(okay, a few months, anyway)
I wrote the following series of articles for my local RWA chapter’s newsletter, detailing what it was like to be a first time author. I hope new author’s will find them useful, and more experienced writers will look back and remember the time. Ground Zero:
THE CALL
Every writer dreams about the day the magical call will come, telling them that the publisher of their dreams wants to buy their book. Most of us envision ourselves picking up the phone at home or at work and finding our future editor on the line. That’s what I envisioned, too, but my call came in a most unlikely place — Nathan’s restaurant on Central Avenue in Yonkers.
I’d gone outside the restaurant to escape the din of the playroom to call my husband to tell him where we were. When I turned on my cell phone, there was a little envelope on the screen, indicating I had a message.In that moment, I had the sensation I was in that scene in the movie Jaws, when the camera pulls back and the lens zooms in on Roy Scheider’s face simultaneously. My stomach clenched as I dialed the number to retrieve my message. Somehow, I knew this was it. I was about to find out one way or another if BET wanted my book.
Now you have to understand that every CALL is immediately preceded by THE WAIT — the time between when you send off your masterpiece until the time you hear from the publisher. For a first time author, THE WAIT is particularly excruciating. Whether THE WAIT is two months or twelve, it is almost impossible not to have doubts creep up on you, doubts about yourself, about your writing, about your readiness for publication.
In discussing this with other first-time authors, I’ve noticed three stages most writers go through during THE WAIT. In the beginning, it is comforting when you don’t hear anything — at least your manuscript hasn’t come back with a big red REJECT stamp on it. After a while, you can’t help wondering, what are they doing with that thing? Finally, you just want to hear something — anything — from the publisher. Even rejection seems welcome, as you could then send your manuscript to another (hopefully, more receptive) house and there would be some movement in your career.
It is in this frame of mind that you receive THE CALL. Like the lottery winner who has to check his ticket over and over to make sure the numbers match, I must have replayed that message four or five times. Finally, I accepted the obvious. It wasn’t a trick, a figment of my imagination or a weird form of hypnosis brought on by listening to the children in the ball room scream their lungs out. It was indeed my agent’s voice on the phone and BET really did want my book.
I ran back inside to where my cousin was sitting surrounded by our collective children and told her what had happened. Then the six of us danced around as if we’d just slipped past the guards at Creedmore Psychiatric. A woman at an adjoining table saw the commotion and eyed us warily. To put her at ease, I told her why we were acting like lunatics. To my surprise, she jumped up and started screaming to all assembled, “She sold her book, she sold her book!” and danced around with the rest of us. Chalk that up as one sale come this December.
5 Things To Do After You Get THE CALL:
1. PARRTYY!! — Celebrate your success. Whether you break out the bubbly, go out for a great dinner, or paint the town red, enjoy yourself. You have accomplished a feat few writers of any genre achieve. Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow you’ve got to sit back down at the computer.
2. Charge it! — Splurge and buy yourself something you’ve been absolutely dying for. You absolutely deserve it. It doesn’t have to be expensive, only something you might not buy for yourself in the normal course of events.
3. Reach out and touch someone — Spread the word that you are about to become a published author. Tell your friends, your family, your neighbors, anyone you can think of. As my experience proved, there are plenty of people out there willing to share in your good news — and maybe buy your book when it comes out. Besides, it gives you good practice talking about yourself and your book, which you will need later.
4. Start thinking of yourself as a soon-to-be-published author — I’d always used the word writer on my business card, and I told myself if I got my book published I’d change it to author. Writers write, authors get published. I had new cards printed up before the night was over.
5. Get organized — If you’re like me, right after the euphoria wears off, you start thinking about what needs to be done next. Revisions, promotions, mailing lists and web sites, not to mention working on your work in progress. It helps if you’ve gotten a head start while you were waiting to hear from the publisher. If not, start now. Make a plan of what you want to accomplish and the steps to getting there. It should be a piece of cake for you. After all, you’re an author now.
One Month Later:
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE PUBLISHED?
In the past month, I’ve heard that question from everyone I’ve told that my book is coming out. I have only one answer. It’s like being in that Salvador Dali painting with the clocks dripping down the canvas: completely surreal. The feeling reminds me of when I first found out that I was pregnant with my son. I thought in wonder, how was it possible that in nine months a new life would come from me?
