Well, dearest diary, it’s FINALLY HAPPENED.

I’m going to be a published writer!  After years of blogging, and Tweeting, and scribbling – giving up countless weekends, lunch hours, and evenings to sit in front of my laptop, obsessively tapping away as life goes on without me – after all that, my books will finally see the light of day. (Sorry, cliché.)

Lucy Gilmour at Carina UK read my books and liked them enough to want to publish all three.  Reader, needless to say – I nearly died.

Now I’m told I must get a proper photograph of myself.  And I must create a Facebook author page (done, “likes” welcome!), and a Goodreads author page.  And an Amazon author page.  And a Carina UK author page (coming soon – very soon).  That’s a lot of author pages.

My head is spinning.  Press kits… blog tours… head shots… oh, my!

And now that it’s here, now that my dream has finally come true, I’m – well, I’ll admit it.  I’m terrified.  Can I do this?  I mean – who am I kidding?  I’m not a writer, not really.

I’m just someone who scribbles stories.  I’m someone who, instead of counting how many cups of flour I just dumped into the mixing bowl, is pondering how to kill off Sebastian Smedley in Chapter 10.  Should he be garroted?  Or should he fall from a great height?  Or, perhaps, both?

My inattention makes for some very disappointing cakes, let me tell you.

So I still don’t think of myself as a Real Writer.  Because a Real Writer is someone vastly intelligent and opinionated, who smokes, and wears a jacket with leather patches at the elbows. I’m only moderately intelligent, not much inclined to opinions, I don’t smoke, and I long ago consigned my jacket with leather patches to the scrap heap.

What I’m saying is simply this: if it can happen for me, it can happen for you.

If you’re struggling through the first draft of your first book, or deep in a rewrite, or if you’re wondering if you should paper the bathroom or the kitchen (or both) with your rejection slips, whatever you do – don’t quit.  Just… don’t.

If you believe in your heart of hearts (sorry, cliché again) that your short story/novel/poem is good – really, really good – then don’t give in to the doubt, or the naysayers, or that nasty, sneering, ‘Honestly, who do you think you’re kidding?‘ voice in your own head. Persevere. Be strong in your determination that yes, you will do it.  You will finish that novel/land that agent/publish that short story.

In the immortal words of Steve Perry, don’t stop believin’.  Keep plugging.

Here are a few things you should do as a writer-in-waiting, if you’re not doing them already:

1.  Get yourself a Twitter account.  Now.  Even if you don’t have a publisher, or an agent, or even a book – you need to build your audience, and you need to start as soon as possible. Use your real name, or your pen name – whatever name you’ll be writing under.

2.  Write a blog.  Blog often, and regularly.  Once a week is good; more is better, less is  better than nothing.  Find whatever works for you.  But blog, because blogging will attract and build an audience.

3.  If you’re a romance writer, join Romance Writers of America. They offer writing classes – many of them at no cost to members – as well as a monthly magazine and newsletter filled with all the latest industry news.

4.  Learn how to write a really good query letter.  A good one will open doors that will lead to landing an agent, or enticing a busy editor to read your manuscript.

5.  Write.  Don’t wait for a lightning bolt of inspiration to come down from on high.  Don’t watch ten episodes of ‘Breaking Bad’ when you know you should really be writing.  Just sit down, every day if possible, and write.  You won’t always feel like it; you won’t always write anything worth reading.  But you’ll write something.  And if you do it often enough, you’ll (a) get better and (b) finish your book.

That’s it, really.There is no magic to realizing your dream.  It takes determination and it takes hard work. But the payoff – seeing your work in print, whether electronically or on paper – is worth every bit of sacrifice, every missed episode of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ or ‘Boardwalk Empire.’

Just be resigned to the fact that any cakes you bake will probably suck.

Cheers,

Katie

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