Blogger: Mary Keeley
Location: Books & Such Midwest Office, IL
Hooray, your proposal is finished! What should you expect during the next phase when you have to be vulnerable and submit the trophy of your efforts to the scrutiny of an agent or publisher?
First, to build your confidence, take a moment to reflect back on where you started in your journey toward your dream of being published–the learning and hard work you invested to arrive at this moment. You might be the writer who recalls that first writer’s conference you attended, where you gained a bird’s eye view of the publishing industry. The workshop leader gave valuable tips on preparing your book proposal.
Or you might be grateful to the editor you hired to polish your nonfiction proposal until it gleamed. You learned much in that process. Or perhaps it was your critique group—those writing partners who scrutinized the pacing, plot, and character development of your novel. They gave you honest feedback and suggestions, to which you listened and humbly responded with third and even fourth drafts.
You triple-checked your sample chapters for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Your favorite books on the craft of writing are already well-worn but still close at hand. The timing is good; your topic or genre is currently in demand by publishers.
So, what now?
Waiting. Waiting is hard work. (Aside: I look at the number of queries and proposals in my email folder that I need—want—to get to this week, and I grieve that I’m keeping you . . . waiting. But something urgent so often comes up that pushes proposals back a few more days . . . and then a few more. And I do have a personal life with family and friends that I need to balance with my work as an agent, which I also love. But I’ll be spending this weekend and others getting to those proposals.)
The waiting is worth every anxious moment when you hear the words, “I’m interested in talking to you about representation.” Hooray #2: You have an agent. Now you’re sailing!
So, what next?
More waiting. Your agent tells you the proposal is ready for editors’ eyes and strategically sends it to publishers. The excitement builds. You dream that your proposal glows as it rests on the editor’s desk. But your agent gives you a gentle reality check that editors have mountainous piles of submissions to go through. It could take a while.
When you were in the writing process, you were in the act of doing, and that used up your energy. What are you supposed to do with all your pent-up energy now as you wait?
Glad you asked. This is wide open time to work on building your social media presence. Contact churches, libraries, schools, and appropriate organizations and offer to speak to them about your book’s topic or writing in general. Attend as many writers conferences as you can afford and try to meet with editors, especially those to whom your agent has submitted your proposal. Face-to-face introductions are invaluable.
Above all, remember we are doing this for God’s glory and kingdom purposes. His timing is perfect. So take joy in the journey!
In what ways do you resonate with this scenario? Where are you in your publishing journey? Are you weary of the waiting, or do you keep busy making contacts to get your name and your book’s topic in front of people?
Staying busy, sweet Mary. 🙂
One thing I try not to do anywhere during the process is to become idle. Not writing or blogging is equivalent to starting your car and letting the engine run while the gearshift is in neutral. After submitting a recent proposal, I (1) volunteered to write a short story for a magazine that has bought my work before and got that assignment, (2) agreed to write an article for a different editor who missed me while I was penning my novel, (3) agreed to freelance edit some material for a third magazine editor for whom I render this service four times per year. I’m also taking time to read books by Grisham and Cussler to recharge my batteries.
For me, it’s tough to jump right into writing another novel immediately after submitting a proposal. By tackling short projects and doing some fun reading while waiting, I earn some quick bucks, gain another injection of confidence, and give my brain a needed change of pace. Oh, and I also used some downtime to recreate my blog site.
Waiting is hard—sort of. I don’t think I am ever idle, except perhaps when I’m asleep. “Multi-tasker” is my middle name. With a partial mss out waiting on consideration, I’m working on some non-fiction things, some short articles, fine-tuning the purpose of my blogs, reading on the writing craft, and recruiting beta readers for my finished novel. Poems continue to come to mind, but I try to suppress that, poetry being a deadend street.
Meanwhile I’m thinking of the next novel in the same genre should the first one be accepted, as well as some in other genres. And I pulled my first novel out of the drawer and am polishing it. Soon I’ll get back to the novel under consideration and do another draft on it, at the same time as taking beta reader comments into account.
Excellent post as always, Mary! I have to admit that waiting sounds pretty nice at the moment. Of course, once I’m waiting, I’ll be anxious to DO something. 🙂
Mary, another home run with this post. That’s EXACTLY what it’s like! I’m in the stage where my agent is strategically sending out my proposal. But the cool thing is that I’m not biting my nails, because I’ve got 2 other projects in the works that receive my full attention. Tney’re coming along swimmingly! The fleeting question, “I wonder where my proposal is now?”, surfaces every few days, but then it retreats to the fringes again as I jump into other writing projects, drafting blog posts, etc. God’s timing isn’t mine, and I’m thankful. I grow in the waiting. 🙂
Oh, the waiting! I think this is the single most difficult part of being a writer. Our society is so immediate. The idea of waiting weeks, months, even years is pretty alien. Although it does make me feel a bit Jo March. So there–romanticizing the waiting helps somewhat.
Ah, that was perfect. I’m still in “doing” mode and am tempted expect the whole world to jump on my bandwagon. Who knew that writing and waiting were maternal twins?
As Tom Petty said, “The waiting is the hardest part.”
Yet whilst waiting, we can still be runnin’ down a dream: after sending out a proposal to a few agents who requested it, I recently re-worked a few short stories and sent them out to a few literary journals, and finalized a proposal for a TV show I have been working on.
And shopping. Shopping, shopping, shopping. Halloween candy sales are quite fun, I have found out 🙂
Good to hear your realistic and productive responses to waiting. And yes, Larry, shopping is good too!
Thanks Mary, nice post.
Last year at ACFW I was invited to send a proposal to an editor, asked for the full MS by editor #2, and editor #3 loved my pitch but couldn’t accept anything without an agent. This was all very thrilling, but in reality over the last year, quite overwhelming.
I’m on a big learning curve and decided goal #1 was to learn how to write my first proposal. To be honest, fear and God’s timing kept me waiting. I had it ready by Thanksgiving last year and just couldn’t find the peace to hit the send button until nearly August this year. By September, I received a kindly written rejection–my first! :o) I almost felt like it was a badge of battle or something. So, I’m now in that post rejection syndrome phase.
I couldn’t go to ACFW this year, so I met for a writer’s weekend with my CP. I’ve worked on learning to blog this year. I’ve shelved #1 MS and have a great start to #2. I’m hoping that I can have enough of #2 done by Dallas ACFW to pitch it and work on meeting agents this time–I’m still not sure why God had me meet so many editors in Indy and basically zero agents? I’m focusing on making my work as good as my pitch this year.
But I know its all in His timing. So I’ll keep writing in the meantime, and refocusing on why I do it.
Thanks again Mary, this really hit the spot for me–great diagnosis! :o)
Wonderful post, Mary. I don’t have time to hang around waiting. There’s too much writing to do and not enough time to do it in. I stay busy by doing some of the things you mentioned, but I also keep writing. Patience was never something I had a large dose of, so God is showing me the way.