How did you get published?
by Kara Lennox

That is a question I get asked a lot, and I'll try to answer it.

I've always been a writer, since I was very small.  I wrote poetry and short stories in grade school and high school, magazine articles in college and after, but my true, lofty goal was to be a novelist.  I was a huge fan of gothic romances, historical romances and mysteries (didn't care for Harlequins at that time), so I started there.  I began my first romance novel (my feeble attempt at a gothic) in college, finally finished it four years later.  I sent it to every publisher I could find and waited for the advance check to arrive … and boy, was I surprised and dismayed when I got nothing but generic rejections.

About then, I started to attend writers' conferences and actually met some published authors who gently pointed out some of the huge mistakes I was making.  I joined Romance Writers of America (one of the best things you can do if you write genre fiction of any kind, in my opinion), got involved with a local chapter of that organization in Kansas City, and things started to improve.

I wrote three more books--targeted for specific publishers, specific imprints.  I started paying attention to "market news"--the types of romances the editors were looking for, which publishers were most apt to buy from a new author, which agents were open to taking on new clients.  And I continued to collect rejections, although many were personal and encouraging (instead of the dreaded, photo-copied, "Dear Sir or Madam …").

I also joined a small critique group (6 members).  We met once a week and read each other's work.  The feedback was invaluable.

Everything started coming together for me one summer, a couple of years after I had really committed to becoming a published writer.  I attended the national Romance Writers of America conference (in Dallas that year, as it is again this year!), during which I had a one-on-one appointment with an assistant editor at Silhouette Books and a literary agent.  I pitched the book I had just finished (No. 5), and both were interested in reading it.  The agent took me on as a client a couple of months later, and the following year (it does take months and months to get your work read, sometimes) the editor bought that book, which became ROSES HAVE THORNS, a Silhouette Romance.

Since that time I've sold 46 more books.  That is not to say the road has been smooth.  I've gone through many, many editors--they move to different publishers, get promoted, have babies.  I've written for three different lines at Silhouette, two at Harlequin, and a few books for Bantam Loveswept.  At one point a few years ago, I went two years without selling a thing and thought my career was over.  And I have continued to collect, many, many rejections.

But I carry on because writing is not only what I love, but what I have to do to stay sane.  I am so lucky that I've been able to make a living doing this.  I may not be rich, I may not be famous (yet), but I wake up every day knowing I get to spend my working hours doing something I love.