My Ten-Year Journey from Clueless to Getting a Clue
By Lois Winston
Note from the author: If you’ve ever attended a writers’ conference, a writing workshop, or an author talk, you’ve probably heard that the road to publication is a marathon, not a sprint. However, until you’ve taken part in that marathon, you have no idea just how appropriate the analogy is.
I was one of the Keynote Speakers at this year’s Killer Nashville Conference and had the honor of speaking at the Saturday night banquet. Afterwards, I had dozens of people thank me for having the courage to “tell it like it really is,” laying bare the trials and tribulations I encountered in my ten-year journey from unpublished wannabe to bestselling and award-winning author. After speaking with Clay Sunday morning, we decided that I should share my talk with those who couldn’t attend the banquet or view the livestream of the awards ceremony. What follows is that Keynote Address.
My First Clueless Career Aspiration: astronaut.
Reality Check: NASA isn’t interested in vertically challenged candidates who suffer from motion sickness.
My Second Clueless Career Aspiration: starring on Broadway.
Reality Check: Broadway isn’t interested in singers who can’t sing, dancers who can’t dance, and actors who can’t act.
Getting a clue: Going to art school and becoming a crafts designer. No singing, dancing, acting, or G-force required.
I never thought about writing novels until 1995 when I awoke one morning to find imaginary people had taken up residence in my brain and were demanding I tell their story.
Three weeks later, I’d written a 50,000-word romance that spanned thirty-five years. Being completely clueless, I thought I’d written The Great American Novel. Agents and editors thought otherwise.
Until one didn’t.
That agent said my book had potential but needed work. The agency had an editing service. They offered me a discount. Yes, clueless me fell for their scam. Several years later, everyone connected with that agency was convicted of fraud.
Another agent said she could get more money for my book by first selling the screenplay. Nothing ever came of it. A few years later, I saw Notting Hill. That was my plot! Coincidence? I hope so, but I’ve learned theft of intellectual property is common in Hollywood. Just ask Tess Gerritsen.
Instead of giving up after countless rejections and negative experiences, I bought an armload of books on how to write a romance. I learned about a national organization with local chapters that welcomed clueless wannabees like me. I joined. I started another manuscript and worked on revising The Great American Novel.
A year later, I attended my first conference and pitched my manuscript. One well-known agent requested it, then offered me representation. I was finally on my way.
Or so clueless me thought. Until the rejection letters started filling her mailbox.
Clueless me thought that if you write a book an agent loves, she’ll quickly be able to sell it.
Reality Check: that rarely happens.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you work at something and no matter how many professionals agree that your book is worthy of publication, outside forces can work against you.
The editor who champions your book can’t convince the editorial board, or she leaves the publishing house, or moves to a different position where she’s no longer buying your genre. I experienced all of that as I began to get a clue about the realities of publishing.
During those years, my agent never gave up on me, though. I think I became her pet project.
By the late 90s chick lit had become all the rage. My agent suggested I try writing one. Several editors showed interest in Resurrecting Gertie. Until they didn’t.
Then, one day in late 2003, my agent said an editor at Warner Books was looking for a humorous crafting-themed amateur sleuth series. My agent thought I’d be the perfect person to write one. I knew crafts, and my chick lit novel proved I could write humor.
I bought an armload of books on how to write a mystery. A few days later, when I burned my finger on my glue gun, I even had a title. Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun became the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.
A few months later, I’d finished the book. The editor loved it. But Warner was in the process of being sold to Hatchette. All contracts were on hold. Then, Hatchette took over and immediately cancelled the cozy and amateur sleuth lines.
I entered Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun in St. Martin’s Malice Domestic competition. The grand prize was a publishing contract with a ten-thousand-dollar advance. I was notified that I was a finalist. I didn’t win.
Maybe I was too clueless to read the writing on the wall. Maybe my agent was, too. But my stubbornness trumped my cluelessness, and my agent still didn’t give up on me.
In late 2004, Dorchester Publishing teamed up with Romantic Times Magazine to create the American Title competition. The winner received a publishing contract. My agent wasn’t keen on Dorchester, but I decided to enter several manuscripts. Resurrecting Gertie, my chick lit novel, was a finalist. It came in second, but I was still offered a contract. Ten years, almost to the day of that long ago dream, it was published as Talk Gertie to Me.
During those ten years, I’d kept revising The Great American Novel. As I racked up clues, it morphed into Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, a 95,000-word romantic suspense that spanned several months. It became my second sale.
I’d also acquired enough clues that shortly after my first sale, I was invited to join the agency that represented me. I began by reading the slush pile and eventually had a handful of clients. Suddenly, I was juggling three full-time careers—designer, author, and agent.
