Author Journey Update

Back in January, I made a post here that outlined my 2024 goals. Right at the top of the list was “Girl, finish your manuscript!”

Guess what.

I did.

We had a whole bunch of life stuff get in the way (I have a draft blog post on this, but I’m not sure if I’m going to publish it – it might be better off as a diary entry or therapy session) but I was still able to finish.

In truth, it was nice to have the distraction.

Writing has always been either therapy or a form of escapism for me, and while both could be true on this round, at the heart of the matter, I had fun writing this manuscript.

In fact, today, I was one of the (over) 1,000 people who wanted to submit to Berkley’s Open Submission Program. Spoiler, we crashed the website. They have to reopen the program at a later date. It was the Taylor Swift of publishing open calls this morning. Let’s hope that I can be one of the lucky 1,000 submissions that gets through on the next round.

I spent all day yesterday trying to perfect my synopsis, query letter, first 10 pages, and author bio. And I am still so damn nervous about them that it’s actually kind of nice – I have more time now to freak out, I mean, fix them, ha. I’m not sure I’m disappointed, to be honest. I’m kind of relieved.

It was my first time submitting this manuscript into the query trenches. I was so excited, so nervous. I wanted to barf. Still kinda do.

But I’m also really proud of how far I’ve come. It’s been less than a year since I started taking this journey seriously.

In the past few months:

• I’ve participated in multiple publishing seminars/webinars, trying to learn as much as I can. I have two more lined up for this week/next. Shout out to all of the agents and authors who put these together, for free, for us. We appreciate it, a lot.
• Went to a few local author/reader events at my local libraries and such, which always serves to remind me of why I want this so badly.
• FINISHED MY MANUSCRIPT.
• Then finished the final edits.
• THEN finished the clarity edit! Not to brag, but my original draft was 120k words and I cut it down to 86k. I am really proud of this.
• Found beta readers and am in the process of getting their feedback.
• I joined PennWriters awhile back and hadn’t been able to make it to events, but I started going to the monthly Coffee & Publishing Chats, made some new friends, and most importantly, got a lot of free advice from veterans who were so kind to me as a newbie.
• Found my comps! I have been reading so much again, now that I’m done writing, and it’s been great to get back to a hobby I enjoy so much.
• Started the querying process – currently making that dream list of agents while I wait for my final feedback to come in.
• Made my query materials – my letter, synopsis, author bio. This was harder than writing the book.
• And I hired a sensitivity reader, because it’s so important to me that this book uplifts and brings joy to folks, and doesn’t do any harm.

I’m sure there’s other moments that I’m forgetting, but I feel like I’ve been full speed ahead since the new year and I’ve loved every single minute of it. I love being a writer so much, and I even love the stressful bits. I hope that I can make my dream come true and get to do this “for real” soon.

I’ll be in the query trenches soon, and I hope to blog about that as well as some of the topics above – I have a freebie coming soon for tips on the clarity edit – so please wish me luck, because the hard part of this journey has just started.