How do you choose a publisher?

How do you choose a publisher? Or do you let the publisher choose you? I suppose to an extent most new authors go by a combination of the two choices. My first choice of who to be published with would have been Harlequin/Silhouette. I grew up devouring them. Grocery bags full that I dragged home from the used book stores and all the new releases I could find as well. But in real life, I racked up lots of rejections from H/S although I'm still trying and have a submission in. Although I've not yet been picked up by my first choice, I haven't blindly submitted to just any publisher, either. I met my first publisher, New Concepts Publishing, at my local RWA group in 1998. I was impressed by the publisher. So I submitted. Later, I watched Ellora's Cave and saw their success and liked the quality of their books. I liked what I heard about their business practices. I liked the professional look of their site. When I received an email from Total-E-Bound, I liked the tone of the publisher. I also feel the site is professional and I've never been disappointed. I've also heard a lot of great things about The Wild Rose Press, my newest publisher. But I still receive emails from friends and loops with calls for submissions. Even though I'm pretty booked up and have my goals, I still look at these. I looked at one recently. Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed with the site. It didn't look professional. The cover art was not that great. I'd only heard of one or two of the authors and then I barely knew their names. Usually, I like to lurk and hear what people are saying about a publisher before I submit and especially before I sign on the dotted line. A couple times I took a leap of faith. Once didn't work out so well and once worked out very well. Normally, I like security so take my time deciding. I wish this publisher luck. Maybe one day I'll change my mind and submit. But for now, my time is valuable. So is my trust. I'm already exhausted trying to run the wheel in my hamster cage and keep up with my writing. On the other hand, I've seen other publishers that look interesting. again, however, there is only so much time and I'm pretty happy - except for my inability to write even faster. I keep promising myself that when I retire from my day job (oh in 15 or 20 years or more) I'll write a full novel a month - at least every other month. We'll see. That's my goal anyway. But if I was looking for another publisher, I look at the publisher's reputation, the professional look of their web site, and the cover art. I'll also check out several of their books. What do you look at? Or have you thought about it? I'm sure veteran authors think long and hard about this. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Which book do I write next? (and answers about the Alpha Smart)

I stayed home from work ill today. I'm feeling quite a bit better, but am still relaxing. Actually, I'm blog hopping again. I'll start editing in a few minutes and do some writing later if I still feel okay.

For those of you who are writers, how many stories do you have running around in your head right now? How many do you have started that you have to finish?

I have approximately twenty stories started that I need to finish. There's at least ten more that I'm itching to write. I'm not sure which one to finish or start next.

It's a real dilemma. Help me out here.

Of course I have to do my edits on the book scheduled to come out April 7th at www.total-e-bound.com. That's a given.

But then what?

I'm going to Lori Foster's Readers N Writers' Get Together in Cincinnati this summer where I have one editor and one agent appointment set up. I still have some polishing to do for that manuscript so it will be ready. Right? Of course! It's almost done - I hope. That depends on what my critique partners tell me about the last few chapters. It's a sweet Harlequin-Silhouette contemporary type novel, and I hope "the one" to break me into the big time publishers and round me up an agent.

Then, however, is the sequel for an Ellora's Cave book - to Make-Believe Lover.

Then there's other sweet Harlequin-Silhouette books that are sequels to the one I'm going to pitch in June.

Then there's a sequel to a story I wrote for NCP that I'm dying to write.

Oh! There's another sequel almost done for an Ellora's Cave book also, that I need to finish and spice up. I've only been working on this one going on ten years. That's all. It's about time I finish this one.

But then there's also the erotic romance stories for TEB which I'm on a roll with. I hate to slow down my momentum there, either, but I need to speed up my momentum again with Ellora's Cave and NCP.

What to do?

I have vacation scheduled from the day job next week. I hope to get some quality writing time in (and not blog hop all day long every day). Of course, if things go right, I will get my hearing implant next Wednesday so I won't be in any shape to write, edit, or play on the Internet (at least I doubt it) for the rest of my week's vacation. By next Wednesday night, I hope to be part Borg. :)

By that for you non-Trekkies and/or who haven't seen my earlier post about the BAHA hearing implant, there will be a metal post sticking out the back of my head about the size of a hearing aid battery. Since I'm a woman and wear my hair long, it probably won't be discernible once my hair grows back. I'm sure they'll have to shave a bit of it to do the surgery. Waaa! I finally get my hair the way I like it and it'll get ruined. But it's a small price to pay.

So pray for the insurance company to get their head out of their asses and approve my surgery. They denied it three years ago because they thought it sounded like a hearing aid. It's not a hearing aid. I didn't fight it last time. This time, I'm fighting it. I could kick myself for not fighting it before - but I'm older and wiser now. As I mentioned, they denied it again, but I'm fighting.

Back to yesterday's discussion so I can answer your questions.

For those of you who wonder what an alpha smart is, here's a pic. I found it at: www.alphasmart.com. This model goes for $350. They have more expensive models.



This model of the Alpha Smart includes:

•	Rechargeable battery pack
•	AC adapter
•	Documents To Go Professional (Provides compatibility with Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint®)
•	USB cable
•	Getting Started Guide
•	Palm™ Desktop Software
•	Additional applications, fonts, and other bonus software
•	Stylus