Wednesday Writes: Patience Through Troubles

Writing can be hard, but the business of writing is even harder.

If you haven't heard, my writing journey hit a snag last month when the owner of Samhain Publishing announced her decision to close down. SWAY had only been out two months. It felt like, just when I was getting started, everything was coming to an end.

Since then, we've heard from the owner that she has something in the works, and that we should hold off from moving forward with other publishers or self-publishing. Of course she can't tell us what this venture might be, because people will blab, but it gave me hope. Unfortunately, it's a waiting game right now, and I've never been very patient. I've always been the type to look ahead and plan, and I can't do that right now. Not only with SWAY, but with my second book COLLIDE. COLLIDE is under contract with Samhain, but I received the closure announcement only a few days before I was due to hand it in to my editor. I'd prefer to keep working with Samhain, or whatever this new thing might be, but if it doesn't work out, or if it's not in my best interest, I'd like to move forward on making a decision about the fate of COLLIDE. I can't do that right now, but that doesn't stop the many questions from swirling around in my head.

For example: do I submit COLLIDE to other small publishers, or do I self-publish it? I'm a little wary of small pubs now because of this whole thing, but at the same time, I loved working with the people at Samhain and I really like have the backing of a publishing house behind me. But, if I get my rights back for SWAY, then I think I'll have to self-publish that, so why not self-pub COLLIDE too? But, if SWAY gets tied up in its contract for a long time, COLLIDE might be on its own, and it might be better to try other publishers...

There's a lot of ifs and buts, the future of both of these books is uncertain, and this makes me anxious. All I can do is remind myself to have patience, and meanwhile, keep working.

Like I said, the business of writing is hard. You can take these decisions seriously, do your research, and make your best informed decision, but you still have no clue what the future holds. Even with self-publishing, there are things you can't control. Like I told an author friend recently, you just have to go with your gut, then deal with the consequences. My gut is telling me to be patient. And while I'd kinda like to tell my gut to shove it, I know that's the only thing I can do.