Happy to report that my 70,000 word crime novel, Deadly Profit, is finished. In fact, I finished it seven or eight times. And then edited it several times and finished it again! Forty-three chapters, over seventy scenes.
It is about a young, tech savvy former CIA Black Ops agent working as a private investigator under an alias in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as he searches for his terrorist nemesis. He was held hostage by a terrorist in Pakistan before escaping captivity killing the terrorist’s brothers. The two have sworn to kill each other, except the terrorist also promised to first kill the private detective’s family and everyone else he knows from close friends to his favorite Uber Eats driver. Then the PI gets roped into taking a case where a university professor is accused of arranging the murder of a colleague which turns into very dangerous case.
There is plenty of action, some high tech situations and of course, a possible love interest.
I just submitted it to a literary agency, hoping they will think it is good enough to represent me to publishers. I will be submitting it to several other literary agents as rejection is the life of a writer.
Yes, rejection is what authors really deal in day by day. Here are a few well known books that were rejected before being published:
Chicken Soup of the Soul. Everyone not living under a rock knows this book. Yet, it was rejected 144 times!!!! One hundred and forty-four times! Can you believe that?
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: was rejected 121 times!
James Patterson’s first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was rejected 31 times! Thirty-one publishers turned down Patterson’s first book—the first in his long-running, mega-popular Alex Cross series. Now, of course, he’s one of the most successful authors in the world.
So, I have steadied myself, preparing for at least twenty rejections. I honestly don’t know if I can take more than twenty. Certainly not more than one hundred rejections!
But who knows. Meanwhile, I have two other books and a bunch of short stories to finish.
Wish me luck!
-Dart