Happy Birthday Escape Publishing! & GIVEAWAY!

by: Rebekah Turner

It was at the 2012 Romance Writers Convention when I heard about Escape Publishing’s two week response time on submitted manuscripts. My story, Chaos Born, had been a finalist in the 2010 Hachette/Queensland Writers Centre Manuscript  Development Program, but hadn't been picked up for publication. So I decided to try out this thing called ... deegital publishing ... which I didn’t know much about at the time.  The acceptance email from Escape was very speedy, and with it came an offer to become one of their launch authors. Of course I said yes (it might have been more like: oh yes please, oh yes please, oh yes please) and Chaos Born was published later that year.

Chaos Born being picked up by Escape was a great opportunity for me. I kept in touch with the other launch authors and we shared notes, chatted about our books, hopes for the future and the difficulties of getting a writing career off the ground. As time passed and Escape grew, an online meeting place was set up for Escape authors. It now hosts a thriving community, where advice is sought from the hive mind and we share news, both good and bad.

There is still nothing quite like hearing a publisher say they love my books; the sensation is like snorting a line of sherbet while watching Benedict Cumberbatch's deleted shower scene from Star Trek Into Darkness. Pure awesome-pants. My second book, Chaos Bound, will be out December 2013, so I'm pretty excited/ nauseous about that and I'm now working on the third book in the Chaos series, as well as a few other projects.

So, while I’m still a relative novice in this kooky land of publishing, I thought I’d pass on some great advice I’ve been given over the years:

·         Adhere to the publisher's guidelines when submitting. Escape Publishing has a good blog about common mistakes here.  

·         Have a writing routine and a weekly or daily writing goal. Stick to it. 
·         Study the craft through classes and workshops. Then study some more.
·         Join a writers centre. Join a writers group.
·         Embrace revisions of your story. Embrace it HARD.
·         Be savvy about the business of publishing and writing, as well as the marketplace and how your genre of choice sits in it. There is a great blog written about author discoverability here.

WIN 1 of 5 Escape eBook bundles. My bundle is going to be a mixed bundle with a bit of paranormal, fantasy and historical.