Antici……………….

…..pation.

It sucks.  Let me tell you.

Yeah, it’s exciting, it’s fabulous, and it means you can do great things and build up the tension in preparation for a huge explosion of…

Wait… what was I talking about again?

Oh, right. Writing.  And anticipating release dates.  You see, I’m impatient, and I don’t like to wait.  BUT… in the literary world, there’s  a lot of waiting, and from my experience, it works something like this:

So you’re a writer, and you finish a story.  The next logical step is to submit it to the publisher of your choice.  You write your cover letter, your blurb, and your synopsis.  You send it off and immediately have a panic attack about it (if you’re like me, that is).

Then you wait.

You hear back.  Yay! It’s a contract!  All excited, you fill out all of your paper work and send it back in immediately.

Then you wait.

Sometime in the future (near or far, depending on the publisher, your theme if there is one, and your editor’s workload), you receive the dreaded EDITS.  You cringe in fear, thinking that you’re going to be severely beaten because it’s awful.  But it isn’t so you find yourself relieved and you send it all back in.

Then you wait.  Again.

You might get another round of edits.  Plus you have cover art to look forward to.  It’ so exciting, to see that shiny picture with your name and your title on it.  So you approve it.  Oh, and you send back your next round of edits while you’re at it.

Then you wait some more.

And wait.

And wait.

And continue to wait until you want to pull your hair out.

And then FINALLY, after all of that waiting, you come to your glorious RELEASE DAY.  You blog about it, tweet it, hit facebook, scream from the rooftops, litter Starbucks with cover-art postcards, and find any poor sucker willing to host you on his or her blog to shamelessly promote yourself.

And then…you guessed it…you wait.

At the end of that first royalty period, you get your statement.  And maybe, if you’re lucky (or really, really good), a royalty payment comes with it.  And then, it’s back to waiting.

I love writing.  To be perfectly honest, I haven’t a clue what I’d be doing if not that.    Unfortunately, I’m stuck in the middle of the waiting game, checking my inbox daily for the possibility of edits or cover art proofs, ANYTHING to reassure myself that I didn’t dream up that contract.

But I promise I’m trying to be patient.  I’m really trying not to worry myself.  Plus I’m working on three more stories to complement that one, and as I get them finished I have every intention of shoving them E’s way.  She bought one, so I’m hoping she’ll be willing to take the others.

Hey, a girl can hope, right?