The only thing that writers want more than their first publishing contract, is their second publishing contract. Now that the ink is dry on the agreement, I can finally share some details about the journey towards the release of my next novel.
I started working on my second novel in May 2021, nine months before The Path From Regret (my debut) was accepted for publication. It was very slow going at first, only 300-400 words a day, and sometimes weeks went by when I didn't write anything. It was hard to work on something new because I was getting revisions from my editor on The Path From Regret, so that took priority. I finally got serious about writing a complete draft in November 2022. I completed my first draft of this new project in January 2023 (20 months after I started) and submitted it to Apprentice House Press, which was the publisher of my debut novel. After an agonizing eight weeks, I finally got a response: the editors liked the premise, but it wasn't ready. The surprise came when I was told that they'd be willing to look at it again after revision. A "revise and resubmit" decision from a publisher is incredibly rare, so I still felt hopeful that I'd see another publishing contract in the near future.
I wanted to maximize my second chance, so I decided to get some more beta-reader feedback while I focused on the launch of my debut novel. In May 2023 The Path From Regret was published, and for a month I rode the emotional rollercoaster of initial reviews, and podcast interviews. At the start of June, I got back some really solid suggestions about how to improve my second manuscript and I dove back into revisions. Six weeks later and 25k words longer, my revision was complete, but I wanted to make sure that the second chance with my publisher was going to end with a contract, so I waited. I re-read and revised a little at a time over the summer until September 2023 when I finally resubmitted (I wasn't given a deadline, so rushing seemed like a bad idea). Another nerve-racking four weeks later, I finally got the verbal thumbs up and told a contract would be coming. At the end of October, it finally arrived in my email in-box. I have to admit, it was a huge relief as I read the contract. It was finally real to me - I was going get my second novel published.
Through the entire process the thing I kept reminding myself was that my second novel was the most important thing...only to me. For everyone else at my publisher, this was one project of many. That helped somewhat to keep me patient and take a longer view of things. To have two novels published back to back is a pretty rare thing, so I want to take a moment and appreciate it.
You may have noticed that I haven't talked at all about the book. What is it about? I'm not sharing now because I want to save those fun details for when I have something really interesting to share like the finalized title and/or a cover reveal. I think those things will be coming in the new few weeks.
Thanks for stopping by.