The email

September 16, 2010 started out like any other day. I had internship hours, signing models up for Greenville Fashion Week in October. It was extremely slow, so I kept trying to check my email on my iPod Touch, but the internet wasn’t consistently working either. That didn’t stop me from poking my email button when I’d been sitting there for twenty minutes and having no one come by. Oh good, I thought as I didn’t get an error message, something’s going right. My heart stopped when I saw the subject line ‘Expectations/Family Saga/Romance/88,830’ –submission response. My halted heart jumped to impossible speeds. With a glance at the sender line, I realized the email was sent from Staci at Lazy Day Publishing…the email I’d been waiting for since I sent in my manuscript three weeks before.

My mind started racing along with my heart. Should I open it? Do I wanna know? What if I’m rejected? Do I want to find that out here with strangers surrounding me? I hesitated for only a moment until my hopeful curiosity trumped my fear.

“Hi Liz,

We have finished reading Expectations, and fell in love with the way you told the story.  Your manuscript is the first one we have accepted with such drama, turmoil and compassion. The way you weave the tale is truly powerful. We at LazyDay Publishing would like to offer you a contract to publish your book.  Congratulations!  We look forward to forming a very successful and lucrative partnership.”

Tears filled my eyes as I read the words again and again. Could an author get a better email? Of course not, I had a publisher who believed in me and my manuscript. Expectations is launching as an e-book on December 1, 2010. I’m a part of a dynamic and amazing set of ‘founding authors’ for LazyDay. You’ll get to meet some of these very talented people in the form of guest posts in the coming months.

Thank you all for sharing this journey with me. I can’t wait to see what’s in store. 

 

Comments

[Annette]

Congratulations! I'm fascinated by this growth in epublishers and so excited for all the new opportunities for writers. Congratulations for getting in on the ground floor of a new publisher and frame that acceptance email:-D

[Liz Borino]

Thank you, Annette! I agree with you about the epublishing, it's so exciting and I'm so very lucky for getting this opportunity. Please come back to see more of the blog/process/novel. :)