But, publishing, like pregnancy, comes with it’s own set of built-in reality checks. My first one came a few days after THE CALL. My editor e-mailed me back cover copy to my book. Now mind you, I love the blurb they wrote. In fact, the copy so closely mirrored the story that my mother thought I’d written it. But, so soon? Didn‘t I get a little time for it to sink in first? Nope. Two days later, I got another e-mail, this time with questions about cover art. And on it went.Nothing, was as solidifying for me, though, as holding the contract in my hands. Here it was, a legal document binding my publisher and me to produce a book and get it on the shelves. I kept staring at the last page, particularly at the line indicated for my signature. If I signed this, there could be no turning back. I was scared to death.
Oddly enough, as I signed my name, it dawned on me that my book would be on the stands in only nine months. I remarked to my husband that my “baby” really could be a baby. My six-year-old daughter, who misses nothing, asked, “Is it a boy or a girl.” I grinned and told her, “It’s both.”Some other realities to come to grips with:
1. You are now a public person and people will treat you accordingly. People who barely know you but hear you are publishing a book want to poke at you mentally as they would an expectant mother with a protruding belly. They’ll want to know when you started writing, what inspired you, where and when you’re being published — all the little details you are happy to tell them. People are, in general, awed by writers, no matter what their genre. Enjoy the attention and get accustomed to your role as chief promoter of your book. And never, ever, ever go to the post office with a ratty old hat on your head. You’ll have to trust me on that one.
2. Everyone you know has either: written a book, tried to write a book, published a book, or has the idea for a book that they think will set the publishing world on its ear. They will all want to tell you about their literary forays, and will expect you to listen in rapt fascination. Most of the time, this means nodding in appropriate places and wishing them good luck at the close of the monologue, I mean, conversation. Humor them. You are probably doing the same thing to somebody else.
3. Most people around you will have grander expectations for your book than you do. The world at large has no idea how little most writers make from their endeavors. The world at large does not consider how few books actually make it to the New York Times Bestseller List, or anybody’s list for that matter. The hardest part for me was explaining to my children that mommy is probably not going to be as famous as Whoopi Goldberg. She’s head honcho for the latest incarnation of Hollywood Squares, their favorite game show. In their world-view, writing novels is okay, but Center Square — now, that’s prestige!
4. The work is not over. In fact, it’s just beginning. If you’re lucky, this is the start of a new career for you. Not only do you have to see your first book through the rest of the publishing process, you’ve got the next book to consider, and the next. In the end, book contracts are a lot like Lays potato chips: you’re never satisfied with just one.
Three Months Later:
DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?
Time: time to write, time to work, time to spend with loved ones. Suddenly I don’t seem to have any time anymore. In these last couple of months, I have come to appreciate the wisdom of whoever it was who told me that unpublished authors should enjoy their time now, because it would be their only opportunity to write without pressure from anyone else. Nerts to that, I thought. I’d rather have a book contract. Someone also said, be careful what you wish for. As you can tell, I’m not always that big on following advice.
Once you have that contract in your hand, your work expands geometrically. You not only have to worry about the actual business of writing, but the business of publishing, the business of promoting yourself, the business of keeping yourself sane while you see to all your other endeavors. Publishing seems to me to be a game of wait and hurry up. You wait forever to hear whether the publisher will buy your book, but two days after they do, they need your author photo post haste and by the way, the new title of your book is — (fill in the last thing you could have possibly imagined). You wait to see what revisions your editor wants, only to be given a turnaround time that would try the wherewithal of Federal Express.
Okay, I’m exaggerating here, but my goal is to point out the importance of getting a jump on some of the other aspects of becoming a published author that you do have control over — especially if you are at the point where you are submitting material to publishers. THE CALL might come at any time, and it’s best to be prepared.What you can do now to avoid the crunch later:
1. Get an author photo taken at your leisure. If the shot doesn’t turn out the way you like, you have time to do another one. Hopefully you’ll get a picture you’ll be happy with and be able to use for a long time.
2. Start putting together a mailing list now. A rudimentary start would be to gather addresses of major bookstore chains, friends, family, business associates and organizations that, by the nature of your story, might be interested in your work.
