How do you stay sane while being an author - the update thread

[CakeRage]

So two years on from my thread about submitting to agents which ended up massive and included so many people’s journeys, I thought it might be nice to see where everyone is now. I know we have at least one superstar in the ranks these days!

As for me, I got the agent, went on sub, had a few near misses but ultimately failed to sell, then eventually, a year and eleven days after it first went out, one of the near misses got back in touch to say she hadn’t stopped thinking about my writing since, and though she still wasn’t convinced she could market the book she’d read, wanted to know what else I was writing. I sent her a sample and synopsis of my then WIP and was offered a 2 book deal a couple of days later. One book’s out later this year and I’m busily writing the next, which will publish in 2023.

I know we all dream about huge, multi-way auctions, or immediate preempts or massive advances for our books, but it didn’t happen that way for me and yet I couldn’t be happier with where I’ve ended up.

Anyway, if you were on that original thread (or even if you weren’t) let us know how you’re getting on. How’s your writing going?Who’s still staying sane?

Think this was my username on the original thread

Nowhere further, I am sorry to say. I have written another book, got another full request - but ultimately a 'no' for that one too. After multiple rejections, both books are shelved now and I'm waiting to see if inspiration strikes for another. I'm not in the writing zone at all at the moment, alas, due to various health issues.

Hope others have more inspiring updates. I'm really glad it's worked out for you, OP.

Great update @cakerage! Can you tell us which publisher or genre your book is? Obvs whilst keeping your identity under wraps.

My update is a bit more mundane. On the other thread I'd got an agent and a publishing contract for one book. That was published during the pandemic which wasn't ideal but actually didn't seem to do it any harm, it's sold well. Then the publisher gave me a contract for two more books, the first of those was out last summer and the second will be out later this year. I'm now in talks with my agent re going out on submission with new ideas.

I'm looking forward to other updates!

Sorry to hear that @PreparingForDisappointment - I hope you’re not struggling too much with your health. Sometimes a rest helps. I didn’t write a word for over a decade, and when I went back to it nothing was the same and all of it was better. You must be doing something right to get full requests, so it would be a shame to abandon completely.

And thanks @LouisaMayAlcott ! My books are romance and with one of the digital-first imprints if that helps narrow it down any.

Good luck with your submission! I definitely don’t miss that part. Fingers crossed for something exciting for you.

Hi all💖 ,

I came across the original thread while Googling about agent query times and was fascinated by all the responses! I've been writing for over 10 years now, but other than a few romance short stories and some poetry, I've never had much success. I've written more than 10 novels now, trying out different genres - I think my best is crime/thriller, so that's what I'm focusing on now. I have a crime/thriller novel out on submission right now with 6 agents and I'm refreshing the inbox even though I know I won't hear for months. 😁I have another idea brewing while I wait, but I expect to get rejections. I did once get a lovely response from my favourite agent saying she was gripped reading my chapters but she felt the themes were too dark for mass-market so she passed, but I've always held out hope I might win her over one day. This novel is similar in themes but more commercial I feel, so fingers crossed.

I was considering trying my hand at digital-first romance as well as that's a genre I loved writing in, and was successful with short romance/erotic stories. I think I need to do more research first though, but interested to hear any tips on that industry and what the audiences expect if anybody is experienced?

Thanks CakeRage. I don't think I will ever abandon my writing entirely, but lately I've been overwhelmed by other things.

Good to hear everything is going well for Louisa.

Best of luck, Angelica - romance is not a genre I am experienced in, but hopefully others will be able to help.

Thank you for this!

Hi all - @CakeRage , I was on the previous thread and also the original 'how to stay sane' thread a few years ago. I've changed my username back to what I think it was then to post here. It's great to hear of your success, and also @LouisaMayAlcott.
My long saga is that I got an agent, submitted, had some interest but ultimately did not sell. Since been ghosted by agent (bit of an unsatisfactory situation as technically she is still my agent, this probably speaks to my lack of assertiveness though) but putting that aside I've got on with writing another novel which have just finished and is now with my most trusted beta reader!
I am absolutely terrified of entering the submissions process again, but guess will have to.
Good luck, @AngelicasCheekbones. @PreparingForDisappointment, well done for persisting and getting so far, I think it's fine to have a rest and look after yourself until you're inspired to write again. I am currently at the place of zero inspiration for writing having just finished something, though I know the more disciplined would get straight on with the next thing!

@Dontrocktheboat I remember the ghosting situation! I also thought I’d been ghosted after not selling but it turned out my agent had covid and had been off sick for ages. I don’t think these times have been normal for any of us. Have you spoken to her at all about your new manuscript? Is it the same genre?

@AngelicasCheekbones My advice for writing romance is probably to make sure you follow the rules of the genre (HEA, etc) while making your work as unique as you can. It needs to be really hooky and marketable (that’s where my first two books went wrong) if you want it to sell. Find your niche, but make it something you love, too, and read widely in the area you want to write. And good luck! I still believe a good majority of success hinges on that.

