I’m thinking of my good friend in UK. She happens to be a terrific gifted fiction writer but somehow can’t crack it just yet as a professional novelist, as a known author whose book hits the book stores.
I strongly believe in my friend; with this nota bene wrapped in my mind for her, she will make it. She’ll have to make it somehow, it’s just a matter of time.
I’m trying to be cool by using the word ‘challenge’ here when really, my heart cries out for the word ‘frustrating’ for all the right reasons, as well as saving the ego from utter destruction.
So, what really is the most frustrating aspect in the writing life of a yet-unknown fiction writer? I’m sure there will be different and varied answers amongst my fellow writers. But no matter the frustrations, the element of persistence is most common. Or else we cease to be writers, ever wanting to release the creative juices, passions and sentiments that most often, can only find their way in fiction.
Back to thoughts of my fiction writer-friend.
She has had few agents but… Perhaps it’s the rejections, and if not necessarily so, it must be the endless waiting. Only to be rejected once again.
Editors are busy people. But to take more than a year to respond to a short story, especially when that publication is only paying less than five cents a word, oh my! It’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?
For a query, most editors or publishers’ guidelines would say that the wait is 4-6 weeks, then 4-8 months for the finished product. And mind you, they don’t also accept simultaneous submissions.
Now I come to the part I really bleed for my friend. That act of submitting her novel pages! First she needs to query agents. Oh yes, she has. She did. They’ll get back to her in few months, if they’ll ever get back at all. Others never did. They ask for the first 50 to 100 pages of her manuscript (mss.) What comes next? They tell her they’ll let her know in another few months.
And remember what I mentioned earlier? No simultaneous submissions while an agent is deciding.
I’ve continually prayed for a miracle that my friend’s work will finally be accepted. Hopefully, in the year 2010. By the way, this is not her first manuscript I’m talking about.
If ever it happens that she makes it to the agent, then another process will unfold – this time her manuscript will be in the hands of the publisher. But this is another story altogether.
Oh, the writing life!
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