My Publishing Journey

For me, learning to write has been a long process, mainly broken down into periods of learning to write better, and better, and better still. Rich descriptions. Crisp dialogue. Fewer words, packing a bigger punch.

Practicing each element again and again, like a musician working and re-working scales and chords and arrangements, has taught me patience and persistence.

While working on the craft of writing, I've also been learning about the process of publishing, and it seems that patience and persistence are going to be important elements of getting published, too. And then there's luck.

My plan is to first explore "traditional publishing"– to submit my manuscript (once it is finished and polished to the greatest degree I can manage) to Literary Agents. With luck, I will find someone interested in the story I've written, who thinks other people would enjoy reading it, and who is willing to represent me and use their publishing industry contacts try to find a publisher for my book. Hopefully this will lead to a long and productive relationship, resulting in the publication of the whole mystery series I envision, and perhaps some other stories, too.

Finding an agent is a process that will take months, if not years. Then it will take the agent more months to find the right publisher. So it's going to be a long haul.

And if a publisher does decide to send my book forth into the world, that process will take months that will will likely add up to two years or so from acceptance to publication day. And, because the publishing industry has changed a lot since I first dreamed of becoming an author when I was a kid, I don't expect much fanfare along the lines of big promotional tours or the like...that level of hype is reserved for bestselling authors who have already proven to be a good investment.

If I'm unable to find an agent or a publisher after a reasonable number of submissions, I may look at submitting directly to smaller presses.

Or I might publish my book myself. I know just enough about that process to realize I will have to acquire a bunch more skills beyond the craft of writing, so...I'm going to hold off on that for now.

Every month I plan to report on what progress I have made in my publishing journey in my newsletter, Work in Progress. Subscribe if you would like to come along on the trip!