​I’ve begun the process to search for an independent publisher to accept the third novel on the Ian Murphy series.  I used the same search process with my first novel, Murphy’s Troubles.  I gave myself a year to find a publisher and signed a contract with a small California publisher in the twelfth month of my search. 
I am learning how much the process of hunting for a publisher has changed.  In 2011 I used the Deluxe Edition of Writer’s Market.  I still have the 2010 edition, which I suppose I could use again because I marked all the publishers and agents I sent queries to.  This time I googled ‘publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts’ and this week developed a list of forty potential publishers.   Next, I am reviewing back issues of Writer’s Digest because they list publishers who accept novels.  My goal is to have a list of 60-75 that I can send queries to.  Who knows what the right number is.
The first time I went down this path I gave myself a year to land a publishing contract.  This time I’ve given myself six months.  Why the change?  For my second book I used an assisted publishing service, CK Books- ckbookspublishing.com.  The owner, Christine Keleny, is editing Dead Reckoning.  If I’m not successful contracting with a traditional publisher I’ll have CKBooks publish my novel.
The requirements for submitting an unsolicited manuscript have changed.  In 2011 I would send a query letter, a synopsis and maybe the first chapter of the book.  Today you need to send a query letter; a synopsis; a back of the book blurb; up to fifty pages of manuscript; your publishing history and a marketing plan.  The marketing plan is a new element.  I suppose it demonstrates to the publisher that you are serious about your work, understand that the author will do 98% of the marketing, and have some hope of success.
In 2012 I wrote a marketing plan that sits in a three ring binder on the bottom shelf of the bookcase in my office.  I will review my original plan, of course, but suspect it is dated.  So, once again, I googled ‘marketing plan for a novel’ and found a wide range of material.  I printed off three examples I liked and will use them as a guide to develop a new marketing plan.
I’m guessing it will take me a month to put together all the elements of my campaign before I send the first query to a publisher.  This is work folks, don’t let anyone suggest to you otherwise.  Writing the best damn book you can is the starting point – not the end.
  

​Hive Collapse
 
I must be honest and report that I am a complete failure at beekeeping this year.  My friend and I bought our bee “packages” about six weeks ago, one for each hive.  A “package” contains a queen and her attendants and about 5 pounds of bees.  Don’t ask me how they weigh the bees and I am strangely incurious about it.  I accept as a matter of beekeepers honor that we get five pounds of bees.  The queen comes in a tiny cage with 3 or 4 attendants.  There is a plug of sugar keeping the queen and her retinue in the cage.  The cage fits between several bee frames in the hive.  In the perfect world as the bees explore their new home they are attracted to the sugar gate of the queen’s cage.
We followed the process to install our packages in the hive to a “T”.  Then you allow 3 days for the bees to eat through the sugar gate of the queen’s cage and release her to do her job.  At the end of 3 days you check to be sure queen has escaped and the forages are foraging and the comb builders are building comb and all is right with the world.  Then you allow 21 days to pass.  After 21 days you check that the comb has been “pulled” on at least 6 of 10 frames.
I checked-nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  The only answer was that the queen was dead or worst case scenario, the bees rejected the queen and killed her.  No queen – no hive.  That’s the rules of beekeeping.
I checked with my supplier, they had queens available and assured me there was still time to have a healthy hive.  It would be problematic if I could harvest honey this year but I could have a healthy hive going into winter.  My provider was generous and gave me the second queen, which usually cost $40.
I followed the same procedure as earlier in the month.  This past Saturday, June 17th, marked day 21 and I could open the hive and peek in on their homemaking.  I’ve been worried for weeks because I haven’t seen a lot of bee activity around the hive, even on nice, humid, 90 degree days.  I opened the hive.  There wasn’t anything in the top box, not even any bees.  By this time there should have been several frames of brood.  I took the top box off and set it on the grass.  I looked into the second box and found a few bees dancing on top of the wood frame – but just a few – there should have been hundreds, thousands.  To be safe I smoked them.
I pulled up a frame in the center of the box – nothing – clean as a whistle.  Bees usually work from the middle out.  I checked the area where I left the queen and there was no evidence she had been in residence for weeks.  I pulled a frame on one side and found where drones had been born – not more than 30.  A hive needs drones but not a lot of them.  After they do their job they die to leave the lady bees build brood and take care of the little ones. 
The lack of normal bee homemaking probably explains the lack of bee foraging outside the hive.  Without a queen a bee hive cannot survive.  By the end of summer there should be 10,000 bees in a hive.  I doubt if my hive has 500 bees and they will keep dying off.
It is too late in the season, at least in Wisconsin, for the bees to recover.  My hive collapsed.  No honey this year.
The End
 

