18 Years to Publication: Never Give Up!

Guest Post By Author Diana Rubino

My story will inspire you to push on if nothing else will. It’s unique because I’m probably the longest aspiring author to be published, having been at it for 18 years. I wrote my first novel in 1982, after a dose of reality in the brokerage business. In those days, executive-level women were virtually nonexistent in the finance industry. My first novel was largely autobiographical, as most first novels tend to be. Although my third and fourth novels came close to getting published with Harlequin, they didn’t quite make it.

As a history buff, I decided to write a historical novel, which became The Jewels of Warwick, set around Henry VIII and a fictional mistress. Jewels took two years to research and write, with no internet access. It came very close to publication with several romance houses but missed the mark due to containing too little romance. When I finished Jewels, I scoured the history books for another legendary figure to write about. While I browsed the Cambridge Library stacks, a book snagged my eye. Lying, not standing, on the wrong shelf was Crown of Roses by Valerie Anand. It drew me like a magnet. Richard III is a central character in the story, and the author thanks the Richard III Society for helping her. Who’s this Richard III Society? I wondered. 

Already hooked on Richard, his tragic death at 32, and his reputation as a usurper and a murderer of his little nephews, I joined this Richard III Society. So, I joined up (again, through snail mail, no internet). As everyone else who has a story about how they ‘met’ Richard, he fascinated me. I’ve found the subject of my next novel! And it tied in perfectly as a prequel to The Jewels of Warwick. Titled Thy Name is Love, it made the same rounds of publishers, remaining homeless after several rewrites and seven years. 

Then the miracle of the internet came to all of us. My first online experience was CompuServe’s Romance Forum. This led to meeting many authors who shared leads and their own writing journeys. I saw a list of E-publishers, since E-publishing was new and quickly catching on. One of those publishers was Domhan Books, a British publisher who also did print. 

When I heard back from them, I was thrilled to see an offer to publish my historical novels, as Siobhan McNally, the owner of Domhan Books, was a huge Richard sympathizer. They also published print books, so I lived the moment I’d dreamed about seeing my first book in print. This was 18 years after the first manuscript was published.

What surprised me most about the publishing business is that it’s very challenging to gain recognition. You really need to work on both promotion and writing. You should promote as much as time allows, without taking away from your writing time. 

But you must be realistic; it’s not easy to shoot up to #1; I’d had delusions of being on talk shows and seeing my name on the NYT bestseller lists after my first novel.

I always tell aspiring authors to ensure the opening—and I mean the first paragraph—is compelling enough to grab the reader’s attention, making it possible for them to connect with the characters emotionally and care enough about them to keep reading. Ensure the novel doesn’t have too many descriptions that drag it down, and the stakes need to be high enough so that the characters are in life-or-death situations, making it seem they can’t possibly get out of them. Each complication needs to be worse than the previous one. Ensure the secondary characters are more than mere cardboard, and humor always helps.

I’ve never had a deadline from a publisher, but I once sent an agent the first three chapters of my vampire romance A Bloody Good Cruise. He said he’d like to see the entire manuscript, so I wrote 5,000 words a day (approximately 20 pages) until it was finished. Now I know I’m capable of turning out 5,000 words a day. My usual output is 2,500 words a day.

I advise aspiring authors who are frustrated to join a supportive critique group of authors who write in your genre, take writing courses, and read how-to books. And keep writing, because you’ll only get better. And NEVER give up on your dream! 

Diana Rubino writes about folks through history who shook things up. Her passion for history and travel has taken her to every locale of her books: Medieval and Renaissance England, Egypt, the Mediterranean, Virginia, New England, and New York. Her urban fantasy romance FAKIN’ IT won a Top Pick award from Romantic Times. She is a member of the Richard III Society and the Aaron Burr Association. With her husband, Chris, she owns CostPro, Inc., a construction cost consulting business. In her spare time, she bicycles, golfs, practices yoga, works out with her trainer, plays her piano, devours books, and lives the dream on Cape Cod.