Congratulations! You're A Published Book Writer, Now What?

Hmmm,

No, edits did not eat up all my free time. Not too bad. I know some do take a lot of time, but mine wasn't too bad.

I haven't had my second ms accepted yet, but I'm working on it. I'm also trying to find an agent, I would like to step up to a bigger house. But if I don't it's not a big deal.

My book doesn't come out until the end of the month, so I can't really tell you if it has changed my life or not. I do write more now - that's a big difference. I concentrate more on it than I did before.

People also seem to be impressed by it - I can't understand why.

Well, it's really too early to tell, I pretty much kept my writing personal until I got the book published. I think of myself as a career writer now, I pretty much write every day, I query agents and am a member of professional organizations. It was gradual, that process.

I do have a school program, I am sending out flyers a few at a time to schools within my state. I hope to be able to schedule enough to make a good income and drop my "day job."

Hmm. Has it changed my life? Yeah, I'd say it has. It's opened a bunch of new doors, and forced me to look at what I was doing honestly so I could grow as a writer.

Now, what does that mean? Well, it means that I had to understand how publishing works. I had to learn how each department in a publishing house interacts to produce the book. Our role (I write with a co-author) is only one cog in the machine, and the author has to absolutely stay within the timeline given for delivery of the manuscript, for editing, for copyediting and for galley/page proof edits, in order to keep everything on track.

And, the author has to KNOW the schedule, so they'll know if something is amiss! For example, we just received the ARCs (Advance Reading Copies) of our March, 2006 release. Terrific! Wonderful! Uhm... except for one minor detail. We'd never received the galleys/page proofs. Something dropped through the cracks. But by knowing that we SHOULD have received them, we understood that we would have to use one of the ARCs for this purpose, drop everything --- and I do mean EVERYTHING on our schedule to read through the book and check for typos, missing/wrong punctuation, or even plot holes. So, yesterday and today, that's exactly what I did. There were a BUNCH of errors, because we'd made quite a few edits during the copy edit phase, and hadn't had the opportunity to check to be certain they were in there.

Long, hard, icky day. My neck hurts and my eyes burn. But worth it, because the reader will never know any of the above.

As for your other questions, let's see:

Did it make it easier to get a second manuscript accepted?

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Once the publisher realized the public was BUYING the book, sure. But the first book is always a crap shoot, so merely getting published wasn't quite enough. The publisher has to make MONEY on the book.

Did it totally stress you out?

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No, but I know a lot of people that it does stress out. It's a whirlwind that takes forever. Fast and slow, and oftentimes frustrating.

Did the time it took to revise etc., totally eat up all of your free time?

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No. The goal is NOT to have to revise. Every single edit should teach you something about the next book, so that by the third or fourth one, there's hardly anything left to edit. You've fixed all of your bad habits.

Does that answer your questions? Or just give you new ones to ask...

Great thread topic, Denim!

Let me add a question: Do you feel more confident about your writing? Is it easier to send out submissions, knowing you have one book published?

Book

DenimSoul said:

Hi Everybody,

I would like to hear from published book writers, especially those that write for children, and my questions are: Once you got a book published how did it change your life? The pros and cons. Did it make it easier to get a second manuscript accepted? Did it totally stress you out? Did the time it took to revise etc., totally eat up all of your free time?

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One of the strangest moments in my life was when my first book was released, and I held the final copy in my hands. There was elation, of course. Then the realization that holding that book wasn't the end of the process, but the beginning.

At that point I'd already been through the edit and publishing process. I knew some book signings and the like were going to happen.

But the big, massive realization was, "Now I have to sit down and do this again. And then again, and again, and again, and again."

The biggest change in my life was that I stopped working dead end jobs and started working for myself. Becoming your own boss is a huge change. But other than this, odd as it sounds, the big realization was knowing I had to go sit down and start on a new book.

I guess I'm the reverse of Cathy C. Editing that first book was a snap. The editor asked for no rewriting at all, and had to do almost no editing herself.