​I never answer phone calls from numbers I don’t know, especially when the call is long distance.  Most of the time, a long distance call is the American Red Cross begging for bodily fluid.  It’s always an emergency with the Red Cross.  I do like to donate blood, when and where I want to and I don’t need to be asked several times a week.
The second rule I have is that I wait to learn if the caller from an unknown message leaves a voicemail message.  Most robo calls don’t or can’t leave a voice mail.  The American Red Cross has conquered that mountain too, the damn machine leaves a message – so I don’t listen to messages from New Jersey and other mysterious places.
A call about 8:15 one evening last week didn’t meet my criteria for ignoring it and the area code for the number was 414 – Milwaukee.  I didn’t listen to the message until about 9:00 pm.  The person introduced themselves as Maricolette Walsh from the Milwaukee Irish Fest.  She had read my second novel, Out of Darkness, and wanted to invite me to participate in the Literary Corner this year to sell my book.  She explained she sent me an e-mail the previous week and was worried when I didn’t respond to her invitation.  She took the initiative to call me.
Wow!  I’ve only been invited to two other Irish centric events, the Oshkosh Irish Fest three years ago and an Irish pub in Appleton.  I had attended the 2014 Milwaukee Irish Fest Literary Corner but I wasn’t invited.  At that time the process was to submit your book, someone read it and judged if the author was appropriate for the Fest.
After listening to the message I called Maricolette back that evening and thanked her for reaching out to me by phone.  I wondered how she located my phone number and was dumbstruck that I had missed her e-mail.  Of course, I accepted the invitation.  She said in recent years, with a revised format for authors, that they reported average sales of 50 books for the weekend.   That’s excellent.  The Fest takes 20% of the sales price in lieu of a table fee and they handle all the transactions.  That’s a fair exchange because it frees an author to interact with readers and sign books after they have been purchased.
The next day I searched through my e-mail to see if I had simply missed her e-mail but came up short.  Next I searched through my trash in case I accidently toss her e-mail away.  Again, I didn’t find it in the trash.  The last resort is to check spam.  Was I surprised at what I found in my spam folder!  The one e-mail I didn’t find was one from Maricolette Walsh.  For a time I thought my e-mail address might have been misinterpreted as containing an ‘O’ versus “0” since the letter O and the number 0 are so similar.  However, Maricolette said her e-mail didn’t bounce back.  Somewhere in the universe there is a stray e-mail searching for a home.
It is rewarding to know that someone read my book and thought it good enough to garner an invitation to the 2017 Milwaukee Irish Fest – it is an honor.
Visit me on Aug. 18, 19 and 20th at the Literary Corner of the Milwaukee Irish Fest – the largest Irish Fest in the nation!  
Check out their website - irishfest.com
 
P.S.  How did she find my phone number?  I published both my e-mail and phone number in the in the back pages of Out of Darkness.  Generally I publish only my e-mail and website addresses.  Glad I included my phone number (even if it is a dumb risk).        

​After completing the manuscript for my first historical novel, Murphy’s Troubles, I devoted a year to find either an agent to represent me or a small publisher who accepted unsolicited manuscripts.  I sent out over 400 inquiry letters and in the 12th month of my search I received an offer from a boutique publisher in California.   At that time they had less than a dozen authors and published about 15 books a year.  Rather than traditional royalties they offered a flat payment per book sold.  At the time I was elated.
Over time my relationship with the publisher soured and I cancelled the contract after more than a year.  It was that experience that motivated me to contract with Create Space to self-publish Murphy’s Troubles.  The consulting services I received from Create Space were excellent and they guided me in launching a high quality book.  However, I found the process of learning the publication language and making a myriad of decisions exhausting and a distraction from additional writing.
With my second book, Out of Darkness, I took another path, assisted publishing.  A friend, Christine Keleny owns CK Books and she agreed to publish my second novel.  Christine is the penultimate professional and she guided me through the process with ease and successfully published the book on schedule.  Christine suggested I hire an independent proofreader and I paid $600 for the service.  A writer friend found 77 proofreading errors in the book.  Christine agreed to correct all of the errors and no additional cost.  I won’t be using that proofreader again.
This week I’ve finished the various edits to my third historical novel in the series, Dead Reckoning.  I have self-edited for story, plot, character and line editing.  I am hiring Christine to edit the book and make it ready to publish.
I have a strong internal desire to have my third novel traditionally published.  This week I let Christine know that, at least for the time being, I won’t be using her full assisted publishing services.  I have the vain hope that with two other historical novels published and Dead Reckoning the last in the series that a traditional publisher would give me serious consideration.  It is only conjecture on my part; I have no rationale for my conclusion.
I will give myself a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of a year to pursue a small press willing to accept unsolicited, non-agented manuscripts.  You can google:  publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts and get a list of 40 publishers – that should be a good start.
Wish me luck.