I mean you'd with the least amount of pressure possible but, would you ever think about writing a book? Every once and a while I remember how it felt reading Back to Us and I just wish I could read a story that was fully yours.
HAAAAAAA.
Friend.
Let me tell you a story about what was my writing journey post 2020 for me.
As some of you might know, I finished a book at the very end of 2020, by the title of Charlatans. It's an adult novel about three voodoo-touched adult siblings who make Faustian bargains to find their long-missing father in exchange for their hearts' deepest desires.
I was super proud of it. My first full-fledged novel, something I had always known I was capable of doing. The hard part was over.
Or so I thought.
See, to be a GOOD novelist, you have to let your work marinate. So that's what I did: I sat on it for a few months, not touching it at all, not even remembering that it existed. After those few months, I set to the hard work of editing.
When I tell you it is SO hard to edit a book you know is missing SOMETHING, but you have no idea what...ugh. And asking for beta readers was tasking, 'cause the thing was over 90K words. I did still ask, of course, but didn't really manage to get a lot of feedback at that time of editing.
Nevertheless! I pressed on. Started researching literary agents, fully aware that with a single project, you only get ONE shot with each agent.
I had a spreadsheet. I had my query letter. I had detailed notes on who to ask for and why. I was ready.
And so I started querying.
...The agents that didn't straight up ignore me gave me automated rejections. The agents that didn't do that gave me personal rejections.
And the one or two agents that actually bothered to ask AND read the whole manuscript?
They loved it!
Just...not enough to publish it.
So. Here I am, with a fully finished manuscript and no one looking to publish it. What do I do?
I put it away and go back to the drawing board, because clearly, I'm missing something. But since no rejection is personalized enough, I don't know WHAT.
Frustration makes me put it down, and I let it sit for a few more months.
Until #DVPIT.
For the uninitiated, #DVPIT is a literary event in which diverse prospective writers and established agents come together to discover new working relationships. The diverse writer has three chances to pitch their project throughout the day to agents, and if agents like your pitch, you may send them your query package. Cool, right?
I take the day off work. I have my pitches queued on my phone, ready to go. Throughout the day, I strategically post them at peak hours, keeping my fingers crossed for even one single agent's attention.
The event runs for an extra week to give agents a chance to read the thousands of pitches flooding the Discord channel. I wait.
No likes. Not a single one.
Now, this part I'm less bitter about, because 150 characters to describe my book? That's just ridiculous. And the comp titles to prove that people would like it? Ugggggh. Not an opportunity to really sell Charlatans.
But this means that, still, my first novel is without an agent. No agent, no publication.
So I put it away again and decide to move on.
And before you ask, yes, I did look into self-publishing. Still lowkey looking, but it's tough, since everything seems like a scam nowadays. And don't even get me started on the AI books being published.
I know you didn't ask for this rant, @hydrogen-ann and for that, I apologize. But TL;DR: a published book is currently a pipe dream for me, though not for lack of trying.
Bitterness aside, thank you so, so much. I'm so happy you'd be interested in something original of mine. If I ever push Charlatans out the door/find the time to write an entirely NEW novel, I'll be sure to let you know 💜
