Sharon Dow

This time I was waiting for a long envelope to arrive via mail. The wait seemed long. Isn’t that always the way; we don’t like to wait. We live in an ‘on demand’ society. But again there are lessons to be learned in waiting. Apparently patience was one of the things I needed to learn.

One day when I wasn’t even thinking about it, it arrived. Now I sat holding the future in my hands. Would there be encouragement or only criticism? It was like receiving university marks by mail. I’d done my best, but was it enough?

Five typed pages greeted me when I at last opened the envelope. I decided to read each word as I came to it and not jump ahead. The critique was very detailed and very useful. The criticisms listed made sense to me and I could see where I would be able to make my book much stronger.

At last I arrived at the ‘Potential’ section. I was most interested in this. It would decide the fate of my manuscript. If they felt it had no potential; there was not much hope. Let me quote some of their comments:

            “This is a good story, better than many that publishers see and could have a good chance at being accepted for publication.”

            “The story is a good one . . . publishers will be able to see the strong plot of the story and the good characterization provided by the author.”

That was enough for me. It was a green light to continue. Now I just needed a publisher!

Where to begin? How would I find a publisher? That in itself was a journey. In my next blog, I’ll take you on that journey.