Tag: Waiting

My Writing Journey, Uncategorized

When You’re Still Waiting… What To Do

Ritu

Waiting.

It’s painful.

Seriously.

I feel like I’m in limbo.

It’s been six weeks (or just over, actually) since I submitted my manuscript to a publication house. They said they aim to reply to all queries within around six weeks.

And in that six weeks, I have started back at school, and felt the most deadening exhaustion ever. I haven’t been able to get creative at all.

But, if I had the right energy levels, what could I be doing? What could any writer be doing?

  • Start thinking of another project to take your mind off the current situation
  • Take a little mental break
  • Read – both fiction and non fiction
  • Take part in little challenges (or big – I signed up to NaNoWriMo this year, but whether I could actually write 50,000 words in November, is anyone’s guess!)
  • Build up your social media audience
  • Consider starting an email newsletter (Still thinking about this…)
  • Read some of your older work – you may see something new in it.

Aside from trying to get my energy back, I have read a lot (when I don’t fall asleep with the book in my hands) and invested in some new craft books to help improve my writing. And I have been looking for my plans for book two and three too.

But honestly, my creativity has taken a real hit with this tiredness. And not hearing back from the publisher yet, has me on edge.

What is keeping me going, keeping me for letting go of my dream, is the encouragement from others who have been with me on this journey. My beta readers, who know what my story is, and one in particular who was so excited to hear that I am planning a couple more stories involving the characters in my first book.

Surely that must mean something, that someone wants to know more about these figments of my imagination?

Hearing back from this publisher in a positive way will be a certain type of validation for me, but if that doesn’t work out, I’ll be heading on that Indie trail, with the confidence that at least 5 out of 5 of the people who read my manuscript enjoyed it and were excited by it.

That’s gotta mean something, right?

My Writing Journey, Uncategorized

Playing The Waiting Game

Ritu

It’s a pretty bit thing, you know, submitting your book baby to agents and publishers.

It was huge enough when I sent my beloved manuscript off to beta readers. But the difference was, I knew I would get some feedback about my story.

When you send your proposal off to an agent or a publisher, you really are heading into the unknown.

I have heard those stories of fledgling authors submitting, and getting the rejection letters or emails, or worse, just not hearing back.

Most reputable agencies will state that they should get back to you within a specific time. But some just don’t. That is scary!

I have had a couple of experiences so far. One agency I contacted, replied with the kind rejection, that they enjoyed my material but wouldn’t be adding me to their list. No real feedback or suggestions, but encouragement to reach out to others.

My #PitMad Pitch

I took part in #PitMad off the cuff in March. (That’s my pitch, up there). If you are unaware, #PitMad is a Twitter pnenomenon in the #WritingCommunity there. Basically, if you have a polished manuscript, ready for possible publication, there are four opportunities in the year where you can write a 280 character pitch for your book, including the relevant hashtags to show genre, and tweet it. Agents use that day to peruse the PitMad hashtag and if they are interested, they like your tweet. No one else is meant to like the tweet. Others can support you by retweeting or commenting. I got one genuine like that time, and contacted the agent, who read my first three chapters and liked it, but felt a little more work was needed before representation could be offered. But she LIKED my ideas. That was encouraging.

Agent Response!

Over the last few months, I was increasingly convinced that I would go Indie and stop chasing that traditional publishing deal. The Beta reader feedback had been very positive. I had a prospective cover. My manuscript was almost ready. I even had a brand new MacBook Air, gifted to me by by Hubby Dearest for my birthday. Perfect for using all that lovely formatting software avaliable to MacOS users, like Vellum…

My Birthday Present

Then, one morning, something clicked in me and I decided to submit my newly polished manuscript again, just once, to a publishing company, Hera Books. They were recommended to me by a debut author, Kiley Dunbar, who has just released her second book with them. When I read her first book, I contacted her through Twitter, and we started chatting. She told me all about the fantastic support she had received from her publisher and how, though they were only digital publishers, there was a wealth of experience within the company. I held back submitting then as in my dream, I am holding a physical copy of my book, not an e-reader…

One day, a tweet pinged up from her, announcing her debut book was being released as a paperback too. Following the success of her ebook, the publisher chose her book as one of two they were pushing for paperback publishing. And then I saw her book on the shelf at a local The Works shop.

There it is!

A paperback! In a shop! That was it. Despite having hit an all time low in my mind, something buoyed me up and I woke up the next morning, read the submission details, collated all the information needed, then pressed send…

The acknowledgment from Hera Books

It’st been just over 2 weeks.

I have 4 more weeks to wait…

I messaged my friend Kiley, to let her know I submitted to her publisher, and she was mega excited for me. She said it would be awesome if I could join the band of ‘Hera Girls’ as she called them. And that made me feel all warm inside.

I’d love to be a ‘Hera Girl’.

But I have to wait…

It’s a good thing we have started back to school now, so I have plenty on my plate to keep my mind off obsessing about time and weeks passing, constantly checking my email for any news. But it is hard playing the waiting game.

Will they like it? Will they hate it?

I’ll just have to throw myself into writing book two… once I’ve got my body and mind back to term-time mentality!

And wait…

Wish me patience, all!