With the upcoming release of my very first non-fiction book, I've been talking to many people. One of the questions I get asked a lot is: How do I get MY book published?
I know many people want me to say something simple like, write a book, find a publisher then, voila! And maybe that's the way it is for some authors. I would guess, and based on my experiences and the experiences of my writer friends, that a straight and easy path to publication isn't the norm.
You do need to write the book. You do need to look for publishers or agents. You also have to develop a thick skin, be ready for rejection, set backs and practice patience. You also need to, eventually, learn about building a platform, navigating social media and marketing in general.
I've been writing professionally for eighteen years. When I say professionally, I mean, I've been writing with the primary goal of getting work published. That doesn't mean that everything I've written has been or will ever be published. In fact, I have a hard drive full of never-to-be-published work. I consider those manuscripts (some finished, some not) casualties in the journey of publishing. It's part of growing as an author and learning the craft. It still sucks to leave hard work behind.
I wrote my very first "serious" novel when I was on maternity leave with my daughter. I was "seriously" sleep deprived and in over my head with motherhood, but somehow that manuscript got me my first agent. Believe it or not, that first manuscript is one of the casualties of my journey. It sits on my hard drive never to see the light of day. Why? Simply...it was my first novel. I wasn't ready to be a published author and that manuscript was far from meeting publisher standards.
I moved on to my second agent a couple of years later with some new skills and many completed "practice runs" novels. My second agent was very hands on and we worked on edits for one of my books for many years. Yes, you read that right...years.
I'm not a very patient person. I'd like to thank my ADHD for that. I love to keep things moving but that's not really how traditional publishing works. Being new to the world of publishing, I didn't really understand how much my pace clashed with the way things are and have always been. Slow. Careful. Calculated.
Being fast, impatient and ready for more...I found my own publisher.
Going back, 2009, to be exact, I decided that I wanted to speed ahead of my agent and sold my first "spicy" novella to Samhain Publishing. Then I sold my second, third...four...so on and my agent and I parted ways. I thought for sure that I was on the brink of breaking out.
Fast-forward a few years and Samhain ceased to exist, my books all came down from various retailers and I was starting over...or at least that's how it felt. No breaking out. No books for sale. Hard work down the drain.
Thanks, again, to my ADHD, I don't give up.
I got a new agent with a focus on thriller writing and I found myself a new home for my previously published books. That publisher is Entangled Publishing who I continue to work with to this day. My agent and I ended up parting ways amicably a little while later and I was full speed ahead in my writing journey.
Back on the wagon and absolutely positive I was going to break through and become a best seller.
I self-published five books, working with my editor from Samhain and her book packaging company, in a short amount of time. I loved the freedom but not the upfront cost so I found another publisher.
Totally Entwined Publishing Group were happy to match my pace and I published quite a few books through them, all the while working on projects with Entangled Publishing and Cleis Press who published some of my short stories in their anthologies.
It was the Cleis Press publications that earned me acknowledgement from the Canadian Council for the Arts as a bonafide author.
So, as a tally, to date, I have over 25 spicy titles published under my pen name, plus four short stories in various anthologies, and 1 young adult novel. I have another YA novel in the developmental trenches with Entangled and my very first non-fiction book will be out in January from Pembroke Publishers.
I've written a number of YA books that are looking for a home still.
I've travelled to many conferences and networked while there. In fact, I pitched my Classroom Management book to Pembroke Publishers last year and here I am with a new book coming out soon.
All through my journey, I've never stopped learning, inviting feedback, digesting critical responses and pushing myself forward, always reaching for that golden ring, certain I was just inches away from being a world famous author.
For a long time, what I'd already accomplished was never enough. I wanted more, more, more. I never once took a moment to appreciate what my hard work had earned me.
All of this momentum has not been without cost. I pushed myself so hard and worked so fast that I rushed head first into burnout. Burn out was something other authors got, not me. Yeah, right.
Burnout, my friends, is no joke. I could not motivate myself to write. I lost my drive. My passion disappeared. I was disillusioned. Exhausted. Over the last two years I've been reading more than I've been writing and feeling guilty as heck about it.
It's taken time and a lot of therapy to say now that I'm proud of what I've done. I've been validated repeatedly by people in the publishing industry who I respect and admire. I've achieved things that I dreamed of doing since I was a child.
It took me a long time to be satisfied with holding my books in my hands rather than measuring my worth as an author by how many I've sold.
So, this is me slowing down. Rediscovering my love of writing. Reigniting the joy of creation. Choosing the next project with more deliberation and giving myself room to breathe.
If you'd like to support my writing, you can find my new book, How to Win at Classroom Management in Six Easy Steps on preorder at all kinds of retailers. LINK
