In an interview with Jessica Chambers, she asked me if I had to give an aspiring writer one piece of advice, what it would be. Here’s what I said:-

Don’t rush into the publication process. Take time to learn the craft and everything else will follow. I don’t think it’s possible to write for a year and produce publishable material, unless, of course, one is a genius.

Like every other skill, it takes trial, error, perseverance and lots of practise to have something marketable, over time. I made the mistake of thinking Contraband was ready before it was and earned a couple of rejections for my troubles.

This is something I wish I understood when I started writing seriously in 2004. I wrote Christine’s Odyssey (young adult novel) before I quite understood that I should have learnt the craft beforehand. I’m paying for that mistake in spades. Like Contraband, it’s gone through more than several rounds of editing and I’m still not satisfied with the book.

However, it won a bronze medal in competition in 2008 and I look at it today and see where there is room for much improvement. I recently found out that a Caribbean publisher based in Jamaica is looking for young adult manuscripts, so I decided to do yet another round of editing.

In my opinion, writing is one of those pastimes we never ever master. I look at the things I wrote years ago and know I’m a much better writer today. I also know I can still improve. I cringe each time I come across something like ‘Christine saw’, ‘Christine heard’, or ‘Christine watched’, which are phrases I no longer use because they create a kind of filter between reader and character. Nowadays, I try to put the reader directly into my character’s head.

As I bring Christine’s Odyssey up to snuff, I see where I had a good plot, some intriguing characters, but I also had some stilted phrases and places where I could have gone deeper into my main character’s thoughts. I’ve also fleshed out her main helper much more and I’ve done the same with the mother who abandoned her.

People who have read the story loved it. They laughed and cried with Christine as she went from feeling rejected to forging a relationship with her mother. However, I have grown through seven other complete works in that time and today, I can confidently say that I’ve done my internship.

It never ceases to amaze me when someone who’s been writing for a year actually sends out a query, but I can afford to say that now. That’s almost exactly what I did, thinking that my novel was the best it could be. I wish I had a mentor to tell me that I needed to know a lot more about the craft end of things before I sent my baby off to meet rejection.

Hundreds of articles later, I knew what to do to hone the raw material I had into a good book. Alas, many new writers fall into the same trap. In our hurry to be published, we send off material that’s just not ready, and heaven forbid if someone should give us an honest opinion which says anything other than what we think.

I may be wrong, but I now believe that it takes at least five years - shave off a year or two if you’re writing and/or editing every day - for a first time writer to produce a publishable novel.

Am I off base? Making little sense? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

In a perfect world, I’d stay at home in my nightgown writing up a storm. But alas, I have to earn a living, so I sally forth - sometimes seven days per week - into the world of work.

The last couple of days have left me no time to write.  My son had a procedure scheduled for next week, but the hospital called me up on Thursday to say they had to do it yesterday as they had cancelled all peadiatric surgery for next Friday.  The day started at 4:30 a.m. and I sensed it would be one of those everlastingly long ones.

I attended a meeting later in the morning and those people were late picking me up.   Thankfully, it didn’t last long.

Every time I called my husband at the hospital, my son still hadn’t gone into surgery and by the time I got back there, I wondered if something had gone wrong. Thankfully, nothing did, which I proved for myself by meeting him outside the recovery ward.  We avoided a spot of potential drama when the nurse advised us that he could eat whatever he could manage.  We had primed him by telling him he couldn’t eat anything solid for a couple of days. This was based on prior information we received.  He was in a bad mood, having had blood drawn on Thursday and then meeting the IV needle on Friday morning.  Need I mention the moaning that went on over the thought of not being able to eat anything after the procedure?

The evening out with some friends from my high school days was a good stress reliever and today, I’m hoping to get some writing done - after I get back from the salon, and before it’s time for choir practice.

On the book publishing front:

I was pleasantly surprised to get a call back from a book dealer for whom I’d left a message some days ago. That conversation went well.

I sent a press release to the newspaper that publishes my short stories and I will be releasing the story to the other newspapers come Monday.

