When I was an unpublished writer, all I thought about was getting a literary agent. I knew the odds were stacked against me. Getting an agent, I’d heard, was harder than getting published. It took some people years to accomplish. Some people never managed it.

So I did my due diligence and I sent out query letters. And on the fourth (or maybe the fifth) try, I found an agent who was as enthusiastic about my as-yet-unpublished books as I was. I was thrilled. I’d done it – I’d gotten representation from an honest-to-goodness literary agent. Go, me! So you’d think that would be enough, right?

Well, yes and no.

It was great to have an agent, of course it was; but now it remained to get my books published. And that, I knew, wouldn’t be easy, either. But while getting published didn’t happen overnight, it did happen. My agent eventually sold all three of my books. Score, right?

Well, yes and no.

My three books were going to be published as a series, and I’d never been so over the moon with excitement as the day I got the news from my agent. Me, published! Wow. I got to work with an amazing editor. I got to see my first book cover art. It was all incredibly exciting.

But after the thrill of seeing my ebooks on Amazon and iBooks and Google Play faded, I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have a real book, one that actually sits on a shelf?

Suddenly, books became my new obsession. Why couldn’t I have a book on the shelf, too? Paperback or hardback, it didn’t matter; I’d be happy with either. (Of course I wouldn’t; I’d still find something to complain about, but that’s another story for another blog.)

After all, I reasoned, how can you sign an ebook? (You can, electronically, but it’s not quite the same thing, is it?)  And then I started thinking…why don’t I have a film deal? Why isn’t Hollywood knocking on my door? Why aren’t I writing the screenplay and hobnobbing with Baz and Bradley at my movie’s world premiere? That’s not asking too much, is it?

Well…yes…it probably is.

After sulking for a few days, feeling sorry for myself as I lamented the goals I haven’t yet reached and the sucesses I haven’t yet accomplished, I put down my tub of Ben and Jerry’s and thought: (a) I just mindlessly consumed 2,898 calories; and (b) wait a minute – let’s look at what I have accomplished.

In less than two years, I’ve gotten an agent; I’ve been published; my ebooks have sold well enough that I could afford to leave my day job behind; two have been bestsellers; and most importantly, almost every day I get wonderful Tweets and emails from fans who tell me how much they love my stories and ask when the next one is coming out. Honestly, what more could a writer want? Not a darned thing.

Except – well, a New York Times bestseller would be really nice…

♥  ♥  ♥

And the Bride Wore Prada, first in the new ‘Marrying Mr Darcy’ series, available now!