Waiting in Publishing

by C. Michelle Jefferies

I went to the dentist office yesterday afternoon. My tooth was broken and I expected it to be pulled. My son had had a tooth extracted a few months ago and the total time it took was about twenty minutes.

So I sit in the seat expecting for it to take about the same time.

Wrong!

Three hours later I was finally able to go home after being numbed three times. and having massive trauma inflicted on my mouth.

Why am I telling you this?  Because like dentistry, the writing and publishing world is not for people who are impatient.

While some people can actually write a manuscript in thirty days, most people take months if not years to write it.

Some authors work day jobs others take care of house and home first. For others its a hobby instead of a career.

Even when you finish the manuscript, then comes another long process. The revising and editing of the beast, er I mean story.

This process can take years in itself especially if it's your first one. Especially if your not a full time writer. This isn't a one time thing either. I don't know anyone who edits once and then starts to submit. This process takes many passes over the book, and for many different things.

Once the book is polished you must send it out to your beta readers and then apply their opinions of the book to your draft. (or ignore them if they don't jive with your gut instinct.)

Then you do the hard technical line edit. 

Once all these passes and edits are done then you start the submission process and that in itself can take years.

Once it is accepted expect to wait another few years for the book to be edited given a cover and printed so it can hit the shelves.

Or, even if you self publish its going to take a while to format the e book, design a cover or find a cover, and to get the book in print. This is of course after you've paid for a professional edit to make sure the book is as perfect as it can be.

All in all one book can take years to get ready.

The Moral is, if you don't like waiting, Don't become an author. Or at least sate your need to write on a blog, writing poetry, or flash fiction. :)

The path to wisdom is not always straight.