How I Wrote and Sold My Debut Novel in 38 Easy Steps!
So, you wrote and sold your first book. Congratulations! How did you do it? If you were like me, this is what you did:
1) In mid-March, you
visited your long-suffering agent of eight years who tells you to stop
writing stuff no one will read and to get on the stick and write a
“thriller or something.”
2) Mortified, started said thriller on the airplane home.
3) Realized, “Hey, it’s what I most enjoy reading, anyway! Why didn’t I do this years ago?”
4) Silently vowed to become the next Patricia Highsmith while still remaining chief cook and bottle washer at home.
5) Informed family you’ve given yourself a year to write “something that someone will want to read.”
6) Tried not to feel patronized when your teenager said, “Sure. Uh-huh, Mom. That’s great.”
7) Panicked.
8) Started writing with two parameters: a) Something has to happen in every chapter. b) Every event in the book might possibly be written into an episode of “Days of Our Lives,” the soap you’ve watched since childhood.
9) Recalled that “Days of Our Lives” doesn’t do much with ghosts or guns.
10) Proceeded anyway.
11) Took a month or two off writing because no one really believed you’d do it in a year anyway.
12) Piled up half a ream of paper with actual words on them.
13) Dressed up as the “Crazy Ticket Lady” at your child’s school festival. Prayed that no one took pictures.
14) Went trick-or-treating because it was Halloween. You love Halloween!
15) Made approximately 350 trips to and from one child’s school and homeschooled the other.
16) Realized that, if you finished the novel, it was going to be almost 400 manuscript pages.
17) Panicked. Still enjoyed Christmas. Snuck away from cooking Roast Beast to work on a chapter.
18) Told agent novel is coming.
19) Agent said, “Hurry up. Gotta submit before summer.”
20) Panicked again. Realized you were within spitting distance of finishing.
21) Finished.
22) Revised whole thing, taking six weeks.
23) Sent to agent, who didn’t get back to you within a week.
24) Sat, stunned, for two weeks. Family was also stunned.
25) Panicked again.
26) Begged trusted, established writer-friends to read manuscript and say a few words, pre-submission.
27) Year’s up!
28) Received notes from several writer friends.
29) Received notes from agent. Revised again.
30) Sent manuscript back to agent.
31) Wrote a marketing plan. (Who knew that was required?!)
32) Waited for agent to make copies of manuscript, write letters and send out.
33) Manuscripts sent out on a Friday. Oh, it’s BEA or ABA or NBA or somesuch convention. Everyone’s gone!
34) Not everyone….
35) Sold. Go figure!
36) Did the happy dance for four months.
37) Started the next one….
38) Love your job!
