It Stings

by Cheri Chesley

Wednesday night, I went to bed feeling pretty much on top of the world. I'd made so much progress on The Wild Queen, and the publisher had The Tyrant King. All I had to do was write, edit and submit The Lost Princess and my first book series would be complete.

Then I got up Thursday morning and checked my email.

My editor wrote me. While she likes the story, she feels there are too many things wrong with it at this point to move ahead with publishing. She'd gladly look at it again if I address these issues and resubmit. This isn't a rejection, really. It's a "we saw some issues you may want to fix" notice.

It still stings. But it didn't really come as a surprise.

I let myself get caught up in my schedule for this year, and didn't take the time to hear back from my beta readers before sending it off to the publisher. I like the story a lot--the problem is I knew it wasn't perfect. I just figured it would be "good enough."

Yeah, I know. Kind of ironic since one of my Goodreads reviews bashes my publisher as the "only publisher in Utah who will publish anything." Not. :)

This is not the end of the road. It's a setback, clearly, and will mean some restructuring--not only of the story, but also of my schedule. Some things will have to be changed. Some things will have to be put off. Some things will have to be given up.

First things first: I'm finishing my edits on The Wild Queen this week and getting it to my newest beta reader. While she's looking it over, I'm going to work on fixing The Tyrant King.

Don't count me out, yet. :)