my advisors say I can’t do both.

I just have this last hurdle to go, ready to jump into the landmine field. (Ha!)

Trying to get published is sort of like trying to make it in Hollywood.
There’s a lot of talent out there and the pool is small. Picture a serious actor who simply gets fed-up with the auditions and trying to beat down the doors. He decides he wants to act and doesn’t care if he’s ever a box office hit or even if anyone comes to see him act. He rents a theater and puts on a one-man show. That’s like self-publishing. If you want to be a published author and don’t care whether you are financially successful and want to write whether readers are there or not, self-publishing is a viable option.

As to “fate” being against you, I’m so glad not to have to depend on some whim of the Fates. God is still in charge and calls on us to be “workman who need not be ashamed.” (2 Tim 2:15) It’s so hard when we want something and his answer seems to be not now. But keep working on the craft. If you decided to self-publish do it as an adjunct. Start your next book and keep banging on those doors.