About Etude

School has not even begun yet, and already students are contacting me to find out when my book, Etude, is going to be available. So here is the latest update for anyone who is interested. Currently, there is an agent reviewing my full manuscript. She has had it for almost 3 months. I don't know if that is a good sign, or a bad one. There are a couple of other agents who have the first 3 chapters, and there are three publishers reviewing the full manuscript. These are small publishers who only publish a small number of books each year. So, I have no concrete answers yet. I can tell you one thing... I have become well acquainted with rejection during the past six months. Wow! I am definitely collecting my share of them. I am learning, against my will I might add, to be patient. Meanwhile, I am also learning other valuable lessons about the publishing business. It is definitely not based on having a talent for writing, but rather having a well-known identity, an established audience, and/or knowing someone in the business. That is the cold, hard truth. Basically it is all about who has the potential to sell the greatest number of books--$$$. Forget social value, telling a great story, or creating memorable characters. That may have worked in years past, but that is not the business today. I am dumbfounded by the number of trash books that are published each year, while well-written novels are overlooked by agents and editors. So enough of my venting. I will keep you posted as things progress. Meanwhile, Beth and Jonathan are just going to have to remain in limbo :)