Greetings and welcome to the first blog post of "The Writer's Midwife!" I'm Elizabeth Ridley; a novelist, ghostwriter, freelance editor, and publishing consultant. I've been running my home-based business, The Writer's Midwife, since 2000, but this is the first I've entered the blogosphere.
My goal, both for my business in general and for this blog in particular, is to de-mystify the sometimes-Byzantine process of writing books and getting them published. I've been a published author myself for more than 20 years and I've experienced all the ups and downs--finding an agent, getting dumped by an agent, finding another agent and having that not work out; making a champagne toast at my own publication party, then seeing one of my novels rejected more than 260 times; having one of my novels deemed "a love story of unusual beauty" by The Times of London after being told by a publisher that this same book was so bad, I needed to mail them a self-addressed stamped envelope so they could send me a list of approved writing classes to help improve my skills! Based on my own (often bad) experiences, my hope is that I can make the journey to publication easier for others than it has been for me.
I have big plans for this blog and hope it will ultimately prove to be a very valuable resource for people who are interested in writing and publishing. I intend to post on this site interviews with publishing professionals, contests (with prizes!), discussions, debates, questions-and-answers, and so much more.
Finally, I hope the traffic will go both directions and this blog won't be a one-way street with me simply "spouting knowledge from on high." How boring! Rather I hope that people will leave comments with questions, queries, and concerns. If there's something you always wanted to know about writing and publishing, ask it here! I'll do my best to answer it, and if I can't, I'll try to find someone who can.
Thanks for joining me! It's great to have you on board!
Liz
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