So today I have an anniversary. It was two years ago today that I submitted my first book. It’s a milestone I’m proud of because I tend to avoid drastic change and I knew that switching from short stories and articles to novels was going to bring a lot of change.
I don’t regret it and I think it’s been really good for me, but it has been a huge life-changing kind of experience and it’s always hard to dive into those. Being a writer is a lot easier in some ways than being an author. It’s not the writing itself so much, though yes, connecting things into a full-length novel takes a bit more work than a 10K short story. I think it’s kind of like the difference between a snapshot and a full photography exhibit.
The main difference is all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into it. The pre-production, the post-production AND the on-going work like marketing and social media presence. With short stories you don’t have hundreds of pages to edit a dozen times. You don’t have to describe characters for covers, or worry so much about salesblurbs, or which scenes to pull out for advertising. You don’t have to make author emails, pages, groups, blog posts etc.
I do miss the days of turning in my twenty pages and moving onto a new assignment, but I’ve made a lot of new friends, experienced exciting new developments and gotten so much support from fellow authors. Plus there’s something really cool about being able to look yourself up on Amazon and read reviews–something I never had before.
Since this first submission I have had five books published and now the sixth has been accepted. I’m already working on the next one. I have a website, a blog, and an Instagram account, among other things.
So two years ago today my whole life changed and I think that’s pretty cool. It all started with A Haunting Experience.
(P.s. keep your eyes out for my Anti-Valentine’s Day story which I’ll be posting in a few days.)
Musings of a Chaotic Mind 