Hi there, Sugar here. 2012 is almost over and I hope it was a good year for you. I hope you accomplished the things you wanted to. Writing-wise I accomplished a lot. Writing-wise it was a pretty awesome year for me. But it was a long year full of ups and downs and roller coaster emotions. Most of you know that I managed to snag a three book deal with St. Martin’s Press. In hindsight it seemed like everything happened so fast but when I was living it everything seemed to go excruciatingly slow. Here’s what my past year looked like.
December 2011
Started querying. Mostly rejections. One request for a full.
January 2012
Rejections, rejections, rejections. One more request for a full. One request for a partial.
February 2012
Rejections on partial. Rejections of queries. Some cursing. One request for a full. Two partial requests.
March 2012
Querying fatigue setting in. More rejections on queries and on partial. One request for a full. Two rejections for partials. Waiting for word back on the then four full manuscripts I had out.
April 2012
Rethinking this whole being a writer thing. I was tired of waiting. I was tired of rejections. The doubt monster had me in a nasty choke hold. One more request for a full. One offer of representation. Another offer of representation. SQUEEEEEE!
May 2012
Agent ,who I ADORE, asked me to cut down my manuscript from 100,000 words to 90,000 to make it more sell-able. (Grumble, grumble.) I went out on submission to the ‘BIG 6’ and romance giant Harlequin. Got my first rejection ON MY BIRTHDAY! Got two more rejections. Starting rethinking this whole being a writer thing again.
June 2012
I got a surprise offer from a smaller but still kick-ass publisher. Screamed like an idiot when I got off the phone with my agent. Two days later I got two offers from two of the ‘Big 6’ and was informed that I would be going to auction the next day. Was in shock. Was shaking. Was also at work when I found out. Kids in my class thought I was having a stroke. St. Martin’s Press (Macmillan) offered me a three book deal. I actually met my editor at CTRWA’s Fiction Fest long before I even thought about writing my book. It must have been fate because I don’t remember a single other editor that was there that year beside her.
July 2012
Contract negotiations. PM announcement.
August 2012
Contract negotiations
September 2012
Edits arrive. Rethinking this whole being a writer thing again. Contract negotiations finally finished!
October 2012
Book 2 was due. Edits for book 1 due. Super hard. Super proud when I finished both of those things.
November 2012
MUST WRITE BOOK 3. Advance check came! Advance check went! But no more student loans!!!!!!!!! (Do you have any idea how expensive college is?)
December 2012
GOT A RELEASE DATE!!!!!!! Dangerous Curves Ahead will hit shelves on August 27, 2013.
Got my author photos taken. Probably a bad idea right after Thanksgiving, but they came out pretty good.
Tackled this whole social media thing. Amazon author page. Check.
Website updated again. Now it looks kinda professional. http://www.sugarjamison.com/
Got my Facebook page done. Please like me!
Got my cover art! Check back here soon for reveal.
Oh an I won my very first award!
Phew… That was a very long year. What did yours look like?
Writing Secrets of 7 Scribes 
Congratulations!! I love the author photo!! And I liked your FB and Amazon pages (the first person for both!!) and I pre-ordered your book too.
p.s. – consider creating an author page on Goodreads (once you have an ISBN).
Thanks. I do have an ISBN and I will.
WOW! Awesome year in retrospect. Mine was crazy too. Hoping 2013 settles down a bit. I don’t think my heart can take all the excitement:-) Congrats, my friend! Going over to “like” your pages and pre-order the book…
You can take it! Excitement keeps you on your toes.
Yay Sugar! Comes over here and give mama a kiss! I’m so proud of you. Way to tackle that doubt monster. Going over to like all the pages, preorder the book and do embarrislingly silly happy dance for you. YAY!!
Thanks I appreciate it!
Fabulous history, thanks for sharing! I’m going to try to follow in your footsteps next year! 🙂 (I wish, I hope.)
I hope you get there too!
Terrific year, Sugar! I’m glad you shared both ups AND downs. I’ve shared this blog on my personal FB page, where I have the most followers. I hope your followers will come like my FB Author page, here: https://www.facebook.com/drmarywatson?ref=hl Love, Sandra de Helen
I liked you!
You don’t know how much I needed this post today, Sugar! I’ve been vacationing in Rejection Land for a while now and it was starting to get me down, even though I’ve only been at it for three months. Over the weekend I sent out a bunch of “revenge” queries (one new query for every rejection). Winning my MargaRITA energized me, I guess. I liked you on all your pages too 🙂