The biggest step in publishing, I believe, is to continue.
Past the rejection letters that might not ever even come, or the little jerk inside of you who hates your dreams.
And I have made it my goal to be a professional at continuing, until I become a professional author.
A continue-master like Barbara Godwin, who is building a Twitter empire so that she can advertise her lovely books, taking that every-day step even though it is difficult to persist at, I imagine.
For me, it isn't a question of whether I will publish, but when. Because I am going to keep writing and mailing off books (like Strange Tales of Salem and Sugar Cleveland, and A Cause to Cringe: The Door in the Dust). And I am going to work myself to the bone to improve them all.
And when a letter comes back that says, "I didn't like your characters," even though I loved them, I will murder the little literary beings on the pages they sleep on and recreate them, or rethink them, or whatever the publishing world requests.
Because I don't mind bowing my un-heralded head to the establishment and following their advice. For goodness sake, they have been doing this much longer than I have.
That is a good point to make. Anymore, I don't think it is unique that I first wrote novels at 11 years-old. And I don't think that my early start is just going to whisk my manuscripts into the lovely hands of an editor who will publish them for me.
No there is no shortcut--I am going to work for it. And that is the secret to knowing I will succeed. Because I will never give up.
Anybody feeling that confidence too?
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