Kayla’s Author Journey: April 29, 2022

Hi everyone! I know it’s been a while since I posted anything about my book publishing progress, but the fact is, the publishing industry is actually pretty slow. It’s a whole lot of waiting, writing, waiting, writing, and so on.

That said, I can officially say I’m on submission. My amazing agent has sent out several queries (not sure I can say how man). I’ve received three rejections so far, but since that’s not near as many rejections as Stephen King or James Patterson got their first time out of the barn, I think I’m doing alright.

A note about the submission process:

Here’s something you might not know about being on submission: you don’t know a lot about what’s going on. That is, depending on what you and your agent decide, you might not know much about the process. I asked my agent to just update me with good news unless I asked because I know how anxious I can be about things. So far, the process has been a lot like being in the querying trenches only I don’t have to personally receive the rejections, and I think it’s pretty freeing that way. Are there authors who demand constant updates? Probably, and that’s okay, too. That’s just not for me.

Tips to help the waiting:

What am I doing while I wait for results?

I’m writing.

In the last month I’ve finished the second novel (that I’m willing to share with the public) and sent it to my agent. I’ve also written a small flurry of short stories and entered a hand full of contests.

I’ll be meeting with my writer’s group in a couple of weeks to go over a couple of my stories, then I have some magazines I want to submit to.

Overall, I’m staying busy. Who knows? Maybe I’ll start outlining that next novel.