No need to hold the applause, we finish our book!

PLEASE STAND BY -- YOUR MOTHER'S MISSING was finally finished. Since by now I'd had considerable experience submitting manuscripts to publishing houses, I volunteered to start the process. One by one I sent out the book pages, and one by one I received the rejection letters. Really, after three go-arounds at this, it was getting downright discouraging!

Finally, after six months and forty-some-odd rejections, it finally happened! We received a letter from Libra Publishers in Roslyn Heights, New York, that PLEASE STAND BY -- YOUR MOTHER'S MISSING had been accepted. Hurray! Please, everyone, don't hold your applause. Nancy and I certainly didn't. We were walking on clouds.

Unfortunately, our contract with Libra didn't exactly make us millionaires. In fact, it barely classified us as thousand-aires. But at least we were going to be published. From now on the sky was the limit!

Which, of course, goes to prove the old saying that "ignorance is bliss." Not that the publisher didn't fulfill his promise to print our book, but other than that we were left pretty much on our own. By that I mean we were forced to do most of the distribution, publicity and bookkeeping. Not exactly what we'd had in mind.

(Next: We learn the book business the hard way!)