I always like to hear first-sale stories, so I thought I'll share several of mine.

MY FIRST BOOK SALE OVER AND OVER....

I'm often asked how I sold my first book. And I'm happy to share that story. Here's how it went:

MY VERY FIRST BOOK SALE
I'd been writing professionally for over 2 years, had joined a weekly face-to-face critique group, attended monthly meetings of a writing organization, and stacked up about 20 rejections for several kid books. I submitted a lot, kind of randomly until a friend told me about her publisher: a book fair publisher that produced their own books. So I submitted to them - not just one manuscript but several. So a few months later, when I got THE CALL, my first question was "Which book?" That book was called Almost Twins
and was published in 1991. It never appeared in bookstores, but sold well
in school book fairs until it went out of print 2 years later.

So my career was on the rise, right? Not so easy.

That publisher never bought anything else from me. I did some work-for-hire while trying to get an agent. And a few years later I finally did get an agent. In a way, this was like starting over. So my second "First Sale" story happened like this:

MY FIRST SALE WITH AN AGENT
My agent liked a middle-grade ghost book and submitted it as a short series. It took six months before Avon Books called to offer a contract - for 3 books. This was my first series - a dream I'd had since I was a kid. And after I'd written the 4 books of My Sister and the Ghost series, I was invited to write another series for Avon, this one about cheerleaders called Cheer Squad. Then another series sold, this time to Berkley Books: a science fiction YA series about clones called Regeneration. And Regeneration did so well that
it won an ALA honor, scored a year-long movie option with Fox and had a growing fan base.

So things were looking great and my career was rising...until Berkley ended my series. This began a long, miserable dry spell where I lost my agent and my publisher. The movie option ended. Books went out of print. And rejections poured in.

MY FIRST SALE AFTER LOSING EVERYTHING AND STARTING OVER
It took three years. I gave up on series books. I studied craft by analyzing books and continuing to work on books that didn't sell. Then a friend suggested I write a series for her publisher. I laughed bitterly and said I was through with series. But then I remembered a mss that might work for a series. I submitted it to Llewellyn/Flux and within six months I'd sold two series (Strange Encounters) plus a YA series (The Seer).

This truly felt like a first sale. I was invited to Book Exposition America for
the launch of The Seer & Strange Encounters. I gained a growing fan base and treasure all my fan letters. I loved the book covers and the editors at Llewellyn.

And six years later, I'm still writing for Llewellyn/Flux. My series are: The Seer, Strange Encounters and Dead Girl trilogy and an upcoming spin-off about a Goth girl who solves mysteries using psychometry.

One of my favorite sayings is that "you only fail if you fail to try" and that's so true for me. I failed many times but I kept trying; reinventing myself and jumping at every opportunity.

In October, my 6th The Seer will come out - and I can't wait.
Every new book feels like a "first" for me.

Linda Joy Singleton

www.LindaJoySingleton.com

www.myspace.com/lindajoysingleton
Ghosts Whisper to Psychic Sabine in THE SEER series (Flux)
DEAD GIRL #1. DEAD GIRL WALKING (Flux/) YALSA Popular Paperback
"This page-turner has wit, love, courage, adventure and remarkable insight." School Library Journal
Amber has the ultimate teen identity crisis when she finds herself in
someone else's body.

DEAD GIRL #2. DEAD GIRL DANCING
& DEAD GIRL #3. DEAD GIRL IN LOVE

THE SEER #6 MAGICIAN'S MUSE Fall 2010 (Flux)

GRAVE SECRETS - A Thorn Goth Girl Mystery coming 2011 (Flux)

Follow me : www.twitter.com/LindaJoySinglet