Been racking my brain to figure out what to blog this week. It’s been a really busy week in my other life, so haven’t even been thinking about writing much.
But from the few conversations with writers I’ve had lately, one common element has surfaced more than once.
The long, long waits we have to endure.
I’ve had fulls with agents now for over 8 months, longer perhaps. I’ve asked for updates and been ignored, and while normally that would frustrate the hell out of me, that I’m working on finishing my current WIP makes the wait much easier.
Nothing seems to happen quickly in this industry.
Even friends who are agented have to endure waits. There’s the wait for their agent to read the manuscript, send it out to editors and then wait for responses.
With the right agent, the waiting for responses won’t take too long, but this too can vary, I know of a few agented authors who waited for responses from editors for up to 6 months. And that’s a good agent.
My own personal experience is, if an editor doesn’t respect an agent, the submission is treated basically as slush. In which case, why have an agent… but that’s a whole different blog….
Even the published authors I know have to wait, months sometimes, for their editors to approve proposals, approve finished manuscripts and yet are given very little time to work on art sheets, line edits.
But that’s the nature of this business. I imagine when you become a bestselling author, wait times dramatically reduce..
How do I deal with waiting? Well in my stupider days, I allowed myself to become distracted, didn’t write much, and basically sat and day dreamed about the ‘call’. Now I write and concentrate on the next book I’m sending out. It helps me deal and allows me to do something positive.
How do other people deal? Anyone know of those wonderful stories where an author got an agent and a book deal with in a week?
Just curious, if anyone else’s experiences are different from the ones I know of..
5 comments:
I wish I were better at coping with this. Forging ahead is the only thing to do. But can be so hard.
I'm not even going to get started on the business of publishing.
Many, many opps for improvement. The business gal in me is chomping at the bit but with that too, I have to be patient.
As for waiting, I do find that juggling different projects helps. I think if I was running with only the writing gig, I'd be pretty much insane by now.
Blogging helps too. Instant feedback.
Blogging does help... as well as having other things on the go.
I think the hard thing is spending months on a book, polishing that sucker and then you send it into the world and .... wait...
and then wait some more..
Not that we have much of a choice..
I hate waiting. I suck at it and I prefer not to do it. I get around it by having multiple projects on the go. That way if I'm waiting on one, I have something else to occupy me.
Yes, blogging. I love it. Keeps me sane. :)
The trouble I have with blogging, is that I have absolutely nothing going on....
Working on the current book, have a couple of others out there, hearing nothing, no news..
Not like my GH finalling fellow Drunk Writer, or my award winning other Drunk Writer... and there are only so many posts I can write on my everlasting love for BSG before someone (Molly, or Maureen) bans me from ever blogging again..
Post a Comment