This Author Does NOT “Rush to Get Published”

 

Image credit: Mikhail Nilov via Pexels

 

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: I never allow rejections to get me to stop writing. Just take a look at ALL of the book-length manuscripts, short stories, poems, essays and articles I have collecting dust and you will know that I’m the kind of writer who will keep writing no matter what!

 

Rejections? Market incompatibilities? Overdone topics? Feh. They don’t stop me! I will keep writing and submitting even if I can’t find a home for my poems, short stories, essays and articles.

 

The same is true for books. I started writing books as a teenager and I have been writing them ever since. In fact, one year I actually stopped to count how many books I had written so far, and was surprised to discover that there were nine of them.

 

I have books that are untyped. I have books waiting for me to remember they even exist. And I have several drafts of books that have gone through rewrites and revisions.

 

I am constantly writing, revising, and editing my books. Even if I don’t have a publisher for a book, I’m still working on fixing it up.

 

So when it comes to an opportunity to get a book published, you can bet that chances are good I will have something in my arsenal to submit.

 

This was the case with a publisher that eventually shut down. I sent her a bunch of book-length manuscripts that were ready to submit (five children’s books manuscripts among them). And she published three of those books in one year.

 

It was this particular thing that someone took notice of on social media and contacted me through email saying that I shouldn’t rush to get books published.

 

That particular email left me feeling puzzled. Why would someone see my post about having three books published in a year and automatically assume that I would rush to get a book published?

 

Because that is certainly NOT how I do things!

 

People who know me know that I tend to overthink things. I also tend to be paranoid. So of course I will occasionally revisit a manuscript I have written to revise, change, delete and sometimes even rewrite the whole thing again for some reason or another. As it is, I’m in the process of changing the genre of a YA novel I wrote. And another YA novel is getting a complete rewrite.

 

There is no rushing going on here.

 

When I feel that a book-length manuscript is ready to submit, then I will put it into my “books ready to submit” folder. But not before!

 

I didn’t respond to that person’s email, but only because they ended up touting their services about how they help authors get their manuscripts ready for publication. It was obviously spam. So, no thanks, I’ll pass.

 

I have my spidey sense telling me “this book I wrote needs work.”

 

I have my beta readers.

 

I have the MANY rounds of revision and edits that I put these manuscripts through.

 

I have editors editing my manuscripts.

 

And I have that other spidey sense that will let me know when a manuscript is ready.

 

No rushing to get a book published going on here. I’m all about quality, not quantity. As far as my books are concerned, I want to make sure that quality is there before I submit it for publication – or, in the case of self-publishing a book, start the process for self-publishing.