But I've found the reverse of Cathy. Every book I've written since that first one has been more difficult, has required more work. As I've grown as a writer, every bit of the writing process has gotten harder and harder, not easier. Each book seems more difficult to write, more difficult to revise, more difficult to edit. Things I would have let pass as being just find in the early books no longer look fine. I see flaws in my writing that would have been invisible only a few years ago. Fixing them means learning something new each time.

For me, it just keeps getting harder. Editors don't seem to notice, and I'm still asked to to very little or no rewriting, but it's sure as heck harder on my end.

I suppose having one novel accepted makes the next one easier. I haven't actually had to write a novel before getting a contract since that first one. But in the end each book has to stand on its own merit, and bad sales can stop any writer dead.

Christine N. said:

Hmmm,

No, edits did not eat up all my free time. Not too bad. I know some do take a lot of time, but mine wasn't too bad.

I haven't had my second ms accepted yet, but I'm working on it. I'm also trying to find an agent, I would like to step up to a bigger house. But if I don't it's not a big deal.

My book doesn't come out until the end of the month, so I can't really tell you if it has changed my life or not. I do write more now - that's a big difference. I concentrate more on it than I did before.

People also seem to be impressed by it - I can't understand why.

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They are impressed by it because it is a big accomplishment to get published!

Excellent!

Storyteller - Yes! Having a book published does give you a confidence boost. Then the agent rejections bring you crashing back down... but by now you know you have a good book, phooey on them.

One thing I've noticed in having a writing career (though not a full time one) is the incredible ups and downs. One day you're up for awards and are on top of the world, the next you get a rejection letter form an agent, the day after that you get a email from a top agent out of nowhere who thinks you're up-and-coming and he wants to read your books, then no one shows up for your book reading at the library, you get another award nod and a big review, then the agent who wanted to read your books emails you and tells you that you're great and talented but that it's not your time yet, then you find out that you didn't win any of the awards you were up for...

Sometimes, it can be a little too much. Other times, there's nothing like it. That's been my experience...

Good luck!

I have a single book in the channel right now, due out in February 2006, but that first sale didn't interest my publisher in another novel called Gulliver Mouse. So as not to violate the right of first refusal clause, I'll ask them if they'd like to take one more look at it after we see how well Collinsfort Village does.

Now that I can mention a book coming to print, I've been seeing more evidence of submissions actually being read, specifically handwritten notations on form-letter rejections. It will always be an uphill battle for me because, as you can see from the avatar photo, I'm not the kind of person the press goes crazy over. Ordinary working schlubs DO get their books published but being neither celebrities, convicted felons on Death Row, nor cute-as-a-button Wunderkinds, they don't get that much attention. We're living in an era where a dynamite story will die in the review committee meeting because Marketing thinks the picture book from the former drug dealer has more potential to make them look good in the media than the novel by some guy who goes to work everyday, pays his taxes and stays out of trouble with the law.

All we have is our work. It has to be damn good.

LOL, Diana. You're great, you know that? You just keep on going.

How's the new book coming?

I think my reaction was pretty close to what James experienced. I was thrilled to have a copy of my very own book in my very own hands, but the publishing process is so long and slow that by the time book 1 was published, book 2 was in the publishing pipeline and I realized that I was going to have to keep producing. Also, there were things I did not like about my first book, mainly the cover and the cover blurb, neither of which I was consulted about.

I think being published made me more professional in the sense of understanding the publishing and publicity process and the discipline it takes to keep on producing books. I also found that the world in general yawned. My husband was jealous (he is a would-be author who is in my opinion afraid to send out his ms) and my teenage kids didn't appear care about the book for more than 2 seconds (although now one of them does tell all her friends that her mom is a writer).

It does make it easier to get other books published, although I had book #2 accepted before book #1 was out. I guess because I had been published a lot before I published a book, I didn't find it a life-changing experience. And like James, I find myself working harder and being more critical of my writing and I am more irritated with myself when I am working through sections I think are screwed up. I keep asking myself, "Haven't you learned anything yet?"

Christine N. said:

LOL, Diana. You're great, you know that? You just keep on going.

How's the new book coming?

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Thanks, Christine!

I have started writing, the outline is about there, I'm in love with the characters, but I still have piles of books to read for research. Thanks for asking.