By Cas Barrett, Publications Intern
Diane Barnes, a women’s fiction and romance author of five novels, offered a talk on the road to publication for interested writers where she detailed her struggle to find her stride in creative writing and become a traditionally published author.
Her first book, Waiting For Ethan, reached the Amazon Bestsellers list, and her fifth book was published two weeks ago, titled The Mulligan Curse, and has been compared to a modern It's a Wonderful Life.
She started writing in second grade when her teacher handed out notebooks to write down a story about what happened during recess; what was originally one notebook became many. When attending college, she began pursuing a degree in journalism before later switching to creative writing. She worked on a practice novel for many years, learning extensively about creative writing but never finishing it.
“Next time I wrote a book, I was determined to finish it,” Barnes said.
Then, a friend encouraged her to participate in National Novel Writing Month, with the goal of writing 50,000 words by the end of November. And she succeeded; it was rough but done. She sent her manuscript to a local book club for advice.
“You get different advice from writers than from readers,” Barnes said.
The book club then recommended it be published.
“The path to publication is different for each book,” Barnes said. “51% of Americans read one book a year, 84% of Americans say they’d like to write a book, 3% finish. Of those 3%, 0.002% are traditionally published. Don’t let rejection stop you.”
“Publishers don’t accept submissions directly from authors. In order to be traditionally published, you need an agent. Then you go through what's called a query,” Barnes added.
Query letters include the novel title, genre, a one-sentence pitch, a compilation of alternative titles, and a summary of what happens in 500 words. Editors at publishing houses use these letters to decide whether or not they'd like to offer a contract.
After an editor takes interest in a book, there’s an acquisition meeting, where all departments responsible for making and marketing the book meet to discuss whether or not the book will be successful before drafting the contract.
“There were lots of no’s and basically no explanations; they wouldn’t say why they rejected a book,” Barnes said. “Eventually one said, ‘We think it’s good, but not women’s fiction.’ Labels are very important in publishing.”
When she was offered a contract, it came with a requirement that it be labeled a romance novel. She agreed, and this book later became Waiting for Ethan.
“There is no men’s fiction,” Barnes said, “Men just write about whatever they want; I think women’s writing should be the same.”
With her next book, they found another publisher in North Carolina, who has been helping her publish more of her books since. A self-imposed two-week deadline keeps her on track for meetings with her support group for revisions twice a month before larger deadlines.
