Will I ever go on submission? Revising a novel with a literary agent.

There aren’t enough blogs out there about the writing process and what happens after you sign with an agent. There are a lot of discussions on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, but where have the blogs gone? So here am I. I’ve decided to start sharing my process. As I write this blog, it would have been 1.5 years since I signed with my literary agent and we have been doing heavy lifting on my novel since. I think we have finally reached a good place, so I want to share a bit of the process so far.

These words are my heart in a book!

I started writing this novel in December 2018.

Exactly FIVE years ago. Five years of people asking me why my book is taking so long to get published and me not having the answers. Lol. Days and nights of nonstop hard work— honing my craft—revisions upon revisions and complete rewrites and ghosting everyone in the process. Getting signed by a literary agent was just the beginning of the real *hard* work.

Sometimes, even when you are signed to an agent, your book may not be quite ready for publication or to go on submission. Your book may require more intensive work, years even, of revising until it is ready for submission. For example, I had to re-write my book from third POV to first, after my agent and I both agreed its true voice was in first. This allowed me to really let go as a writer and be vulnerable. Something I was truly afraid of doing.

We had about three rounds!

The first round, we weren’t really in agreement with what had to be done and I feel that there was a lot of wasted time—especially on my end as I wasn’t giving it my all.

Round two is when I seriously got down to business and changed the POV and re-wrote most of the book.

Round three was the final polish round, the round I have recently completed. The revising was very difficult at times, but I go through it even when I started to question if it was all worth it.

You need someone to champion your work!

My agent has been nothing but encouraging, which makes all the difference! As challenging as the process has been, she has continued to uplift and encourage.

I did the heavy work! But I know that it isn’t over!

Because even after going on submission, if/when the book is bought by a publisher, the editor will still need to work on it and suggest more changes. It may feel like the process is never ending and you’ve gotta be sure this is what you truly want. Some writers simply don’t have the patience.

I’m trusting the process. I know that it will be all worth it in the end. The fact that I have gotten this far is already a big deal. I’m so proud of how far my novel has come & I’m excited for what’s to come!

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