Meandering on Monday with Janet Lane Walters #MFRWAuthor #BWLPublishing #Writing #Weather

Meander 1 -50 Years Published - Some time in 1968, I received my first check for a story I'd written and saw the story in print. Now, this doesn't mean that's when I started writing. That first sale took a few years but I will admit it was the first story I'd written. I'm not sure how many rejection slips I received on the story. Those were the days when you sent the story out and waited, sometimes for months. Most of the time there was a little printed slip but sometimes there were little comments that kept the dream alive.
        I've seen many many changes in the publishing field. When I began writing there were many magazines that took mss over the transome. Some paid very well and some 5 to 25 cents a word. You also had to mail the manuscript and hope when it was rejected there were no coffee stains, cigarette burns of other things plus rumpled and needed to be retyped. Postage was also much less but you still had to also include a SASE for the return. Agents weren't necessary for submitting. And for novels, the publishers wanted the complete manuscript.
      My first published novel didn't happen until 1972 but the book had made the rounds. Back then editors tried to help you. I received so many little notes about what needed to be done with the mss that led me to rewrite the book each time it came back. I believe 17 times is the number of publishers who saw the mss and made comments. Actually the 17th one bought the manuscript.
     During those early years, I saw magazines disappear. Two of my short stories were purchased but never published. Boys' Life and American Girls' Magazines paid but never printed the stories. I felt sad about that but I was allowed to keep the money.
     I took a break from writing to return to work as a nurse to help educate four children. I didn't stop writing but I'd put things away for the time being. I had received a rejection for a short story when the author said this sounds more like a novel. The story was a short mystery and back around 1970, I didn't think I knew enough about mysteries to use that material. I did later and Murder and Mint Tea but before I wrote turned that story into a novel, I studied novels and began to write what I knew about. Hospitals, doctors and nurses.
     My return to the writing life gave me a shock. Editors wanted synopses and partial manuscripts. Many of the larger publishers, the few who hadn't been folded into other publishers wanted agents. There weren't as many small publishers either.
      Then came electronic publishing and I'd found my niche. Not all the publishers I started with survived but it was a learning experience. I'm mostly with Books We Love LTD out of Canada and am very happy to be with them.

Meander 2 - Weather - Seems like the monsoon have left for a time but the ground is still boggy beneath the surface. Found some Peony roots to add to the bushes down the sides of the walk. Hopefully they will take and next year there will be beauty again.

Meander 3 Writing -- Moving forward with the Forgotten Dreams. Three chapters to clean up. Hopefully will finish within the next two weeks