Tuesday 22 September 2009

The Waiting Game....

So I finally emailed Issy and Leo's story (some of which is set in the lovely city of Florence, hence the photo) off to my editor on Sunday night. Several weeks late (oops, I blame the school holidays and those pesky kids) and after a couple of afternoons spent frantically typing on my laptop in the park while my youngest played football.

And now all I have to do is wait... To see if my ed likes it as much as I do. Have to say after the trauma that was Mac and Juno's story, this one has gone surprisingly smoothly... Probably because for once I actually wrote an outline that I pretty much stuck to. But now I've sent it off, I'm not sure that's a good thing. Was the trauma the thing that added power and passion and complexity to Mac and Juno's tale? You see, this is the problem: the more time you have to wait the more time you have to panic. How comes this doesn't get any easier?

Luckily I'm freelancing this week in my other job as a film journalist, or my poor snowed-under ed would be getting endless little emails saying the author equivalent of 'are we there yet?'

9 comments:

Caroline said...

Congrats on finishing your latest wip. Can't wait to read it when it comes out here in the UK! Take care. Caroline x

Heidi Rice said...

Ah Caroline, cheers, although I'm not quite finished with this one yet... Especially if there's a ten-page revision letter already winging its way to me!

See, didn't I say I was paranoid? This is why I hate waiting, it just feeds my paranoia. But thanks for your vote of confidence.

Unknown said...

Hey Heidi,

When I spotted the title for your post I immediately thought of that wonderful Neil Jordan film and now I'm going to have to watch it again. So thanks for the distraction! I mean, it's not like I don't have enough of them already....
As for waiting, it's surely the cruelest form of torture known isn't it? Even when waiting for something bad, (root canal, meeting with son's principal, the upcoming electricity bill) waiting still sucks. You just want the thing over and done with so you can get back to normality. But I'm curious as you wait for your ed, are there really many times when the stories put forward by pubbed authors are actually rejected? Or will they suggest ways of keeping the premise whilst making subtle changes?
Has anyone that you know of (without naming of course) ever been told to scrap a proposal completely?

I'm so nosey, I know, but I've wondered about this a lot.

All the best,
Aideen.

Jackie Ashenden said...

And here was I thinking it got easier. Guess not. Rats. :-)
But well done for completing the wip and sending if off. Here's hoping you don't have lots of revisions!

BTW, I'm curious like Aideen about that too. Are rejections for proposals common amongst pubbed authors? Or is it that the more you write, the better you get to know what will work and what won't?

Lacey Devlin said...

Pfftt 10 page revision letter what a breeze... You're going to throw something at me aren't you?

I'm going to say congrats on your latest and greatest, even if it's not technically finished yet. You never get sick of hearing it do you? :D

Heidi Rice said...

Hmmm, yes Aideen, you are nosey aren't you! Well, I can't speak for other authors, but I've never had a proposal rejected (except when I tried to sneak an old ms that I'd done before I was published past them and they pointed out quite rightly it was totally wrong for the line).. But basically I would say that the whole point of the proposal process is to weed out ideas that aren't going to fly - and actually having that editorial imput at that stage in the writing process is one of the big perks of being published and not a disadavantage.

As to revisions, they're all part of the publishing process and to a certain extent they are negotiable. If your editor is asking you to do something you strongly disagree with you can certainly bring up your concerns. That said in six books (and some with fairly hefty revisions) I've never refused to do a revision, because every one I've had has made the book stronger. And remember your editor will usually tell you why it's not working for her, it's up to you to make it work. That's all part of being a professional (and then you get to whinge about it on your blog!)

Joanne Coles said...

Great to hear waiting never gets easier!! If only there were something else I really wanted to succeed at, patience has never been my strongest point. But I've wanted to be an author forever so I'd better start learning how to wait patiently :-)

Heidi Rice said...

Joanne,

In my experience you can't learn how to wait patiently, but you can wait productively so what you need to do is to get cracking on another ms while you wait (impatiently!!).

This is particularly important when you're unpubbed as you can wait for eons to hear. I had to wait 8 months to get a two-line form rejection on my first ms after submitting to Silhouette, by which time I'd written nearly a whole other book (which did get pubbed!!). Rejection is always a kick in the teeth, but at least if you've been beavering away in the mean time you'll have something to kick back with...

Now all I need to do is take my own advice and get cracking on another book... Instead of moaning on my blog!

Anonymous said...

But we like you like you moaning on your blog...it benefits us tremendously!!!

Aideen.