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Thirty years old. A lot of world experience. Many Big Books under the belt. A pretty slick laptop exponentially more powerful than that first Tandy. Still no printer.

I finally had enough with agents. So I started making lists of midsize publishers to go with. One was Carina Press, run by Harlequin. It was new but well respected. At the time they were only doing ebook formats. This was still a couple years ago, and the indie revolution was just starting, and I wasn’t sure how comfortable I was with an only ebook format, even though this was one of the biggest publishers in the world. Still, I was keen when I heard back from an editor who pretty much said Carina would be willing to offer a contract if I made some changes. The six pages of notes he made said he was serious. So I spent a few months fixing up the manuscript yet again (I was up to about two years with FACES by then and getting sick of it, way longer than the usual eight to ten months I spend writing a book), and sent it in to him.

In the meantime I was back in Australia, taking a year off traditional work while my visa was processed. Needless to say, I got a lot of writing done. By the end of the year I had two drafts of new books complete. One was named SAFARI (now titled THE TASTE OF FEAR) and the other LITTLE WHITE LIES (now titled WHITE LIES). Unlike TELE-DEATH, I’m happy with both these changes. I finished both these around the same time and sent them out, which, including FACES, gave me three manuscripts doing the rounds.

FACES had been out the longest, and when I didn’t hear anything from the editor at Carina, I emailed him only to discover he was no longer with them! Talk about déjà vu. While I was thinking what to do with FACES—which to this day is nothing—I heard back from a small publishing house about THE TASTE OF FEAR, saying they wanted to publish it. Then less than a month later I got a call from Oceanview Publishing, offering a contract for WHITE LIES.

Which leads me to where I am right now: a few months away from getting my “first book” published.

Bio
Jeremy Bates has spent the last ten years traveling the world, visiting more than thirty countries. He has lived in Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. Bates is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with a degree in English literature and philosophy and is a teacher in international schools. Where’s home for Jeremy? Canada, the United States, and Australia.