Ramblings: The Art of Waiting Patiently

You know, much about a career in writing is about waiting. You start off as a newbie, hoping your manuscript will be the one the editor picks from the slush pile in the publisher’s office and that s/he’ll read it and bolt for the senior editor’s office shrieking “YES! YES! YES! We must jump onto the phone and buy this amazing new author this minute!” Okay, so dreams are free, right?

 

The reality is that in most cases you wait until you get your answer. In some cases for a very long time.

And in many cases it’s not the answer you’d really like to get. I know. I’ve been there. It took thirteen years from my first romance submission to the one that saw me say “YES!” over the phone when my wonderful editor rang to buy my first Silhouette Desire back in April 2005.

There are, I think, a lot of preconceptions about how your life changes when you’re published. One of the biggest being wait times. Yes, of course, when you’re contracted and you’re delivering a book on an agreed delivery date so it hits its production stages at just the right times, your book will be read sooner than perhaps one from the slush pile. But in a lot of ways, you still become very adept at waiting.

There’s a great deal to be said for taking your time before selling. You learn patience and persistence and procedures. And they stand you in good stead when you reach that magical milestone and sell to your targetted publisher.

I write this because I’m not currently on deadline. I’ve just delivered my line edits for my June 2008 book, (JEALOUSY & A JEWELED PROPOSITION, Book 6 in the Diamonds Down Under continuity,) and I’m waiting to hear if Book 7 (CLAIMING HIS RUNAWAY BRIDE) requires revisions or if its been accepted, and I’m waiting to hear on a proposal that I’ve pitched to my editor for books I want to write next year for publication in 2009.

Seems strange, sometimes, to be planning so far ahead. There’s nothing spur of the moment about this industry unless your book gets yanked from its spot and pulled forward in the publishing schedule .

So, yeah. Just a bit of rambling from me as I wait very patiently for news and remind myself that this would be the ideal time to get the ironing up to date and the oven clean and tidy my office desk and floor again, because if those proposals go ahead I’m in for a very busy time in the next twelve months. And, you know what? That’s just the way I like it.