The book markers became a hellish journey.  The graphics were okay, but it took over a week to get them done.  I figure the printers had a hellish week too because their turnaround time is usually quick.  After an hour-and-a-half wait yesterday - thankfully, I didn’t go myself - they were done.  I’m not one hundred percent satisfied, because I did order them with rounded edges, but they’ll do.  Now to get them out there and create a little buzz.

And yeah…I did get that short story submitted this week.  I’ll get back to my WIP later today and I have the first chapter for that young adult novel worked out in my mind.

More anon…

For the past month, I’ve been busy with matters to do with my upcoming book release.  I completed the edits and then moved on to what I call the peripherals – editing the introductory chapter for the next book, which will be inserted at the back of this one, writing the acknowledgement, jotting the dedication, completing and sending off the synopsis for the follow-up novel.

The reality is now hitting me that writing a book is merely a first step.  The work only intensifies after that.  What amazes me is that I was so caught up in trying to find a publisher, that I never gave a thought to the actual marketing and promotion of the book.  In a perfect life, I’d have had a contract with a major publishing house with an unrestricted budget to spend on my book.  However, the reality is this book will be as successful as the amount of work I put into promotion.

So, yesterday I went and had the book markers done.  I was going to do a one sided marker with the book covers for the novels to be published in April and October.  However, when I got back to office, I got an email from the other publisher with whom I have a contract.  That book is still in the editing queue, so I thought it wise not to include that cover on the bookmark since I hadn’t heard from them.  Since then, I’ve decided to go two sided on the markers.  I’m going to shut my eyes real tight, spend more money and use a soft laminate so these souvenirs will have a longer lifespan.

Today, I’ve been busy checking out bookstores and the procedure to get them to sell my book.  Again, I had some kind of pipe dream where this is concerned.  For books written by overseas writers, I’m sure there is some kind of online catalogue where Jamaican book distributors make their selections.  Not so for local small-fry. I’ll have to send some of the stores a copy of the book for them to review and decide whether they want to stock it.  After that, they take the books from me on consignment and they get a commission on the ones they sell.

We don’t have a lot of writers in Jamaica, so I’m hoping the book will do well simply from the ‘home-grown writer’ angle.

I’ve set myself a target of Friday February 13, to start sending out the press release.  I’ve also done up an Excel worksheet with all the information I’ve collected from the bookstores.  I now need to do the same for the media houses.

After that, I’ll look at magazines where I can place ads at reasonable prices, and on the net, I’ll be looking at banner ads.

Something else I’m coming to realize…there’s going to be a significant monetary outlay, so I’ll have to pace myself to do this again in October for Dissolution and once more for Hardware.

Am I still satisfied that I’m a writer who has leapt the publication hurdle?

You betcha.

Once upon a time, I dreamed I’d be published by a major publishing house.  My book would be snapped up, oodles spent to market it, and I’d watch the money rolling in.  Then, reality hit.  I did eventually get a contract, the books will be published, but that’s where the dream ends.

I research most of the things I plan to spend lots of time doing, before I begin.   So, when I got the email that said to expect the contract, I immediately started reading everything I could find on book contracts.  I sent it to a relative who’s a lawyer.  He passed it to a lawyer who deals with publishing contracts and intellecutal property rights.

When my cousin gave me their combined thoughts on the contract - which luckily coincided with mine -  I signed the document with lots more knowledge under my belt.  I didn’t get all I wanted, but it made sense to me to get my foot in the door. Negotiating bigger things can come when I have something with which to bargain.

After I sent off the contract, I  turned my attention to the business of marketing the book.  My publisher is in America, I live in Jamaica, so the next question was how to get  the books here, into the stores, and sold.

One of my girlfriends is a manager in a book store, so naturally I spoke to her.  She advised me to contact her closer to the time and reminded me that distribution is very important to sales.  I have another bookstore in mind, one of the biggest distributors on the island.  Now my son is a member of their bookclub,  so the people there know me.  Making my approach won’t be easy — I hate being in the limelight — but at least I have an edge.  The next time I’m in the store, I’ll find out how they make their book selections, and whether they’ll carry my book.

