How to Not Wait

Pure waiting can make a writer all snarly and resentful, and then plain kill her.  I’ve done my share of waiting to hear from people ever since I first sent out queries to agents and hoped for positive responses.  I waited to hear if they’d like my book, and then I waited to hear if editors would make any offers. Back then, my blood crawled on tiny sharp feet in my veins the entire time I waited, and trying to sleep at night was the worst.  I think it was the hope, the not knowing and the lack of control that got to me.  Even when you’re  pregnant, you have some idea when the baby will show up, but with submissions, you never know when you’ll hear.  It keeps you on edge for every phone call and email until you’re gnawed raw.

Luckily, waiting is different now when I’m not on submission and instead have moved deep into the publishing process.  These days, waiting involves just an occasional ping in the back of my mind.  My editor Nan and I have this cordial back-and-forth system with my drafts which goes like this: I send her a draft.  Weeks or months later, she sends me her editorial comments and we have a phone call.  I work on the book for another couple months and send it back, and we repeat.  The farther out we are in the process, the longer are the gaps between the exchanges, and conversely, the closer we get to production deadlines, the faster are our turn-arounds.  Right now, we’re working on an early draft of Book 3 in the Birthmarked trilogy, which won’t be released until fall 2012, so the gaps are long.  They aren’t silent gaps, though, because we’ve had continuing exchanges about Prized, too.  We’re really both working on two books in different stages.

While a draft is off to Nan, sometimes I keep working on the novel so it will be further along by the time her comments come back to me, especially if I’m obsessed with it.  Other times, I start a completely new, different project.  That way, I have the fun of exploring new ideas, and by the time the working draft comes back to me, I’ll reimmerse myself in it with a fresh perspective and Nan’s questions to guide me forward.  I’m never waiting idly, dependent on Nan’s timetable to keep my own work going.  That’s important for my productivity and my own sense of control.  That’s my not waiting.

There is one other piece of this system.  Business with my agent Kirby Kim keeps me in fairly regular contact with him, and I update him on my draft status with Nan.  He has a fine-tuned awareness of where she is with things and how busy editors have been, generally, with conferences.  A couple times when I was restless about feedback, especially when I was new to this process, Kirby reminded me to be patient, and other times he has given my editor a polite nudge.

Publishing as I experience it is not a rushed operation.  It involves thoughtful people working carefully, which is worth the time it takes.  I’m curious to see if my practice with not waiting will help me once I have a new project on submission again.  I’d like to reduce that snarling anxiety to an absent-minded ping while the more advanced, civilized version of me (ha) keeps writing.  We’ll see how that goes.