After You've Sent The Book Off - Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #Writing #MFRWAuthor

After You’ve Sent the Manuscript Off.

 

After you’ve sent the manuscript off to the agent or editor, what do you do? Wait patiently for a report of start something new?

Since this is my latest release, I’m already well into the next story. Different sub-genre, This afternoon, I spent time with a friend who is fairly new to writing thought she has published several books. As we sat at a table in the mall waiting for people to ask questions about our organization, we talked about writing.

One thing she said gave me pause. She said she’d finished the edits on the book and sent it off. I asked her if she had started something new. She told me this was the first time she’d been able to do that. Usually when she sends a book out, she sits and waits to hear from all the agents or publishers before she starts on something new.

This sent me thinking about the other new writers I have known. Some of them have written that first book and sent it out. THEN THEY WAITED and waited. A few of them never wrote a second book. I really wonder how many writers wait to hear about the book that’s finished and off to an agent or editor and don’t write something new until they hear from all possible places.

I decided I was the odd one. Even while I was finishing the revisions and such on the first book I wrote, I was thinking about the next one. Now remember the first book I wrote made the journey from the house in a box with return postage included many times. By the time I finally did the very last revision using editor’s suggestions, I had three more books ready to send. Those were the days of snail mail.

These days things are different. Books are submitted electronically and can get a yes or no fairly quickly, most of the time. Still, sometimes it’s months between. Why do writers stay dormant? Puzzles me. My thought is when you type the end, you should have a good idea about what the next bok will be about. I’m at the midpoint of my recent write and I already know the opening lines of what will come next. So send out the book and start at least to plan the next one.

Though not the cover for the next one, this cover is for the first book in the trilogy.