So What's Next?

Well, now that the contracts are signed and I am no longer afraid of jinxing things, I can announce that...

I have an agent! It almost makes up for the hives! (The latest theory: I could be allergic to garlic--how ghastly would that be? Did you know that virtually every packaged food has garlic in it? Any time a product says "spices," it means garlic. But that's a topic for another day.)

Anyway, I am the kind of person who sets a goal and works toward it, rarely considering what I will do once I achieve it. So for however long, I've been submitting to agents, going to conference, working and reworking my manuscripts. Now what? Oh, sure, I have to work on the next books, but what happens at this point? Since I figure I can't be that different from other people, who might not have considered the "what's next" aspect of all those endless submissions, I thought I'd post here a couple of things I've learned since I got "the call."

The book Jessica wanted is a cozy. That means it's the first of a series. Before she could submit to publishers, she wanted brief paragraphs on the premises of the next two books. Yikes! Luckily, I had some ideas for those and she said I don't have to stick to them too strictly once everything gets rolling.

My book is a cozy with a bead theme, so she also needed some "stuff." You know, like there are recipes in a culinary mystery. Those aren't too hard for me, since a great deal of my "day job" consists of explaining things to other beadmakers, customers, jewelry makers, etc, but it never occurred to me she'd need them up front, before she could submit to publishers.

And now that she's submitted the package? Well, we wait. Hmm...it seems I've been here before. I wasn't any good at waiting then, and I am no better now.