Never Dreamed I’d Be a Writer
Although I was a voracious reader, I never thought I would be a writer. While I was in school, if someone had told me I would one day be the author and ghostwriter of 48 books with 1 million copies sold, I would have said they had lost their mind. I minored in English, and I loved grammar. I hated my writing assignments.
As a young mother, I took a writing course, thinking it would be something I could do while I was a stay-at-home mom. I discovered I LOVE writing stories. I came up with my first idea for a novel and started writing.
14 Years Went By
By the time I finished my first manuscript, I was totally addicted to writing fiction. But I kept getting rejections. That was before Amazon changed the world. I submitted my book to publisher after publisher, but no one wanted my book. I took a second writing course, rewrote my novel 5 times. I worked for 14 long years until FINALLY I got a yes.
Success Opened Up To Me
That year my novel, Megan’s Choice, was a Reader’s Favorite. I began writing 2 books per year, and in 2001, my historical novel Reaping the Whirlwind won the national Christy Award for excellence in fiction. Three years later, my book Colorado was in Wal-Mart for 15 months and sold 250,000 copies. My career was humming along. I was speaking at writers’ conferences and traveling on book tours.
Life Happened
By 2009, I had 27 published titles. I was working for a publishing company as an editor and a book coach. I was speaking across the East Coast. Then, I ended up in a sudden divorce, and everything stopped. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t deliver a presentation. I couldn’t see what the future held for me anymore. I didn’t know who I was.
Eventually, I began ghostwriting, and today I still earn a living ghostwriting books for other people. 10 years went by. My books went out of print. Most people forgot about that part of my life, and I also wondered if I would ever get back to my own writing again. Would I live in the shadows writing for other people for the rest of my life?
From the Ashes
I had a novel idea on a storyboard on my desk for 5 years, but I couldn’t write it. During COVID, I tackled that novel, and I got it done! I can’t even tell you how I felt when I held The Englewood Medium in my hands. Soon after that, my original publisher gave me back the rights to 10 of my books. Some of those books had sold 250,000 copies. They were too valuable to let them go.
But where should I place them? Amazon felt too restrictive. I had published The Englewood Medium with a hybrid company. I did the math, and paying hybrid fees for 10 books would be way out of range. I let those 10 books sit in my files for 2 years.
Vendela Publishing is Born
Eventually, I realized that I wasn’t going to find the publishing model I wanted. I had to create it myself. Doing the research on the requirements for traditional publishing, I mushed together a traditional publishing model with some hybrid components, and added marketing support to the package. Basically, I created the publisher I had longed for all those years, one that gives instead of taking advantage. One that lets the author have creative control as well as turning over all their royalties to the people who actually write the book. A publisher that truly cares about their authors’ success.
And here we are.
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