Journey of “Winter’s Rite”
by Scott Harper
(New Port Richey, FL, USA)
"Winter's Rite"
“Winter’s Rite” was self-published in 2005, but it took years to get it to that point. To go back to the beginning of the project, we have to step backward in time a decade.
In 1996 I began taking a writing course from the Institute of Children’s Literature. All I’d ever wanted to do was write. I’d written several short stories and the draft of a science fiction novel at that time, but had yet to have anything published. I began the writing course in the hopes of finally getting my work in print. The course was set up to be 4-years-long. I finished it in two. The final assignment was a two-part one. For the first part, I was required to outline an entire novel. The second part of the assignment was to turn in a draft of the first three chapters of that novel. So began my first serious effort at a novel, “Winter’s Rite”. I graduated from the Institute of Children’s Literature in 1998. My diploma hangs on the wall behind my desk. It’s side-by-side with my first acceptance letter.
After completing the writing course, I finished my first draft of “Winter’s Rite”. The book was then set aside in favor of short stories. Yet, from time to time, I’d pull “Winter’s Rite” back out and read through it. My talents as an author continued to grow. As such, each time I read my previous draft of “Winter’s Rite” I’d think, “I can do better than that!” and embark on a rewrite that would result in a better book.
The first draft of “Winter’s Rite” had been penned while I was living in Ohio. In 1998, just after completing the writing course, my parents moved to Florida. I moved with them in order to stay close to them geographically-speaking. We’ve always been a close family.
Eventually, I began to submit “Winter’s Rite” to various teen/young adult fantasy publishers. Several wrote back saying that, while they liked the project very much, it wasn’t right for them. Others never responded. Still others responded with the dreaded form letter. After a while, I stopped submitting the book and turned my attention once more to short stories. Yet “Winter’s Rite” refused to leave me alone. Haunted by this manuscript I seemed unable to rid myself of, I went back to work on it yet again. Doing so got me to thinking about the characters and wondering what happened to them after the end of the book. “Winter’s Rite” had always been envisioned as a stand-alone book. Yet, against my will, Book 2 of the series, “Well Wishes”, began to write itself. Was I to be stuck with the first two installments of a series of teen/young adult fantasy novels?
It was about then that an article ran in a local, twice-weekly newspaper about a writer’s critique group. They met Monday afternoons in the local library. I went to check out the group, sitting in on a meeting. The following week I returned with the first chapter of “Winter’s Rite” and read it for the group when it was my turn to read. I still remember the comment I uttered before I began to read the pages I had taken with me - “This is my first time. Please be gentle”. Everyone laughed. I read. They verbally torn the opening pages of “Winter’s Rite” apart! Over the course of the following week I rewrote the first chapter of the book, keeping in mind the comments and criticisms I’d gotten from other members of the group. The following Monday, I read the newly-revised version of the opening chapter of the book. And they loved it!
So it went. I was with that critique group for a little over two years. They heard every page of my first novel, “Winter’s Rite”, my second novel, “Well Wishes”, and the first few chapters of my third novel, “Gauntlet”, before I left the group. Besides those novels, I worked on some short stories during that time as well, always keeping in mind lessons I’d learned from the writer’s group. And, finally, in 2002, I had my first short story published!
Encouraged by the publication of my first short story, I once again began submitting “Winter’s Rite” to various publishers. It was rejected by all of them. However, there were more positive comments this time around. Yet it apparently wasn’t “just right” for any publisher I submitted it to.
Finally, in early 2005, I was working in a retail store in our local mall. I happened to have a chance meeting with another local author, someone who had grown tired of playing games with publishers and, as she put it, “being jerked around” by them. She’d self-published her first book, was having success with it and was near completion of her second novel when we met. We exchanged e-mail addresses. She began to give me tips and pointers and helped me to get “Winter’s Rite” into print using the same self-publisher she herself was using.
Not long after “Winter’s Rite” was released, a local bookstore got wind of it. I was invited in for my first book signing. The store bought two dozen copies of my book from the self-publisher to have on hand for the signing. And things have grown from there. I self-published “Well Wishes” in 2006 and “Gauntlet” in 2007 with that same self-publisher. Yet, of the three, “Winter’s Rite” is the one that catches the most attention. Promoting it, and my other work, on-line even caught the attention of a film director/producer in California who hired me to pen two direct-to-DVD films for his studio. That has led to me doing some other film work. It’s also caused my work to be noticed by other publishers. In eight days from the writing of this article, my fourth novel, “Predators or Prey?” will be released. And I didn’t self-publish it! I even have a comic book writer who would like to pen comic book adaptations of both “Winter’s Rite” and “Well Wishes”. I get e-mails from people worldwide who have seen “Winter’s Rite” somewhere, at some point, and write. Some have read it, others just write asking for advice on how to get their own work into print. Those who have written after reading “Winter’s Rite” have all responded to the book very positively. One went so far as to thank me for “not listening to what the mainstream publishers said” and “sharing this book with everyone”.
All in all, getting my first novel into print was a long, draining, time-consuming ordeal. But it was very worth it. “Winter’s Rite” has opened many doors for me already and continues to do so.
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