So today was #Pit2Pub on Twitter. I didn’t know until I logged on this morning, but I lost no time in throwing up a one-liner that piqued the interest of several independent publishers (you know, the guys who are responsible for the 20% of books that the Big Five don’t publish.)

I don’t know why I never queried small publishers. I guess I was kind of wedded to the idea of getting picked up by a Big Five player and being an overnight success, but what are the odds of that even if I do get an agent and make a sell to Random Penguin or Harper Collins?

I need to make a list of who has what, between agents and now publishers, a lot of different people have a lot of partial and full The Neverland Wars manuscripts right now. Two wanted full manuscripts today, another two wanted three chapters, and one just requested I send a query. They said they’d review them “this week,” or get back to me in “two weeks,” or respond within “4-6 weeks.” Honestly, as long as they get back to me within the next two months, it’ll seem like lightening in contrast to how slowly some work-laden agents react to my emails.

One of the publishers requested a bio though, and I panicked. Initially. I pulled myself together quickly and drafted something. As it turns out, I’m awesome. It is hard to remember the importance and gravity of everything you’ve accomplished and how far you have come when you still have not reached your goal…but in industries like this where the end goal can take years to achieve, it helps to take a step back and reflect on everything you’ve already got under your belt.

I’m going to give it one more go over before I sent it off, but this is the bio that reinvented my self-confidence:

Audrey Greathouse is an avid writer of science-fiction and fantasy. She is an active member of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and seven-time winner of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge. Her BA in English Language and Literature comes from Southern New Hampshire University, where she completed her honors thesis on Victorian children’s literature.

Her short plays have been produced at Western Washington University and the Washington State Thespian Conference. She wrote a column for Miracle from 2012-2014 and served as an editor for The Manatee during the 2012-2013 academic year. Audrey’s poems and speculative fiction have been published in magazines around the world including Yesteryear Fiction, Inclement, and Roar and Thunder. She wrote the Fantasy Factory column for Writer’s Bloq, and sold her first book for publication in 2013. Dr. Derosa’s Resurrection was a young adult science-fiction novella published serially by Mad Scientist Journal. She is currently employed writing for Telepathic, a Silicon-valley based literary venture which will be released in the autumn of 2015.

Initially from Seattle, she now enjoys the footloose lifestyle her freelance fiction writing affords her. Usually somewhere along the west coast, Audrey is a classically trained pianist and unconventionally trained circus artist, specializing in fire eating and aerial silks. She is now seeking publication for her latest YA fantasy novel, The Neverland Wars.

***

Stay beautiful, my lovely readers. I have high hopes that big news will be coming down the pike in the next few months ❤