December 13

Susan Dennard

For our Advent Calendar, Susan Dennard gives advice on writing and waiting.

The Waiting Game

Ah, waiting. In the world of traditional publishing, if you're not waiting to hear back from agents, then you're waiting to hear back from editors while you're on submission. Or you're waiting to get paid (2 times a year is pretty rough), or you're waiting to hear what the heck is happening at your publisher, with edits, with marketing/publicity, with the cover, with everything. Or your waiting to learn about a foreign sale. Or a bookstore event...Or, or, or.

Tis a miserable game of mind over email, and "staying strong" is so much easier said than done. No wonder authors tend to be an anxious lot. Most of our careers are filled with this unpredictable, unstable element of The Wait. Lucky for you, I have the perfect way to fill your time while wait for agents, editors, publishers, early reviewers, whatever to finally get back to you.

Write another book. Or a short story. Or a novella. Just write something.

I know. It’s the obvious answer, but I want to dig into the why.

It's very possible that your first book will never get an agent or will never sell to a publisher, so you will have waited and waited only to ultimately face the final rejection. But if you have another project waiting in the wings…and then another project and another after that, you’ll increase your odds of success dramatically. This is a marathon, my friends! Even if we stumble after the first mile, we have to get back up and keep going! But if we constantly pause after every mile…Well, I’m not sure we’ll ever actually finish.

Now, it's also very possible, of course, that rejection won't happen on your first book. You could snag the agent and then the book deal. That certainly happened for me with my debut Something Strange & Deadly—though don’t you worry, I still got walloped in the rejection department. It simply came for me after the series failed to “meet expectations.” Fortunately, I had other projects ready to flip over like a deck of cards.

Publishers don’t want my next urban fantasy project? How about my middle grade? How about this other middle grade? Okay fine, how about this high fantasy called Truthwitch?

Publishing is a business, and publishers have to buy what they think can sell. So even if you don’t get a bite with an agent or an editor on your current project, your next one might be The One! And hey, that urban fantasy no one wanted from me? Well, flash forward 8 years, and it has bites! In other words, no project is ever wasted.

 Being an author is a job, and if you’re around long enough, you will hit many amazing highs and many disheartening lows. But the more projects you have ready to go, ready to sell, the easier it is to stave off those lows and wait for the highs to return.

So step away your email, put on your favorite writing playlist, and transform this agonizing wait into a brand new story that only you can tell.