Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy it, and I especially hope you’ll read the chapters from my two novels, Mood Swing: The Bipolar Murders (2006) and Eldercide (2008). If you like what you read, you can order them on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or from my publisher, Virtualbookworm. To order them privately, see the information on my BUY MY BOOKS page.
You can read my biography by clicking on “About Julie Lomoe”. On this page, I’d like to share less formally about how I came to write my mysteries and my experiences with publication.
Both my mystery novels were inspired by extensive experience, both personal and professional, and they explore social issues I feel passionately about. They deal with the negative stereotypes and stigma surrounding some of the most vulnerable members of our society: consumers of mental health services in Mood Swing, and elderly folks nearing the ends of their lives in Eldercide.
With both books, I tried the traditional road to publication: researching agents, querying, sending sample chapters and even entire manuscripts, only to receive the formulaic rejections: “Sorry, it’s good, but not for us,” or “promising, but I just didn’t love it enough.” Less than 15 rejections per book, not all that many, but enough to send me into serious clinical depressions. (Yes, I’m a mental health consumer as well as a professional.)
When I’d all but given up, various writer friends encouraged me to go the self-publishing, print-on-demand route. After extensive online research, I chose to publish with Virtual Bookworm, which had some of the best ratings and reviews. About three months elapsed from the time I chose to go the POD route to the time I had a bound copy of my book in hand. I loved the total control I had over the finished product: I chose the formatting and the font, and I did my own cover illustrations. (Not all authors choose to get so involved in the total package, but I was a visual artist long before I became a mystery writer.)
So what am I doing here online? I confess I still have aspirations toward “traditional publishing,” even though I’ve heard plenty of horror stories from authors who had miserable experiences in the mainstream publishing world. But I believe the times are changing, and the old-fashioned query with SASE isn’t the only way to go. We writers are taking back our power, and the online community is the major way we’re doing it.
On the first of May, 2009, I set out on Blog Book Tours, and it’s a whole new world. As I update this entry ten months later, I’m delighted to report over 50,000 visitors to this site. Further down on this sidebar you’ll see a list of my fellow participants, and I invite you to click on their links and check them out. If you like my blog, please subscribe, visit often and leave your comments.
If you have a blog site that welcomes visitors, I’d love to hear from you. And if there are any agents or editors you could put me in touch with, I’d love that even more. I’d be glad to reciprocate and add your link to my blog, especially if you’re a mystery writer.
Together, we can take back the publishing industry – yes we can!