Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Edits! More Edits!

There's nothing quite like your book showing up on the doorstep, all marked up with edits. Like most things in publishing it is a strange cocktail of feelings.

At this point it kinda feels like a countdown—one more task closer to that publication date. Right now my book being "out there" still feels pretty far away, but I hear stuff speeds up the closer you get.

It's weird, this post-book-deal thing. I don't think I was really prepared for the...waiting. Ironic, I know. I've done a lot of waiting! But I guess I just pictured all that "fun publishing stuff" happening fairly soon—you know, the new stuff like a cover or blurbs or selling foreign and what not—when really there's this whole editing pipeline you have to go through first. And frankly, that editing pipeline is a lot like what I've been doing for my crit partners and my agents for the last few years, except with even higher stakes.

Maybe that's why it still doesn't quite feel real yet. I don't know. It's kind of like watching a picture develop. The image of me as Author Person is slowly showing up on the paper, and I'm squinting to try and make out what I (and my work) looks like. Except I still can't quite see it. The darkest spots are coming in. There's certainly something there, but I still have to wait to see the whole picture.

I really should be better at waiting by now!

Anyway, I am excited for these edits! Excited to be making some kind of progress. I am hoping it'll help me see yet another facet of this developing picture.

10 comments:

  1. Being good at waiting is important for writers. I'm not there yet. I've been anxiously visiting Duotrope multiple times per day recently, hoping to get a sense of when I might hear about the fate of a couple of my short stories out on sub...

    Good luck with your edits and your waiting!

    On a totally different note, I've passed along the Versatile Blogger award to you. If you're interested in passing it along to others, you can see all the details at my blog: http://michael-haynes.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-miscellany-contest-award-more.html

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  2. Happy Holidays and good luck with the edits. I am currently wading through edits as well. Tis the season =P

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  3. GOOD LUCK!! I hope these ones are relatively painless.

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  4. Heh. That's exactly how I felt a couple days after I got an agent. I was all excited to start work on her revisions, but an hour in I realized, "Hey. This is the same thing I've always been doing!" :-)

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  5. Have a great holiday. Enjoy your edits!

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  6. Editing is my favorite part of writing, crazy, I know. Maybe I was an editor in another life. Good luck with them, and happy holidays!

    Nancy

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  7. I think waiting is difficult no matter what stage you are in the process. Have fun with the edits and Happy Holidays!

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  8. Patience! Be patient!

    Yes, I know, you're thinking... "How can I do that?"

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  9. Good luck with the edits! It was great to read this, I'm at about the same stage. There are so many little milestones to look forward to...flap copy, cover design, blurbs, ARCs, reviews. But it's so hard to be patient!

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