One of my biggest publishing regrets
Picture this:
It’s 2011. I’m at my MFA residency on the beautiful Enders Island in Mystic, Connecticut.
My professor at the time, the NYT bestselling author Da Chen (now very sadly deceased) invited me to dinner with him, his agent, and a few other students.
And I said no.
The fact that I said no makes me want to bang my head against my desk, shake my past self, and/or crawl into a hole.
WHY DID I SAY NO?!?!
I said no because I was terrified, and also because I’d convinced myself that I should focus just on writing the best book I possibly could.
I didn’t know what I should ask or talk about with an agent.
Besides, all the publishing / business stuff could come later, I thought.
I WAS WRONG.
Don’t be like me.
If you are writing a book and you want to eventually publish it, you need to think about publishing now.
Not later.
You need to think about publishing now AND later, like the candy.
Don’t make the same mistake I did.
Now: in the grand scheme of things, would that dinner have made a huge difference? Maybe not.
But here’s what would have made the difference: changing my mindset to think about writing and publishing holistically.
As one big process.
They are not as separate as they seem.
Authors need to hold more parts of the process than they ever have before.
They need to be great storytellers AND savvy businesspeople.
Developing all these skills while you’re writing your book will put you ahead of the game when you’re ready to pursue publishing.
I created my digital course, Published: Your Roadmap from Manuscript to Book to give you the knowledge + skills you need to get published.
In whatever pathway you choose.
(Can I guarantee you’ll get a traditional book deal? Of course not.
But I can guarantee that you’ll know how to pursue one. And if that doesn’t pan out, I can guarantee you’ll know what to do next to get your book out into the world.)