Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game
When Christina Dodd spoke at RWA last year she said that there will be times in your writing career when others just cruise by you on skates as you're walking along the publishing road. Or maybe even come from nowhere on a hairpin turn and leave you in the dust like Racer X would leave Speed Racer (okay, so that last one was from me but definitely fits more).
Yesterday I was speaking with mystep-mother-in-law who was raving about a new book she just read. She told me all about the 3-part YA paranormal series because she knows how much I love vampire stories. As we were talking, I looked up the author online and the stories looked really interesting and I thought it was cool that the author was my age. I hadn't heard of her books, but I enjoyed reading the excerpts.
Then I read a blurb about writing her first book. And I just about fell out of my chair. Well ... actually I did fall out of the chair and began to bang my head unceremoniously on the floor.
It took her SIX MONTHS.
I will repeat this for those not fully grasping this concept because it is so unbelievable.
Not six months to write her book. SIX FREAKING MONTHS from writing her book to being published. Her first book that she ever wrote! She wrote the book in a month and with the help of family edited and started sending it off to agents. She didn't know anything about the publishing biz so looked everything up online and read writers' blogs and figured out what to do. Sure, she got about 7 rejections from the 8 she sent out. But one agent took her within a few months. Then that agent worked with her for 2 weeks to tweak her story and then sent it out to an editor, who promptly offered a sweet deal on the story. In fact, her agent rejected the first deal (even though it was a lot) from the editor until she got a better offer. Now, 3 YEARS LATER she has a movie deal on her first book.
Of course, for every one of these quick success stories are many, many others who are now extremely successful but who took years to become published. I remember Meg Cabot's speech atRWA about all the rejections and the years it took her to get published. But still ...
6 FREAKING MONTHS
It's been almost 6 months since I sent out my manuscript to two editors.
As of now, I have a knot on my head the size of a grapefruit. I shall be doing tequila shots tonight because I heard that can make the swelling go down ... or is it the pain go away?
Yesterday I was speaking with mystep-mother-in-law who was raving about a new book she just read. She told me all about the 3-part YA paranormal series because she knows how much I love vampire stories. As we were talking, I looked up the author online and the stories looked really interesting and I thought it was cool that the author was my age. I hadn't heard of her books, but I enjoyed reading the excerpts.
Then I read a blurb about writing her first book. And I just about fell out of my chair. Well ... actually I did fall out of the chair and began to bang my head unceremoniously on the floor.
It took her SIX MONTHS.
I will repeat this for those not fully grasping this concept because it is so unbelievable.
Not six months to write her book. SIX FREAKING MONTHS from writing her book to being published. Her first book that she ever wrote! She wrote the book in a month and with the help of family edited and started sending it off to agents. She didn't know anything about the publishing biz so looked everything up online and read writers' blogs and figured out what to do. Sure, she got about 7 rejections from the 8 she sent out. But one agent took her within a few months. Then that agent worked with her for 2 weeks to tweak her story and then sent it out to an editor, who promptly offered a sweet deal on the story. In fact, her agent rejected the first deal (even though it was a lot) from the editor until she got a better offer. Now, 3 YEARS LATER she has a movie deal on her first book.
Of course, for every one of these quick success stories are many, many others who are now extremely successful but who took years to become published. I remember Meg Cabot's speech atRWA about all the rejections and the years it took her to get published. But still ...
6 FREAKING MONTHS
It's been almost 6 months since I sent out my manuscript to two editors.
As of now, I have a knot on my head the size of a grapefruit. I shall be doing tequila shots tonight because I heard that can make the swelling go down ... or is it the pain go away?
posted by J.T. Bock at 8:46 AM
4 Comments:
You and I need to go to happy hour and drown our sorrows, girlfriend. I've been feeling down in the dumps lately about this whole writing thing.
I'm totally there!
Look at the bright side. I read an article about an author who got a six-figure deal off the bat, but couldn't write a second book to save her life. As a result, her publisher dropped her and she's finding it REALLY hard to get any kind of deal after that.
Expectations rise exponentially when you get to that level, and so does the pressure to make your next book bigger and better than the previous one. If the author can't produce a book well enough to maintain her 6-month miracle, then her career will tank faster than the Titanic. Altough it would be nice to get that 6 or 7 figure deal, I abhor that kind of pressure on my shoulders. I don't want the joy sucked out of my writing because I'm too worried about whether book 2 measures up.
Marcia—Wow! That is so insane. I can't even imagine finally "making it" to that level and then crashing. I feel horrible for her. I know what you mean. Writing is a joy and to have it turned into something you're being forced to do to fulfill numbers can take the creativity out of it. Fortunately for this author, she's on book three in the series and I think she's getting up more momentum. Karm said she saw her books at Borders in a display all to themselves. I'm glad for her and glad for us because it means that there's a strong paranormal market out there. It also reminds me that I've got to keep plugging away and not give up until I have my own success story to share. :)
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