I haven’t written here much about my publishing journey, partly because the conventional wisdom is that one shouldn’t, but I actually passed the one-year anniversary of my very first query sent a little over a week ago, and I’ve been having a lot of feelings regarding the process, my successes and failures, and what I’ve learned from all of it so far.

First, I should probably mention that I used to be a professional singer/actor, which means I’m really skilled at handling rejection on a massive scale. I feel like this is important to mention, because I think the querying process can be really shocking and painful for a lot of writers who are experiencing serial rejection for the first time, and I don’t want to make light of that. It’s just not a huge issue for me. So if you’re a fellow writer, and you’re having more trouble dealing with rejection than I have, please do not feel bad. I’ve had a lot of practice. [Read more…]

Last night and this morning, I sent out my very first queries to literary agents. I know that this is just the first step in a long process, and that there’s likely to be a lot of rejection on the way. That part isn’t especially scary–my career as a professional actor and singer took the edge off of rejection years ago–but putting the work out there is still relatively terrifying. But it feels good to get this process going.

As I spend another college application/audition season watching a new batch of seniors losing their minds with anxiety, I find myself wanting to tell them that this never goes away. This experience they’re having now, putting themselves out there and waiting to find out who (if anyone) might connect with them and what they’re hoping to share in the world–it’s kind of a forever process. In my mind, that’s a good thing! It means we’re always telling our stories and finding where and how we overlap with each other. It’s a thing that will never stop being important. I’m not sure they’d see it that way right now.

Here’s to reaching out to the world.