PATHS TO PUBLICATION - MARTA PERRY

Final Justice_Marta PerryFinal JusticebyMarta Perry.

Goodness, that was a long time ago! I always knew I wanted to write, but it seemed so impractical, so I trained as a teacher instead. But the desire never went away. I was teaching a Sunday school class for six-year-olds when I read the story in the take-home paper and thought, I could do that. I approached it very methodically, studying a lot of examples before trying my own story.

When I thought I had something that had a success at selling, I searched through the Writer's Market in the library and made up a list of all the possible markets. The first place I sent it to returned it with a form rejection. The second sent a form rejection with a handwritten note of encouragement on the bottom. The third place bought it for the magnificent sum of $25 or so. I continued writing for those papers, eventually branching out into writing for teen and adult religious publications. Eventually I moved into mainstream magazines, both fiction and non-fiction, and then into book publishing. Each time I approached a new market I followed the same procedure--reading a lot, studying and dissecting published works until I felt I understood what made them saleable.

I started focusing on book-length fiction in the 90s and had some success, but nothing that led to a long-term career at a particular house. Lines kept dying on me! I kept at it because I was born with a persistence gene, I guess, and when the founding of the Love Inspired line was announced, I felt convinced that was the place where I was meant to be. My first submission to them sold, and I've been with them since 1998.

-Marta Perry
July 2008

Check out Buried Sins, also by Marta, and visit her online at www.martaperry.com.


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