On Publishing a Book

[earlgreytea68]

So the thing is that: I've published a book.

This has been quite a journey. Here are the stats:

• Summer 2010: Begin writing the book. I actually don't remember when I finished it, but it was sometime before...
• August 2011: Decide to begin querying the book to try to find an agent. Draft up a query letter. Edit and edit and edit and edit the query letter. Seriously, edit it so many times it made me sick to keep looking at the query letter.
• August 29, 2011: Send out first query letter.
• August 30, 2011: Receive first rejection.
• September 14, 2011: Receive first request for more pages.
• November 10, 2011: After sending the query letter to 40 agents and receiving 27 rejections, received my first offer of representation.
• Summer 2012: Based on editorial comments, I decide to do a major edit of the novel.
• Fall 2012: The novel sells! Finally! Massive excitement!
• Basically all of 2013: Edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit. You get the idea. The novel was better when I was done but OMG SO MUCH EDITING. And then, at the end, the editing happens so quickly. Like, I read the novel over for copy-editing, sent it off, a week later was reading it over again for page proofs, etc. There was one point where I read the full novel, like, three times in one week, and then I was like, "OMG I HAVE WRITTEN THE WORLD'S MOST BORING BOOK."
• But now the book is done! The book is done and it is finally out there in the world and it can be judged by others!

It is very strange to have a book published. It is something I always wanted to do, and it feels marvelous to have achieved it, and it's been so fun to go around doing signings and meeting people and talking about fiction and writing and my characters, etc. But, at the same time, it's a strange feeling, because it's out there in the world and after all this time editing it and whatnot, I can now do nothing, really, for it. It's out there, and people will love it or people will hate it, and I must just now move on to the next book.

I thought that I would be used to this, given how many years I have spent publishing fanfiction, and I do think that I am more used to it than many of the other debut authors whose first books have come out this year. Like, I'm used to the give-and-take of reviews and comments, to the relinquishment of control once you put it out into the world. But it's also different, because with fanfic, although it's very much mine, I can also kind of be like, "Well, you know, I blame canon for this." Whereas with this, *I* am the canon. If it's all a mess, we have no one to blame but me!

But, all that said, it has been a blast, and I'm so glad that it happened, and I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it (this is by no means the first novel I've written or the first novel I queried, it just happened to be the first that ever got any traction with the industry) and for getting it done. But if you've been wondering why I've been a mess and not responding to comments and barely keeping up with anything, well, now you know. And if you're curious, the book is a young adult fantasy about faeries in Boston (because does it surprise any of you that I would write a book about Boston?) and you can read more about it here and more about the launch parties to celebrate it here.