Coping while Waiting

[FrauMoose]

I am at a fairly advanced stage on the road towards publication. I have an agent and an editor at publishing house has expressed interest. However there are two more significant steps/hurdles. Other people in the editorial team are currently looking at the MS. And if they like it too people from marketing/sales also have to give it the thumbs up. I am finding the waiting process horrible! If other people have been in a similar situation how have they dealt with the wait?

Never been there yet! blooming well done
is this a name change

oh my goodness, is this what happens next? I can't cope with just waiting for agents to get back - I've turned into a birdwit with an attention span of 5 mins, constantly checking my email on a Sunday on the off chance that someone is so moved by my novel that they can't stop reading it on their day off.

Yes, it is. It is interesting and exciting. But hard - even harder - on the nerves.

oh I have a gooood feeling about this! x hang on in there

for the waiting, I prescribe a bit of nano

Nano?

National Novel Writing Month. Writing 50k words of a first draft during November. It's a good distraction....

Good luck, FrauMoose!

Absolutely. Good luck from me too, FrauMoose

apologies for the insane grinning. I'm just delighted!

Thanks all. Will let you know...

I think I know what the solution is to the 'coping while waiting' problem.
Don't just do NaNo, do NaNo and make your new book one which is really technically difficult using a notoriously hard technique you have never used before.
I am far more worried about my impossible next book than the fate of my last one.

Good luck!

Maybe set a date with the agent for another round of submissions if you haven't heard back from publisher A. Always good to have more than one iron in the fire.

Congrats! So hope you make it through the acquisitions process. There is nothing like the first book deal!

I'm sorry to tell you this, but the waiting never actually ends. This is a business that is mostly about waiting! And, seriously, I'm not just saying that. My first book came out in 2000 and even though I'm up to book thirteen or something, I feel like I'm constantly waiting. Someone I co-author with from time to time and I have a joke -- that we should develop a workshop called Zen and the Art of Waiting in Publishing.

The best thing you can do while you're waiting? Write the next ms. Otherwise you'll go crazy.

That was cheery, wasn't it?

Good luck!

Any news, FrauMoose?

I'm out on submission too now. Yikes.

Oh congratulations FrauMoose, that's so exciting. You're doing so well.

My suggestion is to keep going out for long walks without your phone so that you're not neurotically checking.

I am shit at taking this advice btw.

The news was that at the acquistions meeting the sales and marketing posse said no. I am bloody but unbowed. Agent currently pursuing remaining publishers. Will post if anything else happens. Thanks for your interest.

You'll get there, Frau. Well done for taking it so well! Would love to hear any further news.

Sorry to hear that.
Best of luck with the next one. Bloody but unbowed sounds good.

what an absolute bummer. So close ... good luck with other publishers. It's a bumpy journey, isn't it!