The scary road to become an author...

This stage in my author journey is daunting and scary as hell!! I’ve read and re-read my manuscript, polished and tweaked and now for the next step…

Writing a novel is a LONG process – there’s idea generation, character development, story creation, flow, working, tweaking, changing, editing, and that’s just to name a few! But in the grand scheme of things, this is only the FIRST chapter in the road to becoming an author, the real work starts AFTER the finished manuscript. But my manuscript took me three years to write you’re telling me that was only first phase?! To this, I laugh deviously, because yes, there is so much more to becoming an author than just writing a cracking story.

I am now at this stage, and I have been dreading it. The writing, the story telling, the characters and dialogue – now that’s my favourite part, but the next step in the journey is so crucial, and so I have begun it (excitedly) tentatively.

I’ve done a lot of research around this next stage: in order to get publish there are basically three options.

• Self-publish

• Get represented by a literary agent

• Publish directly to a publisher

I knew someone who went the self-publishing route, and she vowed never to do it again. Don’t get me wrong, it is definitely doable, but it takes a lot time and above all, money! And us struggling authors are on par with the well known struggling artists; we mostly write in our free time until that blessed day comes and we get signed with an upfront advance on our next books. But right now, that looks like a utopia to me. Anyway, I have crossed this option off my list for obvious reasons…financial.

Now, a lot of publishing house will not directly accept unsolicited manuscripts and will only accept them if you are represented by literary agents. However, I say “a lot of publishing houses” because I also know someone who went direct to a publisher and got her manuscript accepted! So, it can happen, you just have to do your research and find the right ones.

That brings me to finding a literary agent. This stage SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME. Maybe it’s because I want to be represented so badly but the process to finding one and being accepted is quite complicated, and here’s why.

Literary agents require two main things: a cover/query letter and a synopsis of your novel. Sounds easy right? Oh my dear friend, how wring you are! As an author you should understand how INSANELY hard these are to write! How am I supposed to summarise all the points of the story I spent every chapter pouring over into ONE PAGE? And an elevator pitch? The most brain aching task in my life. Now you see why I am so scared to move into this next stage.

That being said, there are lots of tools out there to help you with crafting these elusive texts, and I have spent hours pouring over them and finally feel like I’m ready to tackle it. So I spent yesterday literally trying to write a one to two sentence elevator pitch, and all I came up with was a page of wishy-washy sentences. I need that hook! The right structure of sentence to pull that agent/publisher in… I’m still working on it though, but by this morning I THINK I may have managed to pull something together.

But enough of that, the reason I find this whole next step so daunting is because it is make or break. The joy of writing away with the freedom for it not to be perfect during that first stage of novel writing is my favourite. Because at this stage, it doesn’t matter if there’s grammar issues or typos or a few gaps in the story. There’s no pressure for it to be perfect. But when you’re done, and its submission time, that’s when it should be PERFECT, and your skills will be judged. Oh, THE PRESSURE!

But more than polishing your manuscript, cover letter and synopsis, there are also the other steps to be taken in this modern world to consider. Your online presence.

I started my author account on Instagram as soon as the ambition became clear. Why Instagram? Well, because it’s my favourite social media platform and I understand how it works and love using it. So creating an author page for IG was as easy as opening a word document and as fun as creating a manuscript. I cannot stress how much useful information I found on IG and how much it, and the people I connected with, helped me become a more rounded author. Creating a following took time, as with all social media channels it’s about give and take and finding your voice and making connections with similar minded people. Not only that, but there is an AMAZING author community on IG filled with both writers and readers supporting each other. It is honestly phenomenal.

But more than that, I wanted to use my author profile as a place to promote myself and my upcoming WIP’S (work in progress – a hand connotation I discovered from the author community), and I hoped that when the day came to submit to agents/publishers they would be able to see the dedication to my craft. And although being on IG has its advantages, I have come to realise that, before I begin my submissions, there is also an advantage to having a wider social media presence, and so now I am on Facebook and Twitter too and have my own author website. I can’t say Facebook or Twitter come as easy to me as Instagram did, but I’m trying and putting myself out there and hopefully (fingers crossed) all will pay off in the long run.

So you see, there is so much more to becoming an author than just writing a story, and it’s a long, wild ride, but when that day comes and I have the backing of an amazing literary agent and a publishing house that wants to represent me, it’ll all be worth it. And for now, I am holding on to the dream.

Social media links:

After reading this post I hope you can also appreciate the importance of building up a following, so please follow me on my channels, feel free to get in contact with me, and share this blog!

Instagram (where most of the magic happens): @authorjamiemacilwaine

Facebook: @AuthorJamieMacilwaine

Twitter: @JamieMacilwaine