How many are published & how long did it take?

joyce · Mar 22, 2007

I have just recently given time to my passion to write a novel. I have sent out my first group of queries.....and yes have started receiving those wonderful rejections. I was wondering how many of you guys out there have actually gotten published and just how long did it take you before that happened. I'm not giving up, but I thought it would be good to hear how long it's taken others to achieve that dream. Thanks and this is a great place.

Will Lavender · Mar 22, 2007

I'm not the best person to answer this because my book is yet to be published.

But I'll say that it took me about five years of writing seriously to get there. When I received my MFA, I thought I would write a publishable novel immediately after. When I didn't, I was was shocked and disappointed. Over the last four or five years there have been many times where I went long stretches without writing anything.

Last summer, at 29 years old, I began my novel. In February it was purchased by Crown.

It took me about two months to write it, almost seven months to sell it.

So when it happened, it happened fairly quickly.

My point: keep at it! Keep going. This is cliched advice but it's the best I can give.

veinglory · Mar 22, 2007

I am getting my dream in small steps. Ebook published, one year. Print book containing my short story, five years. POD paperback novel, this July, seven years (only one year after starting to write that specific book). Offset print run--priceless.

Actually I haven't even submitted to a large press yet, I don't write that sort of stuff.

CheshireCat · Mar 22, 2007

I'm published -- but I've been published long enough that my experiences don't really count for much when it comes to those of you trying to break in now. It was a different market then.

For the record, I sold my first novel within a year of finishing it.

(Experimenting with fonts. How's this one?)

Memnon624 · Mar 22, 2007

Though I'd been writing since I was 14, I buckled down and started taking it seriously in December 2000. My first book too a couple years to research and write; I finished it in March 2002. It took another year, and 47 rejections, to find an agent (April 2003). Me and my agent did some revisions; she did some submissions, and it was purchased roughly a year later, in May of 04, for release in hardcover in June 05.

Conversely, my second only took a couple months to sell to the same editor (based on an unfinished manuscript, too).

I'm told it's different for every writer (indeed, and for every book by that writer).

Scott

Jamesaritchie · Mar 22, 2007

CheshireCat said:
(Experimenting with fonts. How's this one?)

Will, it's really big, and very colorful.

joyce · Mar 22, 2007

Thanks for sharing your journey as a writer with me. I know it can be a depresing field at times with all the rejections but it seems the trick is to just keep writing and trying.

underthecity · Mar 22, 2007

I wrote my first (nonfiction) book through 1998, querying as I wrote since you can do that with nonfiction. I had rejections. Subject matter was too narrow.

Into 1999 I continued revising and collecting a few more rejections. Then we bought our house in 2000 and I had to put the book away as I got started on neverending house projects. (Our house was built in 1924.)

The book never left my mind, though. Then, in 2002, after taking it out and dusting it off now and then, I found a publisher that published books with similar themes as mine. I contacted them and they were interested.

The book came out May, 2003.

So, about four years. But much of that time, the book just sat in a drawer as I did other things.

allen

Rich · Mar 22, 2007

A Novel is harder to sell than a short story, a non-fiction book is harder to sell than a short story, a short story is harder to sell than an article, an article is harder to sell than a poem.

A high paying, large circ. pub is harder to sell to than a small paying low circ. pub. a small paying pub is harder to sell to than a non-paying small sub.

There are variations to this, but it's as close to the ABC's that I can get to.

underthecity · Mar 22, 2007

Rich said:
A Novel is harder to sell than a short story, a non-fiction book is harder to sell than a short story. . .

And I think a novel is harder to write and sell than nonfiction.

allen

maestrowork · Mar 22, 2007

Eighteen months to finish the first draft. A few more months for rewrites. Another nine months or so to find a publisher. Published and in stores fourteen months after signing contract.

As far as my column is concerned, luck found me. I had been writing reviews before, and then I knew someone was starting a new eZine, so I sent something to the editor, and he liked it, and he hired me two weeks later. Then I sold a few essays to a literary journal. Thus began my writing "career," if you'd like to call it.

Marlys · Mar 22, 2007

Started writing my first book in August, 2002. It came out in September, 2005. In between, I wrote, revised, polished, learned something about publishing, found out what a query letter was and wrote it, ditto synopsis, wrote a second novel, researched agents, queried agents, got an agent, revised some more, began submission process, wrote a third novel, piled up some rejections, worked off and on on a fourth novel, started getting a few short stories published here and there, got a nibble from a publisher who wanted rewrites, rewrote, created my website, sold the book, revised, and polished some more.

It took a while, but I still feel damned lucky that I sold the first book I ever wrote. But if it hadn't sold, I'd have had two others waiting to go out...which are, in fact, still unsold, because I decided to write others more like the first instead of shopping those next.

