Well, here we are - Post 100!!! Woo hoo!
It's been a while since I've posted anything, and I was really hoping this would be the post to end all posts - yanno, being the hundredth and all.
No such luck.
Things are still busy, but it's a quiet kind of busy. I'm editing, writing, rewriting, submitting.
And waiting.
That is such a huge part of this business of writing. You need a lot of patience and, truth be told, patience was never one of my virtues.
I hate waiting. Absolutely hate it. I don't want to pace my office for six weeks waiting for an answer. I want it now. Argh.
But wait I do, even though I curse out the e mail and the mailman each day. I get all happy when I see I have three new messages in my email inbox. Woo hoo! A response. Finally. The wait is over. I will know if it be yea or nay. I will-
Two messages are from friends and the third is from Best Buy.
Damn.
But publishing isn't a world that moves at the same pace as the rest of business. Two years is speedy in publishing. Three months for a response on a query is the norm. Some publishers take up to 9 months to reply to a manuscript, and that's only a partial. Snails move faster.
I tend to check the mail obsessively at first. Then I forget - for a moment - and then I'm back. No, actually I'm not that bad. I've found the best thing for that I wanna know now feeling is to throw myself into my next project. It helps speed the time by. And, if the first round of answered queries are rejections, then I am well on my way to having a second project to shop around after I've sent the second round of queries.
It's a slow cycle. Queries. Responses. More queries (if necessary). Partial submissions. Responses. Full manuscript requests. Yet another round of responses. Then, hallelujah! You're on your way with a contract. Then edits. Revisions. Edits. Ugh.
So, why do we do it?
I can't answer that for anyone else but me. I hate to wait, but in the end, it is all part of the game and, if you really work hard and polish the craft, it ends in that magical word - publication.
I still don't like to wait. I hope someday I will reach the stage where I can query on a synopsis alone. Of course that will mean mastering the synopsis, which is something I still struggle with, but I think I could handle it.
Until then... my mailman better watch out.
1 comment:
I think our mail woman had a fear I would jump her and shake out her mailbag looking for my letter from the cosmetology state board. I stalked her everyday for weeks waiting for my you suck letter or that blue license peeking at me from behind the clear window. But the relief of finally knowing that I don't suck was fab and she was probably relieved I stopped jumping out the door at her everyday. I can imagine it is an even longer wait for you, but hopefully soon you will get the answers that you are waiting for. I'm crossing my fingers for you!
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