Impatience and the Publishing Process
Stacy asks: Any tips to ease this "acute impatience" I've had with the whole [publishing] process?
For those who don’t know what Stacy is talking about, let me explain. It usually takes a long time to find an agent, sell a novel, and get it published. Literary agents and editors get hundreds, if not thousands, of manuscripts a year (see my previous posts here and here). Even if your novel is good, it may take months before anyone reads it.
Then there is the submission process to an acquiring editor which can also take months...or longer. If you are a never-before published writer (and not a celebrity) you will be understandably at the bottom of an editor’s priority list.
All this adds up to lots of waiting...the occasional rejection...and then more waiting.
So what can you do during this agonizing period?
There's only one thing: start your next project.
This is very hard. Everyone wants validation before they continue. Why spend another year or more writing a second novel if the first one wasn't good enough to sell?
Two reasons.
First, you’ll want to become a better writer anyway. The only way to do that is through study, research--and lots and lots of practice.
Second, if your book sells it may take up to another year until the finished product hits the bookstore shelves. You will want another novel ready to show your editor ASAP so your readers can enjoy your next novel in about a year.
Again, this is hard. By the time my first novel was acquired by an editor, it had been a year and a half since I had sent it out—but I had completed my second novel. Every day I asked myself if I was crazy to do this because all I was getting was rejections.
I often wonder what would have happened in that year and a half if I had stopped writing. My writing certainly would have atrophied instead of getting better. I think I would have just given up.
I’m glad I didn’t.
NOTE: These days I work on two projects at the same time. Once one project is out the door and looking for a home, I’m already in the middle of another project…so it’s harder to stop.
For those who don’t know what Stacy is talking about, let me explain. It usually takes a long time to find an agent, sell a novel, and get it published. Literary agents and editors get hundreds, if not thousands, of manuscripts a year (see my previous posts here and here). Even if your novel is good, it may take months before anyone reads it.
Then there is the submission process to an acquiring editor which can also take months...or longer. If you are a never-before published writer (and not a celebrity) you will be understandably at the bottom of an editor’s priority list.
All this adds up to lots of waiting...the occasional rejection...and then more waiting.
So what can you do during this agonizing period?
There's only one thing: start your next project.
This is very hard. Everyone wants validation before they continue. Why spend another year or more writing a second novel if the first one wasn't good enough to sell?
Two reasons.
First, you’ll want to become a better writer anyway. The only way to do that is through study, research--and lots and lots of practice.
Second, if your book sells it may take up to another year until the finished product hits the bookstore shelves. You will want another novel ready to show your editor ASAP so your readers can enjoy your next novel in about a year.
Again, this is hard. By the time my first novel was acquired by an editor, it had been a year and a half since I had sent it out—but I had completed my second novel. Every day I asked myself if I was crazy to do this because all I was getting was rejections.
I often wonder what would have happened in that year and a half if I had stopped writing. My writing certainly would have atrophied instead of getting better. I think I would have just given up.
I’m glad I didn’t.
NOTE: These days I work on two projects at the same time. Once one project is out the door and looking for a home, I’m already in the middle of another project…so it’s harder to stop.
posted by Eric Nylund at 7:41 AM
4 Comments:
Words to live by, Eric...Thanks.
I remember this process quite a bit. It sucked very, very much. In fact, I stopped writing in that period too (albeit I spent half that time editing). Big mistake. When I started writing again my form was horrible, and it took at least a month to just write something decent.
Rule of thumb: don't stop writing. As long as you've got a pulse and a hand to write with or fingers to type, use them.
But what of Carpal-Tunnel?
All kidding aside, I find that re-reading what I consider the highest quality literature (at least what I rank the highest; reading Eric here and in his novels, Tolkien, possibly Orwell, Douglas Adams, Michael Crichton) keeps my form within perspective and discipline *almost* as much as practicing does.
will there be another book after the halo book ghost of onyx ?
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