So keep busy! You never know when it's going to happen, so you might as well have the next project or two in process while trying to sell the first.

(Chesh--still big, but much easier on the eyes than Comic.

)

CheshireCat · Mar 22, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
Will, it's really big, and very colorful.

Heh.

Okay, I give. I'm gonna keep my color, though.

rugcat · Mar 22, 2007

My first book was non fiction/memoir. I found an agent quickly, but he couldn't place it. One editor at Doubleday said he liked the writing and would be interested if I ever wanted to try fiction, so I wrote a thriller/mystery. It sold to St. Martin's in two months. Then a sequel, which the agent didn't like, so I approached my original editor directly and sold it to her. Then I stopped writing for 15 years,

Fast forward. Wrote my urban fantasy, Dog Days, in about nine months. Confidently sent queries off to agents (my original agent had long retired) To my surprise, query was rejected. Several more, same result. Some partials, same result. Requests for full, encouraging praise, no offers.

Began to realize that getting published, or even represented, is harder than it used to be. Had one tentative offer by an agency, legit, that after further research, I passed on. One of my more difficult decisions, but in hindsight, the right one.

Took nearly a year to find representation and sign a contract, but my current agent then sold the book, plus sequel, to Ace within a month of submitting. It will be out November 2007.

Rich · Mar 22, 2007

You're a writer. Keep your color in the word, not the brush.

Rich · Mar 22, 2007

CheshireCat said:
Heh.

Okay, I give. I'm gonna keep my color, though.

You're a writer. Create your colors with the the word, not the brush.

veinglory · Mar 22, 2007

I like purple.

-- in the brush not the prose.

Novelhistorian · Mar 22, 2007

underthecity said:
And I think a novel is harder to write and sell than nonfiction.

allen

I'll agree with you by half. A novel is harder to sell but not necessarily harder to write. The two nonfiction books I published took me five years each to research and write. I've researched and written three novels in the last three-plus years and published none.

ORION · Mar 22, 2007

Um.
Let me see.
I wrote my whole life but didn't actually finish a novel until the end of 2003. Then I queried it got rejected- some nice comments went to maui writers retreat and conference in 2005 & 2006 - wrote novels 2, 3 and 4. Queried number 3 got an agent in july of 2006, she submitted the last few days of November and it went to auction and sold in just over a week and will be released by Putnam in August 2007.
I'm going back to the Maui retreat in 2007.

Rich · Mar 22, 2007

In this realm, it's rules of thumbs here. Think on it. I acknowledge, and envy, folks who spend larger portions of their lives on longer pieces. What I laid out was a general flow of how each writing endeavor meets with the odds of acceptance.

johnzakour · Mar 22, 2007

I kind of sold my first novel as I was writing it as I first sold it as a weekly serial to the Sci Fi channel's web site. I'd literally write it one week at a time.

Once I finished the run as a serial I packaged it as a book. Nobody wanted it as a paper book. Then I sold it as an ebook. It sold really well as an ebook. it caught Daw's attention, they turned it into a mass market paperback book. It's now on its second printing. With a bit of luck it will turn into a comic book series in 2008.

The selling process took much longer than the writing process.

grommet · Mar 22, 2007

Joyce,

Just remember, it's a slow business. Be patient and persistent and KEEP WRITING.

It took me two years to write the book. I began querying in Dec. 2004, signed with an agent in June 2005. Sold the book (and a sequel) in October 2005, and it will be released in June of this year.

Prior to that I had another novel that shopped around that didn't go anywhere.

grommet

Shady Lane · Mar 22, 2007

It really depends, for a lot of people.

I published my fourth book that I attempted to market, but I wasn't very certain what I was doing. I sent each manuscript to one contest or queried one publisher, and beyond that I didn't know what to do. My first three were all were rejected, and my fourth was accepted somewhat untraditionally. I met Brad, the owner of authorsbookshop.com, and he introduced me to a publisher friend of his, Cantara Christopher. He thought she would look at my work and offer some critiques, and instead she offered me a contract on the spot.

It was a sweet day.

Jersey Chick · Mar 22, 2007

CheshireCat said:
(Experimenting with fonts. How's this one?)

It's very easy to read and I like the purple!

As for me, a few years elapsed between the time I finished my first book and I actually sold it, but I wasn't really seriously pursuing publication at the time (I had just had my first child and was a little preoccupied

).

Long story short, sold my first in 2004 and my second a year later.

Good luck :banana:

Matt Lipp · Mar 22, 2007

I think the moral of the story is: you will get rejected. It sucks, but if you keep honing your craft and doing the right things, eventually it will turn in your favor.

How many are published & how long did it take?

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