You all know the saying about what the three key things are in selling a house…location, location, location.  I don’t know about you, but the key for getting almost every job I ever got was in “who did I know” or contacts, contacts, contacts. Having just looked for a year and a half for a new job (while finishing The Call), sending out hundreds of resumes, then getting a job in just three days after a friend raced to my house to tell me about a job opening, I am more convinced of this truth than ever.  Now, about publishing, I am thinking that the three keys may be networking, networking, networking.

Why so?  Because I may just have gotten a toe into the door to my dreams.  If so it came because of having made a connection to a local reporter.  First we became acquaintances and then friends,  then she invited me to a discussion group of women she knew.  She got me to introduce myself to the other group members who included a woman who simply introduced herself as a “marketing specialist.”  Then she insisted I describe my book.  I got interested questions and because I felt no pressure I did a vivid portrait of characters and plot.  Then more questions and more depth of description…then the marketing specialist told me she did marketing for Simon and Schuster and several other publishing companies and would like to see my manuscript and show it to some agents she knew.  Wow!  I still haven’t stopped walking on clouds.

I don’t know if this will be the key to a future publication but it is a toe in the door.  And to quote the Bellamy Brothers song Hang On To Your Dreams:

When you’re lookin’ for the rainbow’s end, Follow your nose, you’re a rambling rose, And it might just be round the bend…Trust in your toes ’cause they knows where they goes.  They’re just following the feeling within.