Hi. I’ve tried to email you via your website link, but I seem to be having a little bit of trouble sending an email. I hope this message reaches you.
I’m sure you get this sort of request often-but I GREATLY value your opinion (and your wonderful work) and ANY advice you could afford me would be MOST greatly appreciated! You see, I’ve nearly completed writing my first Historical Romance novel and I’m at a bit of a “disadvantage”. Besides being a “Novice Novelist”, I am trying to break into a field which is significantly dominated by women. As you probably have already guessed, I am NOT a woman (LOL!). I’m just someone who had dedicated a year of his life to creating a novel with (what I believe to be) very “passable” results. In this past year, I’ve read numerous novels by successful authors of the genre (including your wonderful Lyon’s Gift), done extensive research on the era I’ve chosen to write about and taken volumunous notes. The end result is pretty “readable” (I think-I hope!) With an editor’s input, I believe it’ll be quite publishable. Can you please shed ANY light on the process of shopping your first novel to prospective publishers? Also, do you think that being a male author will hurt my chances-or perhaps better them? In your opinion, should I consider a pen name? Lastly, I would greatly appreciate ANY and ALL insight you could provide me regarding your success.

Thank you SO much for your time!

Best Regards,

John C. Ryan