Publishing Journey: The Edits

So, the last time I touched my book was in October, about 8 months ago. In November, I got verbal (and email) confirmation that St. Martin’s Press did, in fact, want to buy my book (woohoo!). I didn’t actually sign a contract until January. The wheels on this publishing bus go ’round and ’round, but VERY slowly.

I knew I would have “final” edits coming from my publisher. I didn’t know the extent of those, but it was understood there would be some. I figured I’d get those shortly after the contract was signed–February at the latest. Ha! I’m such a newbie. I ended up waiting months and months. I even started working on another novel (I have almost 200 pages of that one). Then I got word that I would have my edits sometime around Memorial Day. Panic ensued.

A text message with my writing friend, Meredith (creator of The Writer’s Inner Journey):

Seriously, guys, I forgot the name of one of my sort-of-main characters. You can imagine how terrified I was to go back into this story I hadn’t thought about for the better part of a year and IMPROVE it.

Gulp.

And then the edits came. They were sent through regular mail–how 1800’s!

Actually, what came in the mail was misleadingly simple. These were mostly line edits–nothing big. I did them all in 3 hours and thought, “Whew, that was painless!”

And then I got the “editorial letter,” which is basically a memo that details the larger issues with the book.

GULP, again.

Larger issues? What?

This lovely memo detailed problems with my characters, the infamous narrative arc, and the ending. To say I was caught off guard is an understatement. I had assumed that with all the time that had passed, the requested (or demanded? I’m not clear) changes would be very minor. I mean, I have a publication date to hit. My editor would have given me major rewrites a long time ago, right? That’s what I thought. I was wrong.

On Friday, I freaked out and said dramatic things like, “This isn’t even my book anymore!” and “I want out of this contract!” and “I’m never doing this again!” My poor husband. Now that I’ve sat with it for a few days, I feel better. Not great, but better. It IS my book, I am pleased with my contract, and I probably will do this again. I just had no idea how trying this publishing process would be. Each part of the process has been harder than the previous part. I’d break it down like this:

1. Write a book.
This is super easy compared to what’s to follow. After all, it’s YOURS. Sure, you struggle with writer’s block and whatnot, but it’s YOURS.

2. Find an agent.
This is hard because you get a taste of rejection. Soak it up because you’ll get more of that.

3. Edit the book to please the agent.
This can be annoying, but your agent will be far easier on you than your future editor, trust me.

4. Send the book to publishers.
This blows. Most will reject you and their rejections will all contradict each other. The people pleaser in you (you should have one if you desire to publish a book) will be very confused.

5. Land a publisher.
This is the best part of the whole thing, though you will wait so long for the contract that you’ll think they changed their minds.

6. Edit the book to please the publisher.
This could be a MAJOR revision that changes the book drastically from its original form. It could take months.

7. Edit the book AGAIN to please the publisher.
At this point, you’re crying uncle…or just crying.

8. The book is out of your hands.
Lord help me, I can’t wait for this day.

There might be a step 7A for me as my editor says there will be another round after this. Awesome. I really can’t wait for this thing to be out of my hands completely. I have never been forced to stick with a project like this before. I’m sure the end result will be good and I’ll say it was “worth it” because I will have forgotten how shitty I feel right now. Oh, amnesia, you work wonders!

I anticipate the edits will take me a month or two. I have a fairly stressful day job, so goodbye to my 8 hours of nightly sleep and weekend fun. I’m realizing more and more that writing for the sake of publishing is a JOB. It’s work. It doesn’t feel particularly joyful, and maybe that’s just par for the course.

They say, “Choose a job that you love and you will never work a day in your life.” I say, “Choose a job that you love and you will work your ass off more than you ever thought you would.”