Gency Brown

Hurry up and wait. That’s where I am with my manuscript. You spend months, maybe years, placing one word after perfect word on the page, only to discover the work is just beginning. Instead of it being as simple as, here, print this, send it around the world, and make me a successful author, it takes time. Maybe if I had started this journey in my younger years, I would be more patient with this great expenditure of time. I understand it’s all required, though.

 I’m about eight months into this whole after process and still waiting. Editors are busy, and once it’s your time in the barrel, it takes weeks to edit your work properly. Mine has been with the editor for over a month and she emailed me last week that I should have it this week. Excitement, right? Yeah, then I get to go in and make the suggested changes she offers. That’s right, more time. She won’t make the changes because it’s still my story. I decide what I agree with, then massage the words around. I can tell you, this is my first, and I will follow her guidance in most instances.

Then you submit to a publisher for more waiting. Three to four months is average to get an answer from them. Luckily, the editor I’m using is with a good publishing company and she loves the story. She has shown it around to some within the firm and says they are anxiously awaiting the edited copy. When I look at websites for publishers, some take a few months to publish, some twelve to eighteen months. If all goes well, and with her help, maybe some time gets cut off this last step. Cross your fingers for me and I’ll let you know.

As a writer, if you can’t accept that all this is time well spent, maybe you should take up weaving, or volunteer work, or pickle ball where you control the time. Me? I’m spending my wait time by working with the 45,000 words I already have into the next manuscript.