Author Renee Savage

I started this blog to chronicle my effort towards self-publication, but I had a secret.

I was still querying my manuscript to agents.

Being traditionally published is a life-long dream of mine, from well before the days of accessible self-publishing. It smacks of prestige, acceptance, and honor, even as it smells of exclusivity, burnout, and toxicity.

The Misplaced Princess is the book I wrote during the pandemic that helped me fall back in love with the process again. It was quite literally based on childhood dreams, aged up for my current romantic and adventure tastes. I love this story, and based on what we’re reading these days, I thought for sure it would stand out to agents and eventually publishers.

But then I got this rejection (one of many, but just the most recent one) from an agent.

And you know how it made me feel?

Vindicated.

My first thought was “she’s right and I know it.” My second thought was “this is exactly what I needed to hear.” My third thought was “I’m ready to dive into my next WIP.”

When I started Princess, I was not up to date on the genre. I truly wrote blind. I hadn’t been reading modern fiction and I didn’t really want to. This book was all about nostalgia and vibes and self-immersion and fantasy fulfillment.

But after spending the last year and a half getting well and truly caught up, I see the idea has well and truly been in the ether for a lot of other writers too. And many of them did it better. (K.A. Tucker’s A Wrath of Fate and Flame is… *chef’s kiss* probably the best thing I read last year and I think about it constantly.)

I love fantasy romance, I love historicals, and I love the emergence of the New Adult genre. I want to live in that intersection in my writing. The experience of writing this book taught me so much, and now I am ready to apply those lessons to the next novel.

It isn’t as discouraging as I expected it to be, either. I saw Laura Sebastian wrote 9 books (NINE BOOKS) before getting accepted by her first agent and publisher. Her writing is wonderful and precise and clear, and no doubt it is because she practiced and worked hard at the craft. That is my inspiration and I am ready to do the work.

While The Misplaced Princess has my deepest affection (and strong writing, thank you for saying that Ms. Agent), she is going to sit on the shelf now.

I’m not done with it of course. I think it’s the perfect candidate for self-publishing because while trad publishers won’t find it sellable, the hungry hoards looking for the same story over and over will certainly buy it for .99 cents.

So now you know my dirty secret; I want to be traditionally published even as I embrace the world of self-publishing. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to want it all.