A year or so ago I completed a manuscript for the Christian market. It’s a contemporary romance and I’m now looking for a publisher for it.

That thought terrifies me every time I think about it.

While I was waiting for the Verindon trilogy to be published, I didn’t consider that there might be a time when I would, once again, have to send a manuscript off to different publishers for consideration. But publishers can be specific about what they publish, and for this manuscript, a different one is required.

So now I am, once more, looking over lists of publisher and seeking out those few who accept unsolicited manuscripts (for those of you who don’t know, an unsolicited manuscript is one that the publisher has not specifically requested from someone). Again, I am experiencing that nervous wait, that sinking feeling in my stomach every time I hit ‘send’ and add another publisher to my submissions list.

I never thought that being a published author meant that I would never feel this way again. I’m not arrogant enough to think that any success I have with the first three guarantees success anywhere else. I’m also unsure if my book will be acceptable to these others, even if I do already have three available. After all, the Verindon trilogy, although well received by those who’ve heard of it, remains foreign to many people out there because of the difficulty in connecting with people when you don’t have the benefit of a huge publisher with a massive publicity machine. I do what I can, but will another publisher consider that to be enough? I don’t know.

So I wait with bated breath to see if anything will come of this latest endeavour. Maybe I will succeed, maybe I won’t. But I know I can’t let this define me, whether it results in success or failure. I am an author, and although I may not be world class, I have a product that has proved it can entertain and inspire a readership, and I must keep in mind that that is an achievement in itself.