Tag: Publishing

  • Q&A: Have you learned anything so far on your publishing journey that has changed your outlook on publishing/writing or inspired you in some way?

    Have you learned anything so far on your publishing journey that has changed your outlook on publishing/writing or inspired you in some way?

    Probably more than one thing, but the biggest is definitely that perfection does not exist, thus making the pursuit of it pointless.

    I used to think that if I worked hard enough, my books would be unrejectable. I’ve spent years on books that quite frankly peaked six months in, only to shelve them and move on because they weren’t perfect enough to not be rejected, and I did not want to be rejected. Did not want to ponder what that rejection would mean for me, my book, my time here on this earth.

    Spoiler alert: it meant nothing, except that maybe you can’t please everyone.

    Also, I think it goes without saying that you’ll get far more requests from imperfect projects you gather up the courage to submit than you will ever get on the so-called perfect ones you never send out.

  • Q&A: Why aren’t you published yet?

    Anonymous asked:

    Forgive me for asking (and if you don’t want to answer, that’s cool) but…..why aren’t you published yet?

    And a follow-up from Anonymous, Jr.:

    After fifteen years of noes, do you ever feel like it’s NEVER going to happen?

    I’ve been sitting on these questions for a while because I didn’t really know how to answer them. But they are great questions, the kinds of questions we all want to ask at one point or another, I think, but are afraid to because what if the answers are depressing? What if the answers are not what we want to hear? What if they show us a truth we can’t handle?

    And so we go to other people, people maybe we don’t even know, and we ask them if they ever felt what we felt, because if they felt it, too, then maybe everything will be OK. Maybe this doubt thing is normal. Maybe it doesn’t mean I’m doing everything wrong, that I’m not really supposed to be a writer, that I didn’t miss my calling as an occupational therapist like my mom keeps saying.

    So here’s my answer:

    Of course I have doubts. I have doubts all the time. Doubts about the big picture (What if I never sell a book? What if I sell a book and it bombs? What if I sell a book, it does OK, and then the next one tanks? What if I sell one book and can’t sell another?) and the not-so-big picture (What if my voice is abrasive? What if my characters are unlikable? What if this plot twist I love is cliche and I don’t know it?) and the why-are-you-even-worrying-about-that-shit picture (What if that word doesn’t mean what I think it means?).

    Doubt happens. Book deals, a gazillion social media followers, none of that eradicates doubt. It may hide it for a while or take the sting off of it, or whatever. But it doesn’t get rid of it. Ever.

    So I guess the real question you’re asking is, How do you keep going when doubt tells you it’s never going to happen?

    And the answer is: you just do.

    You end one book, and you start another one. One foot in front of the other. Just like that.

    I don’t have any one-size-fits-all answers for why I’m not published. Each book has its own answer, sometimes more than one. In the early days, it was because I wasn’t good enough. The writing wasn’t up to par. The ideas weren’t idea-y enough. Badness all around. (Actually, that’s not just relegated to the early days–I’ve written some stinkers in the past year or two.) Other books were too similar or too different or the wrong genre. I’ve written young adult novels that everyone thought sounded too old, and adult novels everyone thought sounded too young. And some books aren’t published because, well, I didn’t try to publish them, so who knows how they would have turned out.

    But I’d say in the majority of cases, the real reason was because doubt got in the way. And when it did, I gave up.

    That book I didn’t think I could write? I didn’t write it. That agent who in no way would want my book? I didn’t query him. That editor who begged on her blog for a book exactly like mine? I wrote off as just saying that to make people feel better.

    I’m almost ashamed to admit it. But there you go.

    I was Doubt’s bitch for so long, guys. Too long. It wasn’t until I hit a rough patch in the early stages of writing Cate & Chuck–which, by the way, will not be published because it’s one of the stinky books–that I said to myself, “OK, so you know what happens if you quit. Wonder what will happen if you keep going…”

    I’d love to be all cheerleader-y and tell you that if you just! keep! going! rah! rah! rah! things will work out and you’ll be published and you’ll never ever feel doubt again.

    Sadly, that’s not how it works. Scary thought time, but the odds are against you ever getting published. And for those who do get published, the odds are something like ten-to-one against seeing a second book in print. Reality is a harsh motherfucker.

    But I don’t keep going just to capture some fickle dream of being published or whatever. I keep going because I want to see what happens if I don’t stop.

    And if in fifteen years from now, I’m still answering this question, well, shit happens, I guess. I’m sure it’ll have been one helluva ride.