@Dontrocktheboat , don't be afraid to contact your agent by phone or text if they are not responding to email. It's easy for their writers to slip through the cracks because some agents seem to overstretch themselves, judging competitions, being constantly open to submissions as well as all the usual stuff. Checking in with them on a regular basis is okay and won't get you dropped. You need to let your agent know about your work in progress so they can "fall in love" with your writing again.
BTW, my agent has form for disappearing, but is now back...

Thanks @CakeRage and @Soma , have come to terms (kind of) with the situation - I've not contacted her to talk about my new novel, but she's not contacted me either. Pragmatically, I can see from her point of view it takes potentially ages to write a novel, so given I had nothing for her and was starting from scratch it makes sense to focus attention elsewhere. I will contact her to let her know I have finished and if she is still interested, fine, if not I'll just submit elsewhere.
I guess my worry is she won't fall in love with my writing again, but makes sense to find out!

@CakeRage and @LouisaMayAlcott it's great to hear about your success, congrats!! Inspiring.

I wasn't on the original thread two years ago but posted in the follow-up one. I had finished my first novel at the time and submitted it to a slew of agents, eventually got one full request which ended in a no but with some good feedback. Looking back on it I see why it wasn't going to work out with that one - it was essentially the novel I had always wanted to read as a kid / teen, I wrote it without much of a plan and then spend ages re-writing it and even after that it wasn't very structured.

I have since written another novel, which I'm taking a short break from after editing before I edit it one last time and get myself back in the submission process. I'm not particularly excited about sending it out this time around but also feel it's okay if it doesn't work out as I'm excited about the new project I've just started on. I feel I've improved a lot since writing my first novel, it's been a great learning experience, so will see where it goes from here!

Good luck to everyone currently in the submission process!

@Dontrocktheboat my position mirrored yours a bit, and I considered submitting to new agents. Fortunately I know a trusted agent who told me to stick with my current one and try and get her to be enthused about my work all over again. I think I read somewhere that only 1 / 100,000 writers get an agent... It probably feels really scary, but you have nothing to lose if you send the occasion email or text message. I stopped worrying about how often I contacted mine, sometimes she responded straight away, somethings a few weeks later...

Also, check your contract before submitting to new agents.

Can I stick in my two pennorth about agents and communication? I have an agent and I can honestly say that unless we have something to say to each other we never email. Given that it takes me 6 months to write a book I wouldn't expect to hear from her in that time (unless it's royalties statement time!) - she knows I'm writing the book and I am just getting on with it. I would email her if for example I wanted an extension to a deadline (because the best bit of an agent is having someone to make the uncomfortable calls) otherwise I send the first draft when it's due. She's copied into any email with my editor but I have way more communication with my editor.

So you may not be hearing from your agent because he/she will wait for you to contact them with a new book or edits or whatever you are working on. And if it makes you feel any better I sent my agent a couple of pitches two weeks ago (because we're going after a new contract) and other than an acknowledgement email I've heard nothing. I assume she will get in touch when she has something to tell me.

All this is trying to say that you can always message your agent and tell them what you're working on but not hearing from them doesn't necessarily mean they are ghosting you.

Thanks for the agent advice @LouisaMayAlcott and @soma - hopefully you are right, but in any case I have nothing to lose by getting back in touch, which will do once I'm as happy as I can be with what I've done - just letting it settle and waiting for some feedback at the moment. The whole experience knocked my confidence a bit, so it's good to be reminded that even getting an agent in the first place is an achievement.
Good luck with your submission @Coucou2021, impressive that you've been able to start on your next book, reminds me I really need to get on with something else as well!

Thanks for starting this thread @CakeRage, I've lurked here for a while without commenting. I have an agent for my latest novel but only one was interested and though it hasn't been submitted to publishers yet I'm already feeling hopeless. Trying to combat the writer's despair which sets in periodically and reading how other people have persisted does help!

Thanks for this thread @CakeRage - I was also a lurker on the original, and found it hugely insightful/ inspiring!

My story...I queried my first novel back in 2017 and got a couple of requests for fulls/ some nice feedback but ultimately didn't get anywhere. I began writing a second in an entirely different genre, and this eventually led to my signing with my agent last autumn.

Since then we've been working on edits together....a trickier proposition than expected as I also had my first baby last autumn. Whilst I obviously feel PHENOMENALLY grateful to have signed with an agent at all, it has come at the craziest time of my life as far as time management/ sleep deprivation/ hormonal rollercoasters are concerned. On the other hand, I am on mat leave...

I'm hopeful that we'll be ready to submit to publishers before too long and am chewing my arm off waiting to hear on the latest structural edit I've done for her!

@Dontrocktheboat thanks!! It helped with the disappointment of the first novel not working out to be able to work on the second. It took me a while to see how writing the first was worthwhile because I had learned a lot etc. I had to shed some tears first! Working on this 2nd novel has reminded me why I’m writing in the first place.

@HolidayByMistake wow you’re doing amazing! To juggle the demands of a new baby and editing at the same time is seriously impressive! You mentioned you wrote your second novel in an entirely different genre, do you mind me asking what made you decide to switch? How did you end up choosing your current genre? Did it feel different (easier?) writing in your new genre? I wrote my second novel in an entirely different genre and felt it was a better fit, but also sort of felt I needed to get the first novel out of my system if that makes sense. Good luck with your edits and submitting to publishers!

