When I was 22 (only eight years ago and yet it feels like a life time) I graduated from my Bachelor of Education degree and took my first teaching job. For the first two terms I felt like an imposter, a fraud who was going to be found out at any second. Partly this was because I’d taken a job teaching at my old high school (where I’d been a student only four years earlier) and was still getting over calling my old teachers by their first names but for the most part I think it was that limbo that comes with starting down a new career path. By my fourth year as a teacher I felt like a belonged in the classroom.
Now, I’ve sent out my manuscript to two publishers. I wrote it, rewrote it, asked other people to read it and incorporated their feedback into my work, polished some more, rewrote some more, polished again until I had to wear sunglasses just to glance at it, and sent it out into the world.
I am pretty extremely absolutely sure that my manuscript won’t find a publisher this time round but in the meantime I back in limbo. I’m committed to writing as a career but I’m not yet published (or getting paid). So I keep writing, writing, writing.
But how do you deal with the limbo stage? I’d love some ideas on how to get through it, because I could be here for looooooong time.
Think out of the box. EVERYbody sends in a manuscript and I know from experience from the receivers side that they simply are not always read. I’d be thinking about what I could do to stand out Wendy and make it happen, not wait for it to come to me.
I’d also keep growing the list of other publishers to attack.
I’d use my blog to build my audience for my writing (https://theeditorsjournal.wordpress.com/category/blogging/) because many, many publishers have given deals to people just based on the audience they have already acquired, be that as a reality TV star, an online chef or a blogger.
I’ve decided to self publish…
Sorry It’s taken me so long to reply to your comment. It’s been a crazy week.
How is your self publishing journey going? And was this a decision made from your experience of traditional publishing or something else?
Oh no. I am so new to all of it. Just feel like it is the right way… We’ll see how it turns out.
Well good luck with it 😊
Thank you 🙂