Status update: It's been a minute
Sep. 5th, 2022 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkIt's been a minute since my last blog entry. I finally got my agent's feedback on Novel #4 back at the end of last month and have been working on revisions - although she didn't have huge developmental edits to suggest, I've been doing a line editing pass to tighten up the prose, because I've reached that level of paranoia regarding submission to traditional publishers. My original goal was to finish by today, but though I've hit all of the points she made, I think I'll wait for next weekend to finish my line editing pass.
Also...I learned that my Novel #3 has died on sub (a.k.a. no publishers were interested in publishing it). Which, I am still sad about. I'm okay with the idea of focusing all my revision/sub efforts on Novel #4 for the time being, but maybe next year I might think about what to do about Novel #3. Whether my agent might agree to let me indie/self-publish the book...but either way, I'd have to market it myself, and I definitely don't have the bandwidth to do that right now.
The weird thing about traditional publishing is that there's anxiety at all stages of the process; anxiety never goes away. When I was waiting to hear back from my agent, I was afraid she wouldn't like Novel #4. Now, I've heard back from her, she likes it, and didn't have major edits to suggest...but now I'm paranoid that her lack of suggestions might not be a good thing??? Like, what if she's not experienced enough with selling Adult SFF to be able to suggest the developmental edits that will help sell this book???
Basically, having seen the book of my heart die on submission, and knowing that Adult SFF is the most competitive genre to break into, I'm just...paranoid about everything right now. Because I want this book to sell. It's the first book I've written that I've purposely tried to make very commercial. And I have such cool ideas for a series. If it doesn't sell, I will feel like the past 10 months of my life working on this book will have been a waste (and in some sense, I feel like I've put my life on pause for the past 3 years to try to break into traditional publishing). I'll probably have an existential crisis and take a break from writing.
...Not forever. I know myself well enough to know that I always come back to writing. But I will probably admit that traditional publishing has defeated me and not think about writing another book for at least several months, if not a year or two.
Having said that, I'm already planning on taking at least a short break from writing once Novel #4 goes on submission. I have some personal issues that I've neglected due to the stress of my day job + working on this book that I want to take care of this year—namely, solving some health issues and resuming my dating attempts.
I'm also bracing myself for submission to be excruciating again. For those not in the know, the submission process has drastically slowed down this year—agents used to reliably hear back from editors about submissions within 2-6 months, but it's now taking way longer. And I'm sure it will be worse once I'm on sub with an Adult SFF; the high level of competition (due to great supply and tiny demand from only a handful of imprints) will definitely mean slow submission times. Which is all the more reason to take a break from writing instead of driving myself crazy about editor responses to Novel #4.
So...yeah. That's where I'm at. Publishing is definitely not glamorous and I wonder why I put myself through this torture every day.
Also...I learned that my Novel #3 has died on sub (a.k.a. no publishers were interested in publishing it). Which, I am still sad about. I'm okay with the idea of focusing all my revision/sub efforts on Novel #4 for the time being, but maybe next year I might think about what to do about Novel #3. Whether my agent might agree to let me indie/self-publish the book...but either way, I'd have to market it myself, and I definitely don't have the bandwidth to do that right now.
The weird thing about traditional publishing is that there's anxiety at all stages of the process; anxiety never goes away. When I was waiting to hear back from my agent, I was afraid she wouldn't like Novel #4. Now, I've heard back from her, she likes it, and didn't have major edits to suggest...but now I'm paranoid that her lack of suggestions might not be a good thing??? Like, what if she's not experienced enough with selling Adult SFF to be able to suggest the developmental edits that will help sell this book???
Basically, having seen the book of my heart die on submission, and knowing that Adult SFF is the most competitive genre to break into, I'm just...paranoid about everything right now. Because I want this book to sell. It's the first book I've written that I've purposely tried to make very commercial. And I have such cool ideas for a series. If it doesn't sell, I will feel like the past 10 months of my life working on this book will have been a waste (and in some sense, I feel like I've put my life on pause for the past 3 years to try to break into traditional publishing). I'll probably have an existential crisis and take a break from writing.
...Not forever. I know myself well enough to know that I always come back to writing. But I will probably admit that traditional publishing has defeated me and not think about writing another book for at least several months, if not a year or two.
Having said that, I'm already planning on taking at least a short break from writing once Novel #4 goes on submission. I have some personal issues that I've neglected due to the stress of my day job + working on this book that I want to take care of this year—namely, solving some health issues and resuming my dating attempts.
I'm also bracing myself for submission to be excruciating again. For those not in the know, the submission process has drastically slowed down this year—agents used to reliably hear back from editors about submissions within 2-6 months, but it's now taking way longer. And I'm sure it will be worse once I'm on sub with an Adult SFF; the high level of competition (due to great supply and tiny demand from only a handful of imprints) will definitely mean slow submission times. Which is all the more reason to take a break from writing instead of driving myself crazy about editor responses to Novel #4.
So...yeah. That's where I'm at. Publishing is definitely not glamorous and I wonder why I put myself through this torture every day.
