Okay, time for a new feature here on my blog. I like to constantly add new things, and I thought it would be fun to post some questions to get you, the reader, to share your experiences.
So, question number 1 is: How did you celebrate when you got your first acceptance?
For me, I remember very clearly getting my first book acceptance. It was for Speak Out, a book of printable black line masters, and the acceptance came based on an outline and sample pages, so I still had to get the actual book written.
Anyway, I remember getting the phone call and standing in the kitchen with my three children, husband and mother in law all present while I tried to sound serious and professional and not too over-excited. Then, when I got off the phone, I jumped and down and squealed. This was not a great idea because, at the time, I was heavily pregnant – a piece of information I hadn’t given the publisher for fear they wouldn’t want me!
Then, of course, I had to get the book written before the baby was born, which I did. The rest, as they say, is history.
Okay, over to you. Please share the story of your first acceptance by posting in the comments section below. Go on! I look forward to reading how other writers celebrate.
Again, thanks for posting everyone. I’m enjoyiong the variety of responses (and glad to at last hear about champagne, thanks Cat)
My first book acceptance was largely due to luck. I had attended a short course on children’s book writing by Goldie Alexander, during which she mentioned an ‘up and coming’ packager called UC Publishing. I wrote to them the next day, including a CV, expressing my desire to write for them. They wrote back the very next day, saying a writer had just pulled out of a project at short notice and they
It almost never was. Usually when I’m home during the day and the phone rings it is someone about to sell me something. So I was just about to say an abrubt ‘not today thanks,’ when I heard the last word ‘book’. I suddenly realised I had to be cool and professional. At that moment my children chose to start screaming as children do when Mum is on the phone. So I ran through the house, trying not
I had sent a short story, Daredevil Granny, to a publisher in London, and then two and a half years later (lol!!) I received a letter back saying they wanted to include it in an anthology that comes out in 17 days. This was about four months ago.
I remember the day well. My dog of eleven years, my baby Tonto, had just died unexpectedly in my arms and I was a mess. I opened the letter from Barrie Publishing and read about them wanting to publish “My Bike”, “Jen Stays Inside” and “People Need Trucks”. I put the letter aside, without much interest. I couldn’t have cared less, I was too numb. Sorry, no celebration for the first acceptances.
Thanks for your answers, ladies. Such different stories. And not a single mention of champagne, lol.
My first book acceptance, for ‘Banana Beard and the Bowler-Buddy’ came by letter in the post, contract attached. I had to read the letter twice and check the name on the contract to be sure. I danced my way back into the house, silly grin attached. The children weren’t quite sure what sent me into the sillies, but they happily joined me there. We danced around the kitchen and the house together.
Sally, the first acceptance I ever got was from ‘The Weekend Australian’ Review newspaper when they wanted something I sent them for its ‘This Life’ section. It was a story about a young Aboriginal man I taught Adult Literacy to in Brisbane’s Boggo Road Jail, and the events leading up to his lonely death by hanging.
At first I couldn’t stop grinning and clutching the printed out email from
Oh, that was back in 1970 when one of my short stories, “Under a Lucky Star”, was accepted by the NSW School Magazine. I misremember what I did, but when my first book was accepted in 1975, I seem to remember smiling all over my face and walking off across the paddocks to tell my grandmother. It took another two years for the book to come out and, weirdly, I got the contract AFTER publication.