Yeah, but I Know why I'm not Published

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with someone who I shall refer to as Mrs. Blind.  During the course of this conversation, she told me that her husband had just finished his first book and it had only taken him a few months to write.  I remarked something like now the fun part, revisions.  Mrs. Blind gave me a curious look before informing me that Mr. Blind had already begun trying to get it published.  Suddenly I knew what it felt like to be an emergency room nurse as question after question tumbled from my mouth as I tried to come up with a diagnosis.  Some reason as to why Mr. Blind had sent out a first draft.  However, it only took one question from Mrs. Blind to force me to stop, “I thought you just had a blog you do for free?”  After I fixed my face with a polite smile, I gathered my child and excused myself.  It was then that I realized that she, like her husband, was blind to the true inner workings of the publishing world.

There is not a week that goes by where I am not asked about the status of my book.  The book in question could be any of the three I have already completed or the fourth one that I am currently working on.  Book number one was self published.  I managed to find a PR firm to represent it, muscled my way in to several local Barnes & Noble Booksellers, scored an invite to the first local Books in the Park event and snagged some good reviews.  My second book was better than my first.  Since I viewed my self publishing venture as more of a learning experience rather than a lucrative one, I decided never to do it again.  So with book number two I did research, the writing conference thang and queried it until I grew to despise the whole process.  With my third book I started this blog discovered some great writing communities and only sent out two query letters before moving on to my current manuscript.

You see I get that the writing, revising, researching the industry, more writing, revising, querying, rejection and starting it all over is all apart of my education.  One that, as long as I do not give up out of FRUSTRATION, will lead me to finally obtaining my goal.  The difference between writers like Mr. Blind and writers like me is that I know why my previous works were not publishable (this is a good thing:-).  And it has little to do with the quality of writing.  Knowing why your manuscript(s) gets rejected or ignored is just as important as continuing to write.  Otherwise you run the risk of never getting published.      

Happy reading, writing or whatever: )