What Comes Next for My Book?

Behind-the-Scenes After The Big Print-Out

Last time: From Stuck to Unstuck (for paid subscribers)

Print it out, my (re)new(ed) writing mantra

“Revising a novel requires doing exactly what you’re not supposed to do with a person: staying in love with it not for what it is, but what you imagine it has the potential to become, if only YOU try hard enough to change it.”—Matt Bell (viaTwitter)

My apologies for being MIA lately. I’ve been in edit-mode. For the month of October and the first half of November, most specifically the last week, I’ve gone into a type of hiding as I edited my manuscript to send to my agent. It was a BIG revision.

“Before Thanksgiving” was the deadline I gave myself, and here I am. I sent the manuscript out yesterday and now I can be a human again. I can watch silly cat reels on Instagram and better understand why the sky is falling over on Twitter. I can get back to my stack of library books while eating my son’s Halloween candy.

Here she is, all 329 pages of her

It’s worth mentioning that two weeks ago, I hated my manuscript, but then I loved it again. The secret: printing it out. Springing for the cost to print out this huge document made my editing job not feel like a pit of despair. I know I’m old school in this way, but editing a 300-ish page manuscript into one Word document made my eyeballs scream.

The big question friends ask me now is “what’s next”? It’s a valid question, even for my writer pals because everyone’s process is different and not all agents work in the same way.

Let me tell you how *I think* the next part is going to work. For those of you who like seeing the stuff going on behind-the-scenes, this one’s for you.

Note: Before the end of this post, I’m going to switch over to some content for paid subscribers so they don’t feel neglected, too.

The next part:

• My agent and her team reads the new version (probably after Thanksgiving)

• They will meet with me (via Zoom) to discuss what’s working and what can still be tighter/cleaner/clearer.

  • This is where I hope they will say it’s stronger than before. The manuscript is massively different than it was a few months ago. Hopefully I didn’t jump the shark or anything.

• I edit again (here’s hoping for a smaller edit, that I’m getting closer, and that I can work on it over Christmas break, or at least after final exams).

After that, we’ll have to see. Publishing shuts down over the holidays, so we’re looking at early next year to discuss sending out this manuscript to editors with the hope of publication.

Each step is closer and closer to that goal. Timing matters here, but we’re also not rushing things. My agent’s mantra is “right is better than rushed,” which I love. Since December is my busy month (my son’s birthday/final exams/Christmas/travel), I may need a lot of chocolate and coffee again very soon.

Editing with cats is a workout.

Though this time of the year is stressful, one of my favorite things about November/December are all the holiday gift guides. It is true that I hate shopping so much that I need other people to tell me what to buy. Your favorite skincare products? The best hot chocolate of the year? If someone else can just tell me where to buy it, I’ll fill my cart.

In that spirit, I wanted to share a mini-bookish gift guide for those of you who need gift ideas or don’t have a big enough TBR list already.