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Some months back, I did an email interview with fellow author and non-fiction writer, Deborah Bouziden, for what I expected to be a Writer's Digest article.  This week I received a copy of the finished piece.  Instead of appearing in the magazine, however, the interview was published as a feature in the 2006 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, the 25th Anniversary Edition of this "Bible" of the freelance author published by Writer's Digest.  The title?  "Jennifer Blake: Living Legend of Romance Reflects on Her Career and Offers Insight into Craft"

 

Wow.  What a grand--not to mention highly flattering--accolade.  Still, the greatest thing about it to me is the indication of how far I've come.

 

Writer's Market was the first book for writers I ever bought--until that purchase, everything I'd read on the art and craft had come from the library since I could barely afford typewriter ribbons and paper back then.(Writer's Market was originally a single volume with markets for every kind of writing in the world within its pages instead of being divided into different categories as it is now.) But I had written a novel and was ready to start sending it to publishers.  From this 1969 Writer's Market (You thought I wouldn't admit the date, didn't you?), I chose five publishing houses which were listed as seeking Gothic novels, the type I'd written.  I shipped it to the first publisher on my list, but it came back, unopened, because I had not sent a query letter, a device that was just coming into use.  Since I was unsure of how to go about writing such a letter, I simply shipped the book to the next of my chosen publishers in alpha order, Fawcett Gold Medal.  Two months later, I had a letter from the editor, Joseph Elder, who had plucked my manuscript from Fawcett's slush pile.  He said the book was short for Fawcett's list but he would buy it if I could add 30 pages according to his suggestions.  I added the pages, and the book was purchased (for the magnificent advance of $2500, the equivalent of approximately $25,000 today) and published in 1970 as The Secret of Mirror House.

 

From using Writer's Market to launch my career to being showcased in it--that's quite a journey.  And I wouldn't take anything for the honor and joy of it.