3 Things We Wish We Had Known...

Hello Readers!

It's mid-May! We hope everyone had a splendid Mother's Day. Ours was quiet and restful. Summer is just around the corner. 

Are you planning on traveling for Memorial Day? Why do you hate yourself? :) 

This week we did some reflecting and came up with three things we wish we had known at the beginning of our novel writing journey. We thought we'd share them in the hopes that it may save future writers from avoidable stress and aggravation, or at least mentally prepare them for it.

Looks like fun, doesn't it?

Ready? Here we go.

Three things we wish we knew about writing novels before we started

I. Working with publishers and literary agents requires a vigilant eye

We would have avoided a lot of disappointment and surprise if we had known that things are not always what they appear to be when meeting and interacting with potential publishers and agents. For example, we met with multiple publishers about our first book and were excited at the rave reviews and positive feedback. Thrilled, we continued the conversation with said publishers, who then proceeded to suggest major changes to the storyline that rendered our story unrecognizable. This was both confusing and depressing.

Likewise, we would never have paid money to pitch literary agents. We thought, because we were at a trusted conference, that meeting and pitching agents made sense. But in retrospect the agents were not there to find new talent. They were there to socialize, collect a fee, and represent their big-name authors who were speaking at the conference. Similar to acting, there are whole side industries surrounding authors designed to suck money from the artist. If we could go back in time we would be more aware of where those borderline scammy situations are found, and avoid them while saving money.

II. The editing process is both lengthy and tedious

It's one thing to intellectually understand that editing is tough. It's quite another to go through it. We wish we had known how long it would actually take to complete the editing process. 

Here's the process: 

1) We go over the novel word-for-word and edit it together.

2) We submit it to our editor who goes over it and makes their suggestions on storyline, pacing, gaps and holes, etc. They also send a list of words we should reconsider--words that are too common, too often repeated, or slow the story down. They'll offer alternatives, and also point out grammatical errors for us.

3) We go through all their notes, make the appropriate changes, and resubmit. 

4) Editor repeats the process with us, and this continues back and forth until we're all on the same page.

5) We then submit to the publisher.

It takes much longer than you'd think, and can get frustrating.

III. The final publication process is surprisingly challenging

Once you submit to the publisher, they commission two editorial reviews. The first is for story--does it make sense, does it flow, are there plot holes, and so forth. The second is a line-by-line copy edit, checking grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Much like the editorial process, we make changes and resubmit until all parties are satisfied. 

But you're not done there. Now it's time to create the front and back cover. That process varies widely, based on what artist the publisher assigns you to work with. We've had situations where we had to change artists multiple times because the vision wasn't coming out the way it needed to, and it backed up our publication date by months. 

It's easy to think once you get through editing with an editor and submit to the publisher you're ready to go. But in reality there can be a lot more work to do. 

Our advice is to be patient and focus on how you can improve your efficiency. Now that we've published five novels, we have fallen into a sort of rhythm that helps us move more quickly. 

Hopefully, with these small bits of advice, you can get better mentally prepared for your first novel than we were!

That's all for now. 

Until next time,

~2authors