About a week before I submitted Devil You Don’t to Pink Petal Books, I submitted it to Samhain Publishing. Last night I this was in my email:

Dear Shaunta:
Thank you for giving Samhain Publishing the opportunity to review your work, Devil You Don’t, for possible publication. Unfortunately, we won’t be extending an offer of publication for this manuscript.

Best, XXX

I’m pretty happy that the request for the full manuscript came from Pink Petal Books before I was outright rejected by a form letter by Samhain. Let me just tell you that there is nothing, nothing, like a form rejection letter to put an upstart writer in her place.

I was reading an agent’s blog recently and she was talking about how there are three ways to get attention in this very tight business. Be introduced, meet someone at a conference, and as a distant third, cold query.

With that in mind, I have a plan. I’m going to join Romance Writers of America. And I’m going to try to get myself to a conference in the next year. I’m going to enter myself in as many contests as I can get my fingers on. I’m going to do what doesn’t come particularly naturally to me: network. Anyone have an agent they want to introduce me to? LMAO

In other news, I finished Keeper. It’s just right at 15000 words by the skin of its teeth. I’m going to print it and take it to Las Vegas with me for a read over. I’d still love a couple of beta readers if anyone is interested.