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Aspiring Writer Q and A part two

The road to publication is a long and bumpy one. Sure, there are those instant success stories, but for the most part every author out there has had their own personally roller coaster ride of a journey towards finally, finally signing that first, miraculous book contract. I certainly had mine. And–though I don’t at all mean to be discouraging–I think the whole challenge of getting published is an especially complex one in these crazy economic times.

Last month, my lovely writing buddy Sarah dropped by to share her background and answer questions for the aspiring writers out there. And now she’s back! This time she’s answering a two part question: Where has the road to publication taken you so far? And how have you kept your sanity?

Hi everyone! Anna has so kindly asked me to blog again, with the two-part topic of a) where are you on the path to publication? and b) how do you keep your sanity?

This week could have been a ‘down’ week, as I received a rejection for my book which my agent is presently trying to sell to publishers. Given that, it is really hard to know how far I am on the path to publication. The fact that I have a wonderful agent, who is very knowledgeable and is excited about selling my book is HUGE.

And yet . . .

I once tried to figure out the chance of book making it as far as publication, and it is hideously small. A couple of years ago, I had an agent who was trying to sell one of my books. She received over 1,000 queries a month from writers. She was a new agent (which is probably why she took me on as I had a grand total of 72 agent rejections up until the moment that she did), and over the course of the year of starting her business, took on forty clients. Let’s see . . . 40 is what percent of 12,000? And she was new to agenting. Many agents take on one new client a year, if that.

I think she sold only one or two books in the year and a half she was in business, and then closed up shop and dropped out of contact.

My response was to just keep writing . . .

So, now, with a new book (my fifth) and a new agent (since January), I am going through the process once again. As Anna pointed out on her web page about agents, there is a vast difference between an agent who knows what he or she is doing, and one who doesn’t. Sometimes it feels like any agent is worth having, but that’s not necessarily true. I know, for myself, that the book my first agent didn’t sell, just wasn’t good enough, and I simply needed to keep writing until I wrote something that was.

And even when you have a wonderful agent, there are no givens. My present book was rejected by the first 8 publishers who read it, and as a consequence, I rewrote huge sections of it, in addition to changing it from first person to third. This new version has been to two different publishing houses, and read by editors who liked it, even loved it . . . but still no contract. But because of the recent positive reviews, my agent is planning a ‘re-launch’, if you will, after Thanksgiving.

Which brings me to the question about how I’ve managed not to go insane . . . As I said in the beginning of the post, this could have been a down week, but instead of dwelling on yet another rejection, I’m doing NaNoWriMo! Now you can really question my sanity, but I find the process of writing 50,000 words in a month exhilarating. There is something wonderful about going from 0 to 50,000 in such short a time, even if half your sentences don’t appear to make sense at first glance. In a month, you have half a story, some semblance of a plot, and something to dive into when the publishing world has imploded and your book has clearly fallen into a black hole. Keep writing . . . keep writing . . . keep writing . . .

Otherwise, the answer is definitely ‘chocolate’.

Thanks so much, Sarah! As always, feel free to leave questions/responses/personal experiences in the comments! And good luck to everyone else who’s traveling that bumpy road to publication. The good news is that new authors and new books are STILL being published every month of every year–one day, one of those books could absolutely be yours!

This entry was posted Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Aspiring Writer Q and A part two”

1. Michelle Moran Says:
   November 15th, 2009 at 6:16 pm

   Great post! Have you thought of asking your agent to include a detailed promotional plan with your submission (written by you)? It might be something that makes the difference between a yes and a no. What publishers are very afraid of right now is an author who isn’t going to go the long distance with promotions, since the publishers don’t have the money or time to do it themselves. So perhaps if you include a dynamite promo plan, that may give you the edge.

   Good luck with Nano!!!

   
   

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