What I'm learning from the (early) days inside the publishing process
Plus a few things I'm not sure I'll ever learn.
Let me bring you up to speed on where I am on the path to becoming an author…
I won’t bore you with the details about the many, many years I spent being a person (especially a kid) who was simply obsessed with writing. You can find a lot of that here. Suffice it to say, though, that I have spent many, many years as a person (especially a kid) obsessed with writing.
For a few years, I worked in the book publishing industry, first as an intern to a literary agent near Washington, D.C., then in various roles in the sales department at Penguin Random House. Throughout that period, I learned a lot more about the way the book business functions behind the scenes. As a lifelong reader, I found this especially fascinating.
Several years into freelancing full-time, I decided it was time to return to my roots and take creative writing more seriously. I applied to an MFA program, which I figured would be a good way to figure out if producing fiction was something I really wanted to do.
I realized it was. (Great!)
During the first year of grad school, I wrote a bad book. Like, a really bad book. At the time I thought it was a good book—or at least an okay book. When it came time to edit and revise it, I realized that I hated everything about it and never wanted to see it again.
In my second year, I wrote a better book. It was driven by some highly specific niche interests I’d developed at the height of the lockdowns, which meant I was super motivated to work on it. I submitted the first draft of that novel as my thesis before graduating.
That book was better, but it still had a long way to go. In the summer after I finished grad school, I spent as much free time as I could reworking it. I shared it with other writers in my life and used their feedback to complete a pretty major rewrite.
Currently Reading: The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner
I just finished The Breakaway! While I enjoyed it more than Weiner’s last few novels, the ending fell really flat. I wish she would shift her focus away from weight and body size in her fiction.
In the fall of 2022, I started querying literary agents. This process is basically a necessity for any writer who wants to have their work published in a traditional way (AKA by a major trade publisher who will also be responsible for marketing and distributing it). Large publishing houses do not accept submissions directly from writers, so aspiring authors must secure an agent to act as their liaison and advocate in the business. I once heard someone describe an agent as a combination of a lawyer, manager, and therapist. Because reading and writing are so subjective, landing an agent is a difficult, time-consuming, and at times soul-crushing endeavor. There are a limited number of agents and so many people who want to write books. It’s a lot of pressure to try to sum up years of hard work in a short e-mail that you hope will inspire a prospective agent to read your writing.
After about six months of querying, I signed with an agent (!!!!!). I received the offer from her the same week we found out I was definitely pregnant, so it was a pretty wild time. I feel so good about the agent I ended up with and know it was worth all the twists and turns and stresses of the querying process.
Just because you sign with an agent doesn’t mean your book is ready to move on to the next step! I knew my manuscript needed some massaging—most do!—and I was excited to have an agent who understood my vision and could help me make a plan to achieve it. With her help, I’ve now completed two big rounds of revisions.
At the moment, I am waiting for feedback on that second round. I made lots of changes this time, and I’m hopeful my agent will feel like it’s where she wants it to be!
The next step will be going on submission to publishers. Once my agent feels confident the manuscript is at its very best, it will be up to her to make a list of editors (who work at the publishing houses) who she thinks would be interested in and well-suited to work with me. I’m told that going on submission can be just as brutal—if not more—than querying agents, but I’m trying to take things one day at a time and celebrate the fact that I have an amazing advocate who believes in my work now in my corner.
I’m not 100% sure when we’ll be able to move on this next step. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to start the process before the end of the year—and before I get super pregnant—but the holidays make that tricky. TBD!
Soooooo, yeah. All of that has happened and I haven’t even gotten to the point of seeking an editor yet.
The publishing industry is well-known for being extremely slow, and even after working inside it myself, I think I underestimated how much of a waiting game every step of the process would be. The good news? With every pause, I’m forced to spend time thinking and reflecting (maybe too much)—so I’ve learned a few things about myself.
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