Acceptance

I recieved an acceptance from LBF Books, a new publisher based in Pittsburgh on October 8. It was a great day, even though the original email didn't go through because of LBF's server problem. I recieved the email a few days later; ironically, I was just about to ask them for the status of my submission, since I hadn't heard from them for a couple of months.

Shortly after I received LBF's offer, however, I got an email from Behler Publications, based in California, also accepting my manuscript. The icing of the cake was that Lynn Price, the Acquisition Director, included a write-up from a reviewer. To my delight the review was incredibly positive. It made me feel like all my effort in the past 30 months had been worth it.

But now I had a choice to make -- a good position to be in, actually. Meanwhile, I had two agents reading my complete manuscript as well. Always the indecisive one, I began to stress out. So suddenly my dilemma became: Should I take one of these contracts, or should I wait for the agents to get back to me?

I had to step back, relax, and learn how to take deep breaths. I knew when it came to decisions, I always took a long time, but ultimately, in hindsight, I'd always made the right ones. So I needed some time to think, look over the contracts, and figure out what was best for me and my first book.

Truth be told, I didn't and still don't expect this book to be a smash, New York Times best-seller with megabucks advance and movie deals. I do want to give it a chance, and for it to be something I could be proud of, something I could call it my own, and something upon which I could use to build my career. So I needed to make a good decision.

Then there were the contracts to consider. Both contracts were very standard. Both offered comparable terms such as royalties, rights, etc. It became a matter of which publisher I felt more comfortable with, and how they were going to help make my book a success.

It was good that I had a scheduled trip to Asia. I took my time. I heard nothing from the agents, so that eliminated some of my options -- you could wait forever for the fruit to fall, or you could go up and pluck it.

So I did.

I made a decision.