3. Plan your web site. Write your bio and other information that you would like to post at this site. Research sites to host your web site. Many sites are available for little or no cost, but you may need to design your own page. Other sites that will do the design for you may cost a bit.
4. Meet your local bookseller. This can be a difficult task in New York where your local bookseller might very well be a big chain where you have to follow a big chain of command to get anything done. I started speaking to the owner of the bookstore around the corner from me last year, right after I sent off my manuscript. By the time I had the contract in hand, she was eager to schedule a book signing, as soon as I had a firm date on when the books would be available.
5. Finally, one of the most important thing you can do at this stage is try to clarify your vision of what you want from publication. If your goal to make a million dollars right off, you are probably in the wrong business to start with. But if your goals are to entertain your readers, improve your craft , to publish a certain number of books a year or something along those lines, you are dealing in the realm of the probable and will ultimately be happier with your successes as they come. I personally want to revolutionize the romance industry single-handedly, but that’s just me.
And remember, your writing life is not your whole life. Take time to smell the roses, play with your children, keep in contact with friends other than writing buddies. In an effort to take my own advice, I snuggled up on the sofa with my hubby the other night to see a movie we’d bought but never gotten around to watching. Don’t ask me what it was about. We were both asleep before the previews were over.
Dee-day
GOTTA MAKE IT REAL — BUT COMPARED TO WHAT?
I have said many times that being published for the first time is an exercise in redefining reality. Yes, you know a publisher has contracted to publish your book, you make revisions, suffer through copy edits, make plans to promote your book, but still, in the back of your mind there’s that niggling doubt that all your efforts will never come to fruition. Despite all the hints–the book covers, the page proofs, the reviews–somehow I didn’t really believe the day would come when I would hold my book in my own hand.I’ve always felt that part of my inability to accept the inevitable had to do with my path to publication. I don’t have a slew of manuscripts or a ton of rejection letters to my credit, as many other authors seem to. I wrote one book, got an agent, got a publisher, all without too much bother. I kept waiting for someone to say, “Oops, this has all been a mistake. You haven’t suffered enough. Go back to Go, do not collect that advance check.” So I went through the motions of getting published like a sleepwalker who would eventually rouse. Friday, November 19, I finally woke up.
I saw my book for the first time.
Ironically I was sitting on the steps of the side entrance to my house, enjoying the unseasonably warm day, glad to have escaped my children’s attention for a few minutes. If you teach, as I do, you know the last thing you want to see on a Friday afternoon is more children–even if they’re you’re own. I had my editor on the cordless phone. She’d just assured me I probably shouldn’t see copies of Spellbound until after Thanksgiving.
Suddenly, a man and a woman dressed in brown uniforms approach me. Now my first thought was, okay, I’m about to get mugged or something. Not only was I NOT expecting a package, when’s the last time two UPS people ever showed up to deliver anything? I didn’t relax until I saw the Kensington label on the box. Then I tore open that baby with my bare hands. Inside was the most beautiful sight I’d seen in a long time–my book!To be honest, I can’t remember what I said or what I did in the next few moments. I don’t even remember hanging up with my editor, although I probably deafened her in one ear with the scream I let out when I saw the book. I just kept staring at that it, flipping through the pages, feeling its weight in my palm. Finally, finally, finally, it became real.
Finally I felt like a published author whose book would soon be on the shelves. AAAAAH!!!As wonderful as that moment is, it is also daunting. Up until this point, the only people who’ve read my book are my family, my agent, my editor and a reviewer or two. Once the book is on the shelf, anyone can pick it up and read it, like it or dislike it, throw it against the wall or ensconce it on their keeper shelf. The book is no longer yours in the same way. It is now public property. Your baby will be out there in the world and must stand on its own merits.
Call me crazy, but late that night I picked up the book again and read it from cover to cover. I’d read it so many times during the editorial process that I was sure I was sick of it, but I found my own words strangely compelling. I’d started writing this story because I’d fallen in love with the island of Martha’s Vineyard and I’d fallen in love with my characters. Like every other writer, I’d poured my heart, my soul, my love, my grief, my aspirations, myself into what I put on paper. And after all the hours of writing, agonizing, waiting, worrying, I finally accepted that my dream of being published was actually coming true.
I guess it’s like Grandma always said: “You can do anything you set your mind to. All you have to do is believe.”
©1999 Deirdre Savoy
