i spent most of today feeling sick so i’m going to talk about my original novels. just because. this is probs gonna be boring https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😂" title="Face with tears of joy" aria-label="Emoji: Face with tears of joy">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😂" title="Face with tears of joy" aria-label="Emoji: Face with tears of joy">

novel 1: started as a reylo fic, turned it original. the first time i realized i wanted to be published. i learned a lot. this one was GARBAGE

-had no place in the market (i was querying a cyberpunk dystopia. IN 2018. what was i thinking)
-chapters were like fanfic chapters. WAY TOO LONG
-no idea what category it was. YA? adult? both? (wrong answer)
-just an absolute mess, amateurish, bleh

-got some interest from the query, but all agents noped out once they saw my pages. THE BIGGEST SIGN.

novel 2: a giant improvement. a YA japanese fantasy novel. i knew what i was doing from the start

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✔️" title="Heavy check mark" aria-label="Emoji: Heavy check mark">fits the market
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✔️" title="Heavy check mark" aria-label="Emoji: Heavy check mark">fits the genre & category
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✔️" title="Heavy check mark" aria-label="Emoji: Heavy check mark">a story i could pull off

i got 5 full manuscript requests for this. five!! that means my query, opening chapters, and writing style was working

but it taught me the biggest lesson of them all.

INTEREST DOES NOT MEAN SUCCESS.

all 5 basically went “i liked this but didn’t love it enough, sorry”

no concrete feedback. no request to revise & resubmit. no “this would be better if you just fixed this...”

but a whole bunch of “i’m sure someone else will love this!”

so yeah, it was good, but it didn’t snag an agent’s heart

(i’m shelving this for now. it’s not over!)

novel 3: my current wip. i’m really proud of this one. i think it’s my best so far

but i’m being realistic. it will only appeal to a very niche audience. i’ll have a much smaller shot here

but still, it’s the book of my heart, and as i eventually submit it... i’ll write another

they say publishing is a marathon and not a sprint. and i believe it.

on average, writers spend 5 years querying before getting a contract

kerri maniscalco queried 5 novels before landing an agent, and then 3 more books before landing a book deal

i just keep this in mind

and really, a lot of this is luck

many big name authors were privileged enough to skip the trenches

many more spent ages in obscurity before rising to the top

i remember an author tweeting he only got a deal bc the editor had time to read his MS since his train got delayed

anyway theres no point to this thread. but i hope someone out there got some sense of solidarity from it! we’re going through this together!!

and if you’re a marginalized author who’s sick of status quo, well, LET’S PROVE THEM WRONGhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Fire" aria-label="Emoji: Fire">