The Waiting Game - Not as Fun as it Sounds ;)

I've said it before and I'll say it again. This business hasn't taught me patience...it's just taught me how much I hate waiting :D

Well, that's not totally true. I AM a little better at waiting, mostly because I know to expect it now. But for me, the waiting is the worst part of this business. And here's a little secret, (for me at least) it gets worse on every step.

See, there's the waiting to get crits back from betas. Not fun. Will they like it? Will they shred my poor baby? But, this step of the process doesn't usually take that long, so over all, it's not so bad.

Then there is the waiting on queries. This is really not fun. Definitely the most hated part of the querying process for me. Don't get me wrong, rejects suck. But waiting for that response....miserable. Especially since there is a good chance that a lot of those queries will never be answered as more and more agents are going the "no response = a no" route.

Then, there is waiting on submissions. These are better and worse. Better in that at least you know to expect a longer turn around time, so maybe the waiting won't get to you so badly at first. Worse because the stakes have just been raised. An acceptance here can mean signing with an agent. Which makes waiting for the end result even more difficult.

THEN, if you've made it past all that, you get to wait on publisher submissions. These are killer. Yes, you know the wait is going to be a bit longer, so again you might not worry too much at first. But then as the weeks, and months, tick by, it starts to get to you. The silent inbox. Your poor refresh button will need to be repaired at least twice. Because now the stakes are HUGE. And the waiting, therefore, is that much worse :)

AND THEN, if you've reached that glorious of all occasions, A BOOK DEAL, you might think you are home free. THE WAITING IS OVER!!!

Nope. You get to wait some more :D

See, rarely will you get to shout your awesome news from the rooftops right away. You'll have to wait to announce. Maybe days. More likely weeks. Or even months. You might be waiting on contracts or maybe your publisher wants to announce in conjunction with something else they've gone on, or maybe you want to wait until the PM announcement comes out or maybe negotiations on your contract are going back and forth. This waiting might seem like it's not so bad. After all, you've done it! You have a book deal! But sometimes the best things are the hardest secrets to keep :)

And so, my fine writer friends, we wait. On crits, on queries, on subs, on contracts, on announcements - we wait.

How do you handle the waiting? Has it taught you patience? Or...just that you don't like to wait? :D


Me..."patience is a virtue" has become my new mantra. It's not working well LOL

Something Worth Doing is Worth Doing Right...No Matter How Long it Takes

I often feel the need to finish something as quickly as possible, feeling sometimes frantic at the need to get something done...whether it be getting a project revised and out the door, getting a first draft done or meeting even more lofty goals such as getting published. Learning patience, and even more than that, learning to take the time to do a job WELL is one of the most important things to keep in mind. It's not quantity of time that matters in this business. It's quality of work. Something I try to remember whenever my frantic tendencies threaten to overwhelm me :)

"The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance."

~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Guest Blogger - Lisa Amowitz

The Four Ps and how I live by Them

It’s been five full years that I have been writing seriously (and I’m not even going to count the summers before when I secretly filled spiral notebooks with my mad ramblings). That’s five years of working with two online critique groups, attending conferences, querying, stopping, starting over ,WHINING, CRYING, threatening to QUIT..then starting again. Five years of thinking--THIS IS IT! This is the ONE! This ms is so ready—then finding out not. Five years of—if you would revise this, I’d consider it again. Then landing a big agent. Losing a big agent. Watching writer pal after writer pal get agented then getting a book deal. Feeling bad. Then feeling ecstatic that so many people I know have managed what I used to believe was impossible. Yay to all of you! You know who you are—my bookcase is filling up with your books with more on the way (four pals with books in print, nine with contracts).


Am I dying inside? Turning green with envy? Nope. Far from it. Let me be honest. I hate rejection. But it doesn’t have the edge it used to. I know it’s not personal. I know I can write! At the same time the thought of getting published doesn’t seem like the end all and be all, though I remain in dogged pursuit. I’m very goal oriented!


The way I see it is, I’ve got stories to tell. Lots of them. Characters that want to be heard. They just aren’t going to shut up, whether some one wants to put them in print or not. I don’t know the ending to this story. I may never hit it right—the right hook, in the right voice at the right time.

They can write it on my epitaph in poor English: She plodded until she couldn’t plod no more, (or maybe plotted until she couldn’t plot no more).

So now for those Four Ps.

Perseverance—continuing to write and better your craft, in the face of rejection, while not concerning yourself with who sold what and who is repped by whom. Realizing that everyone walks their own path and that the only ones who get there are the ones who just keep walking, even if the soles have worn off the bottom of their shoes.

Persistence—Hammering away at a manuscript, re-envisioning it, buffing it, hacking it if need be, but doing whatever it takes to make it the best you possibly can. Then finishing that one and starting your next.

Patience— The patience to wait until your manuscript has been critiqued, edited, revised until you KNOW it’s where it should be. Of course, with each new book, you set the bar higher. Patience to wait for agent responses—you CAN’T bug them! And, even still, I’ve learned from my contracted friends—you need patience to wait for your editorial notes. (Which I will frame if I ever get one.)

Perspective (this one is courtesy of Emily Murdoch from the querytracker forum)—You are writing because you love it and there’s no limit on what you can achieve if you really want it. So remember to enjoy the ride, savor those words, and never compare your successes to others. Getting published is not the reason to write. Writing is the reason to write.

You see why I love her? :) Find her online!

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