Letters to an aspiring author (me)
In May 2018, I started documenting my efforts to get an agent. I wanted to make a space to showcase my writing and commiserate with others who felt discouraged by the query trenches. The result is an eight-year chronicle of my unconventional journey to representation and book deal, with some insight into the highs and lows of the traditional publishing machine. It ends with the final thoughts about my debut year.
Sometimes, I’ve worried that this blog has been a little too candid. The publishing industry thrives on its secrets and there’s a lot of things we’re not supposed to publicly disclose. Fear of blacklisting and alienation is common among authors, especially debuts, and a lot of the etiquette is centred around career preservation and survival. As such, if an author isn’t completely happy about how their journey to publication is going, they’re encouraged to keep silent about it.
I have considered archiving the whole thing even if I haven’t written anything particularly scathing, but whenever I meet an aspiring author, they tell me how helpful this blog has been for them as so much of this information is hard to find in one place. So, I’ll keep it up here for those curious about the debut experience. It’s not always pretty, but it’s honest. And I think that’s a good thing.