How Rhiannon Got Her Groove Back-Part Two

A few years ago, a friend of mine became an editor for a small publishing house and called me up one night asking about a novel I had worked on (for years in bits in pieces) that I had mentioned to her. I summarized the plot to her and she told me to write a letter to her and the publisher and write exactly what I had told her. I did and the publisher(s) liked the idea and wanted to see the finished product when it was done. In fact, they were damn sure they would publish it.

The book was nowhere near ready. I was rewriting it from third person to first person and it seriously needed work. My "real" job kicked it up a few notches during this time and I struggled to get the novel done as fast as possible. As fast as possible ended up being around 10 months. This was before I discovered the Fast Draft approach and lived with the terrible self editor in my head constantly.

But it actually worked out just fine. The editor ended up leaving the publishing house (which is no more now) and contemplated starting her own publishing house. This did not work out due to life events, but I learned a lot from her. I am eternally grateful.

Skip ahead to last year and I had just finished the Fast Draft version of "Pretty When She Dies", when a friend of mine puts me in contact with yet another editor of a small publishing house. This one is an e-publisher and I queried this editor and she expressed interest. She was not handling the vampire/urban fantasy manuscripts, but she was willing to read it, give me feedback, and pass it on to the editor who was. She appeared to like the basic premise of the story and I was excited. I worked on the second draft diligently, finished it, and found out that editor left her publishing house to concentrate on her writing.

So I finish out last year with a brand new book on my hands, a head full of conflicting information on the publishing world, a massive zombie epic waiting to be rewritten, and a finished Victorian Gothic vampire novel that I'm not sure what the hell I'm going to do with.

Should I continue to push Pretty When She Dies with the e-publisher or go another route? Should I try and get a literary agent? Small publishing house? Big publishing house?

Meanwhile, I continue to get emails from fans of the zombie epic, As The World Dies, asking when its going to be published, is it published, where can they read it again, is it online?

I was totally at a loss.