Happy ending? Not quite.
When I began writing thirty years ago, clueless me thought it was realistic to think I’d earn an extra $20,000 - $30,000 a year to supplement my income.
One of the reasons my agent wasn’t enthusiastic about Dorchester was that they paid very low advances and only 4% royalties. Other mass market publishers paid 6-8%. After my agent took her 15%, I made pennies on each book.
Dorchester also did little to promote their authors. I was advised to hire a publicist. My entire advance went to her, but her efforts did result in the book earning out the advance in less than a year and going into a second printing.
Still, I had much to learn. Like don’t believe the bookstore when they say your books have arrived for your launch party. They hadn’t.
Clueless me also didn’t realize that even after receiving a book contract, things can go sideways. Another reason my agent had been leery about Dorchester was some of their previous business practices. Apparently, the past wasn’t in the past, because after about a year, the royalty statements began arriving minus royalty checks. Then, even the statements stopped coming. Long story short, Dorchester was about to file for bankruptcy. Not wanting their authors’ books tied up in bankruptcy court, agents scrambled to get rights back.
At the last minute, Amazon swooped in and offered to pay back royalties to the remaining, unagented authors in exchange for the rights to publish their books. Those of us who’d gotten our rights back never saw a penny of the royalties owed us and weren’t offered contracts.
Meanwhile, my agent had continued to send out Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun. In November 2009, I received a 3-book contract from Midnight Ink, a division of Llewellyn Worldwide.
Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun was their lead title for 2011. The book received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews called Anastasia, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” Llewellyn paid my way to signings at Bouchercon, BookExpo, and the ALA convention.
But things were turning out less than rosy.
They promoted my book as a cozy. I was no longer clueless. I knew cozies didn’t contain 4-letter words, but I’d written an amateur sleuth mystery, which has less constraints. I’m a Jersey girl, writing about a Jersey girl, in a state where the bad guys are often members of the Mafia. They don’t say, “Golly, gee whiz.”
No one had asked me to remove certain words during the editing process. My editor said don’t worry. They’d marketed the book as cozy because cozies sold better than books labeled amateur sleuth. The book was out less than a week when the hate mail started arriving. Even words as mild as “damn” and “hell” incensed some readers.
I chalked up another clue and switched to euphemisms in future books.
They asked permission to make the first book free for a short time when the second book came out. I said I didn’t mind a sale, but I was opposed to giving away large quantities of books.
They ignored my objections. Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun was free for an entire month when Death by Killer Mop Doll released. They gave away more than 64,000 ebooks.
Twice, my books were printed with missing chapters. When employees began leaving, rumors spread, and I feared a repeat of what had happened at Dorchester.
In 2012, I had been offered contracts for additional books in the series, plus a second series. But Lewellyn had hired a new corporate attorney who replaced all agency negotiated contracts with a new boilerplate containing questionable clauses. When they refused to negotiate, my agent advised against signing and demanded my rights back. Not long after, Llewellyn folded their fiction lines.
A few smaller publishers showed interest in picking up my series, but friends who published with them weren’t happy. My agent suggested I independently publish the series. With her help, we’d already indie published my Dorchester books.
But in 2017, my agent passed away.
So now I’m pretty much a one-woman show, writing my books, designing my covers, formatting, uploading, promoting and marketing.
I’m no longer clueless about writing and publishing. I’ve been on both sides of the table as an author and agent. I’ve experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly of this industry. Since going indie, I’ve made the USA Today list once and Amazon’s bestseller list several times.
And I’m still writing. Seams Like the Perfect Crime is the fourteenth and latest Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery. I’ve written twenty-five novels, five novellas, a children’s chapter book, several short stories, and a book on writing based on what I learned working at the agency.
I also have one novel that cavorts with the dust bunnies under my bed because I’ve gained enough clues to realize that book should never see the light of day.
Learn more about me and my books at loiswinston.com, where you can sign up for my newsletter and receive an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery. That’s a marketing clue I learned from attending a Killer Nashville workshop. You can also find me blogging at Booklover’s Bench and The Stiletto Gang.
In closing, I wish you all find enough clues on your own writing journeys to succeed on whichever publishing path you choose.
USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. A Crafty Collage of Crime, the twelfth book in her series, was the recipient of the 2024 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Comedy, and Sorry, Knot Sorry, the thirteenth book in the series, recently won the 2025 Silver Falchion for Best Comedy. Learn more about Lois and her books at www.loiswinston.com. Sign up for her newsletter to receive an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.