@Coucou2021 Thank you, that's so kind! Having just reread your original message it sounds like we're in very similar positions - congrats on both getting your second novel finished and starting on a third! I've heard from several people that ploughing on with the next project is often a very good strategy too - I'm trying to start scoping out a next whilst waiting for edits - easier said than done at this stage! Hopefully you'll feel more excited editing the second when you return to it.

So my first novel was actually YA - I guess it was magical realism but with quite a contemporary political grounding....if that makes any sense at all? My confusion about genre probably underlines one of the many problems with it! I suspect the subject matter was also a difficult sell when I was submitting it. However, it did get longlisted in a competition, which was a nice boost in terms of feeling like I can actually string a sentence together, and of course the process of finishing a novel at all was valuable in loads of other ways.

The novel I'm working on now is for adults, very much commercial women's literature (though in my more self-indulgent moments I hope it's on the more literary end of the spectrum in terms of style). The genre hop made complete sense for me - I'm writing for readers like me which I find so much easier than trying to imagine myself into a YA head (maybe when my baby's a teenager?!). I always imagined writing for adults rather than YA, but like you, I did feel that I needed to get the first one of my system. In some ways I wonder if it is a hangover from all the writing I used to do as a teenager myself. And perhaps a drastically rewritten version of it might see the light of day one day...

This one is also a much more personal project than the first in that it sprang out of my own experiences, so I suppose it 'flowed' in that sense.

What about you? What genres are your different projects in? Best of luck with the editing!

Lovely to hear, also, about the other experiences upthread, and great advice re keeping in touch with agents.

@HolidayByMistake Oh wow, that does sound similar! Thank you for telling me about your experiences. My first novel was YA too, contemporary speculative, and also a subject which I feel was hard to market and/or there wasn't much of a market for. The only difference is my eldest is going to be 13 this month so I actually do have a teenager, and whilst she loved it I don't think it was as easy for me to put myself in a YA frame of mind as it has been to write for adults. My second novel is commerical women's historical fiction. Like you I hope it's on the literary side of the spectrum, but I used to write short stories for literary magazines and I know my writing in this novel is quite different from that (it had to be, the literary stuff was a bit out there at times).

You having found an agent with your second novel gives me hope! Having gone through the submission process with the first one though I'm trying to be much more realistic this time around as I know what an uphill battle it is... hence the getting going on the third novel.

Agree it's great to hear of other writers' experiences! Thanks for sharing yours and good luck with everything! I had my first "breakthrough" in a very different field just as said eldest was born and ended up working on the project through the earliest newborn days. It's a lot so hats of to you doing all that!

@Coucou2021 Thank you, again! It's interesting, while on the one hand as you say working on a new project through the newborn day is a lot (and hats off to you too!), it's simultaneously been such a valuable way of keeping a sense of self through the craziness of so much of myself (rightly) being given over to the baby. If that makes any sense at all! Obviously the juggling is super hard though.

Sending lots of luck re the editing and submissions process - I'm in awe of historical fiction writers and the research involved!

Great to see another one of these threads! I think I've been on all the previous ones in one guise or another... Huge congrats @CakeRage, it's fantastic to see your perseverance paying off. There's hope for us all!

After my second novel (queried late 2019) got some full requests but ultimately no offers, I spent most of 2020 and 2021 focusing on short stories, and had some success there - a few competition shortlistings, a win, a second place, and publication in a few journals. Then last summer I applied for and got a literary mentorship, so I was paired with a novelist who I've been meeting every couple of months for feedback on my work in progress, which is Attempt At A Novel #3. I'm currently about 45,000 words into this; it's slow progress with the kids and work but I think I'll get there eventually. And then the query madness will start again...

Op can you please let me know how you get an agent. I am in a group of people that get slated in the media and in sociology books and I would love to give my side in a book. Many thanks

Arghh, second form rejection for this book - that's two out of six initial queries so far. I've been writing for ten years or more, finally found a genre which I think works for me, and I still seem to get nowhere. I know it's early days but doesn't it just feel hopeless when you get the same standard rejections?! 😥

@AngelicasCheekbones I can sympathise. I've had 5 form rejections, one more encouraging, and one after a full manuscript request. I'm not sure which sort is worse! Also, six agents haven't replied in any form, so that's 13. I'm sprucing up my submissions package for another round, and after that I'm calling it a day (for the time being, at least) and getting on with my new project. Submissions take up so much time, and writing is much more fun. 🙂

@cakerage it's wonderful to hear about your success! I was on the first thread under another name. Thanks for starting a new one!

@stepuporshutup is the book finished? If so you could start to research agents who are accepting submissions in your genre, and begin work on your submission package. It's also a good idea to find some Beta readers, preferably ones who don't know you already, as your friends and family will of course think it is marvellous! Some objective perspectives are invaluable. It sounds like a very interesting concept.

Many thanks very good advice x