A Different Kind of Waiting

Before I was agented, I would often read blog posts by agented authors who declared that the waiting was the same--if not worse--once you passed the gilded entrance of Agentedness and went on submission.  "It's just as bad!"  "Horrible!" "Don't think the waiting game is over once you get here, honey!"

Okay, I'm paraphrasing.  But it was enough to teach me that I needed to brace myself once my Golden Day arrived.  (Which, at the time, seemed like it never would.  You know how that goes.)

Let's face it: If you're the tiniest bit observant, the one thing you learn about the publishing industry is that's it's slow.  Slow, as in, have we all entered a deep meditative state, and are we still breathing?  Slow, as in, will the children for whom I've written this novel be grandparents by the time it's on the shelves?

Slow.

So the ability to wait with grace serves us well, from the critique partner stage (never bug a writing friend to finish a crit) to the query stage (never bug an agent who hasn't responded to your original query) to the submission stage (never bug your agent when there isn't any news from the land of editors).  And it doesn't stop there.  The actual deal-to-finished-book process is extremely long.  And while editors may demand slightly less than reasonable deadlines, they may not always produce the line-edits or editorial letters or copyediting in a timely manner.  So authors must wait.

With grace.

So.  You all know that my novel is on submission, and it's not something I talk about because I don't think it's appropriate.  Professionally, I mean.  If you lived next door and we were having coffee together, you'd get an earful.

But yanno, you've walked this journey with me from the onset of your arrival to the blog, and I like that you're part of it.  So I want to say something enlightening or encouraging or mildly amusing.  Something to keep you in the loop.

And here is it:  The on-submission waiting isn't "the same as" or "worse than" the query-process waiting.  It is, from my perspective, a different kind of waiting, and one that is, ultimately, easier to bear.

Think about it.  An agent is your advocate.  You've done the work on the book, and the rest is up to your agent.  You're responsible to keep writing, keep growing as an author.  And to be ready for whatever happens next.

There's a restfulness inherent in this set-up that I think some authors miss.  It's admittedly easy to become angsty during the submission process.  I mean--it's scary!  You feel naked!  You're terrified that nobody else will love your novel. Or you.  Or anything remotely related to you.

But if you're wise, you eventually take a deep breath and get over all that.  Then you pour yourself a cup of green tea with honey, and you write.

And here's the "different" part: You write without having to do anything else.  No agent research.  No queries.  None of the stuff that used to take up so much of your time.

Folks!  This is so freeing!  And to use this time for angsting would be incredibly counterproductive.

I have no right to talk about "long waits" at this point, anyway.  For Josh and me, it's early in the game.  Remember: slow, slow, slow!  So while I've admittedly stalked an editor or two on my blog and briefly obsessed about this or that, I came fairly quickly to the leave-it-in-Josh's-hands-and-keep-writing mindset.

And I'm here to tell you: Being on submission does not have to be a horrible, nail-bite inducing process.  DON'T LET THEM MAKE YOU BELIEVE OTHERWISE!

That's my public service announcement for the day.

Oh, and I'm almost finished with my WIP.  "Excited" doesn't begin to express my feelings about it.  And the fact that I can FEEL EXCITED ABOUT A WIP while on submission with a different novel makes me feel like I've "arrived" somehow.

I haven't "arrived", of course.  But I'm in a good place.  I love my agent, I love my dystopian-on-submission, I love my WIP, I love my husband, I love the writing community.

It's all good!