To be at a crossroads in life…is a stressful and sometimes frightening thing. In my case my crossroads is one big decision that has to do with my writing. My future career, you could say, as an author. My main goal this entire time has been to Traditionally publish my novel. It has been the journey I was set on. The goal at the end. The pie’ce de re’sistance. Until now…
Yes, I know it may look like I’m giving up and I should keep trying, keep submitting my novel to Agents and Publishers but the thing is that I am tired. Tired of putting my effort into convincing someone else why I think my novel will make money. I mean let’s face it, you are trying to sell your novel to them. Convince them why they should put their time and effort into it so it can make money. It is more about the money than it is about the love of the story. Which I completely understand because it is their job. They may love their job and reading but the fact of the matter is, that if they don’t have the same kind of confidence you do than they will turn it down. That doesn’t mean that it should affect your confidence.
It doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with your novel. I mean there could be if you haven’t taken the initiative to present it as a well edited manuscript. Taking the time to check for any mistakes, grammar issues etc. There are people who present a raw manuscript and then they edit it and resubmit. Those people sometimes get the deal they didn’t get in the first place. However, if you have taken the time and you have been through the ringer by receiving countless rejection letters than it may just mean that you need to take a different path.
As I stated in one of my previous blog posts, I have had my novel rejected by Agents and Publishers. Some who have only asked for a Query letter and maybe it just wasn’t worded the right way for them. Some who said the story just wasn’t a genre they wanted to represent at this time but when I write a different genre to please contact them again. Some who have read five pages and made a determination on that saying that it just isn’t what they are looking for at this time and that they are very limited on who they can represent…etc. I can say however, that I didn’t have rejections that said anything negative about my writing, editing abilities or anything like that. Which is a great thing. There were many, which ranged from being more personal to even just generic letters.
I have been a little quiet as of late, thinking about this crossroads and where I would like to be in the future. Do I want to continue to stress and doubt my writing abilities? Do I want to spend anymore time submitting my novel to people who don’t have time to represent it or market it because they have bigger authors on their list that are their sole focus? Do I need to Traditionally publish my first novel? Do I want to spend years down this path where I am just stuck in limbo waiting and writing book after book without doing anything with them? The answer to every one of those questions is NO.
Even though I started this journey planning to Traditionally publish and find an Agent it doesn’t mean that I have to be so stubborn that I fight what may just be meant to be. I don’t need to be so stubborn that I just wait for something to happen to show me a guaranteed path to follow. I have made big decisions at crossroads in my life many times over and somehow they have worked out for the best. Fighting a gut feeling because you are stubborn like I am, doesn’t get you anywhere. Taking your life into your own hands and making a change happen, does. No one can hand the future you want to you, you have to go get it.
That all being said, I am going to self-publish. I plan to go the Amazon route with it. Current research progress has been made. I am looking into how to make book covers and converting my document to read better on Amazon, and many more things. I will make this happen.
There was a fear in the back of my mind leading up to me writing this. The fear that I am a failure because I didn’t succeed on the path I started on. A fear that it means that my book isn’t worth publishing and that most of all I CANNOT do this. That was a big one, my lack of confidence in succeeding but I will never succeed if I don’t try. So here is me putting those fears to rest and taking the bull by the horns. (Excuse my overuse of every motivational saying I could think of in one place lol.)
Stay tuned, there are big changes coming. I have spent so much time researching Traditional publishing that I haven’t spent much time researching self-publishing. So bear with me while I embrace this new path I’m on and welcome the decision to take this direction at the crossroads. I will announce release dates and all of that when I am able to figure out all of the logistics.
Thank you so much for following me on this journey and I hope you are able to bear with me while I change direction a bit. This may be the rough road but I hope it is the right one.
As always, thank you for reading my blog…Until Next Time…JUST KEEP WRITING.
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Tiffany’s Writing Journey 