I don’t think it will be too difficult to convince them.  I’m banking on the fact that I’m a home-grown author, and the fact that they’ve always given prominence to books written by locals.  They also have shelves for Caribbean authors.  If I have to buy the books myself and sell it to them, then that’s what I’ll do. Anything to get my work in the public eye.

I write short stories and articles that I’ve sold to one of the local papers, so of course, I’ll be contacting the editor to see whether they will print a release when the book comes out.  Naturally, I’ll provide that press release.  I know better than anyone else what the story is about, and it will make that editor’s job easier to have the material sent print ready.

Networking has eaten up a fair portion of my time these last few months.  The fact is that people need to know I exist and that they trust my skills as a writer, before they run out and buy my book.  So making links is laying groundwork for what I’m selling.  This is not to say that every link I make is a calculated move to sell  my book, however, in the back of my mind, I must remember that each connection I make is a possible book sale. Even if my friends don’t buy my books, there are other people who will take a chance if my story sounds intriguing.  Besides people say that word-of-mouth is the best form of advertising.

Which brings me to my website.  I started out with cutesy pages that fit the theme of each of my novels.  Slowly, I’m overhauling each one, so they look  more uniform and professional.  Who’s gonna take me seriously if every single page has a different theme?  Let’s face it, people come to my website to find content, not eye-catching wall paper.  I like an attractive storefront.  Nothing wrong with that, but the focus has to be on what I’m selling.

Based on an article I read on Rachelle Gardner’s Blog, I revamped my home page.  No more boring ‘Welcome to the website of…’ I replaced all that with synopses from my books to be published.  Makes a lot of sense to grab a visitor’s attention right away.  I also have to present a site that looks as though I’m serious about what I’m selling.

I’m learning as I go.  Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by what I have to do - media page yet to be made, press release to be written, book trailer to be made, what give-aways I’m gonna use, more connections to make, what book reviewers to contact, book signing to organize, radio and  press interviews to set up — the list is never-ending.

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been watching  published authors from the my writing website, and they’ve been very helpful, for which I’m grateful.  Doralynn Kennedy, Karla Brady, Lisa Lipkind Leibow, thanks a million! Corra - another writing friend - has been very proactive in getting people to read her words, and she’s not even ready to publish yet.  You all inspire me.

I’ve come a long way from the dream world  I inhabited months ago. With contracting markets and therefore less money to go around, the reality is that publishers cannot print and market writers’ books alone.   The job is harder for a small publisher trying to make their mark.  Some require that a marketing plan be submitted with query material.

Let’s face it, a book will be as successful as the amount of time and effort the writer puts into capturing the public’s eye and staying there.

What do you plan to do to make your writing journey a success?

I figure now is as good a time as any to collect my thoughts and update this blog. I’ve neglected it for months. Not a good thing, considering it’s one of my links to the writing world.  But you know how it is – a project grows demanding and before you know it, there’s no time left over for anything.  But I’m taking a new approach. I’ll use my blog time to clear my thoughts and assess where I’m going with my work.

As of right now, I’m waiting to hear back from a publisher as to whether they’ll publish one, or the other, and maybe if I’m lucky, both books I submitted to them.  It’s been six months, but I’ve kept myself occupied so as not to pull my hair out while I wait. I’ve written and edited extensively during that time and still I haven’t achieved as much as I’d like. 

My current editing project is Hardware.  An editor is interested in that one, but would like me to do some work on it before she makes a decision one way or the other.  I’m enjoying the transformation I’m seeing, based on the editing she wants done.  It’s given the story an additional spark, which is the subject for a whole other blog. 

Amazing that I’ve been at this for a while and every so often someone makes an observation that snaps the proverbial light bulb on and my writing takes on new life.  I’ll probably post an except from that book when I’m satisfied I’ve edited it to death. 

While I concentrate my energies on Hardware, I’m also thinking about the unfinished project (Sweet Music Man) my critique group is helping me with.  I need to wrap my head around that one.  D’you ever get to the point in a book where you make your characters lose everything and then find you don’t have the heart to continue writing, at least for a while?  That’s the point I’m at with this story. 

Gotta get out of that funk though and wrap it up.

More anon.