Melissa Charles author

One thing that doesn’t get talked about much is the wait.

Publishing runs on timing all its own. It follows no other schedule known to man, or at least known to me. If you think that waiting in a Dr’s office or ER is long, publishing will completely redefine what waiting really means.

It starts in the query trenches. You send in your query package, double and triple checked for typos, salutations, word count before hitting send. (And yes, finding a blatant typo 2.3 seconds after is definitely part of the process).

Then you wait.

And wait some more.

You refresh QueryTracker. You study the timeline of responses, all those red and green faces. You wonder if you’re in a maybe pile. You refresh your inbox, because not everyone uses QT.

Sometimes you get a response. Sometimes you run out a clock (if no response in x number of days, please consider that a no). Sometimes you get a request for more materials!

You send in your full or partial.

Then you wait, with even more angst, because you’ve made it through the first hoop!

You spend the next forever hitting that refresh button, checking your phone before you roll out of bed in the morning, and all those other things that nobody admits to, because it makes them sound like six anxiety squirrels stuffed in a trench coat.

Then, THEN, you get the email. Asking for The Call. More waiting. Then the industry standard two weeks to notify other agents with your query materials, so you can make a fully informed decision for your future business partner. Those two weeks need to be studied, because I’m fairly certain there’s some sort of timey wimey messing around that happens.

But the waiting doesn’t end in the query trenches.

Your agent needs time to read over your work. For editing feedback. Because as fantastic as your agent is, they’re actually human, and incapable of getting through a 90k manuscript in 90 seconds. They also have other clients who also need time and attention, as well as lives outside the office, a family they probably want to spend some time with, and all that other human stuff.

Joking aside, work/life balance is so important! An agent who carves that out for themselves and sticks to it will do the same for their clients. When I mentioned that I’d like to not have anything pop up right before my birthday or a planned holiday, I didn’t feel the slightest bit silly or unprofessional in asking for that space.

So, more waiting, until finally it’s time. You’re on sub.

Lemme tell ya, if you thought query trenches were hard, sub takes it to a whole different level. There’s something about being thisclose to having a book out that makes waiting even harder.

The waiting doesn’t end with an offer, either. There’s contracts to negotiate, editing notes, more editing notes, line edits, cover reveals, ARCs, and eventually, Release Day.

The entire industry is hurry up and wait. No matter how amazing your agent is, which publisher buys your book, how magical your editor, there will always be waiting.

So buckle up, folks. There’s no way around it, even for the magical unicorn who gets six offers of rep on their first five queries, has their debut manuscript end up in a fourteen house auction, and sells for an eye-watering advance. Even the unicorns have to wait.

I’ve often thought that perhaps in my next life, instead of being an author, I could be a bomb tech. At least that way, there’d be instant answers.

But the truth is? Even with the waiting, I wouldn’t give up being an author for anything. Being able to take an idea whispering in the dark rooms of my mind and creating characters that someone cares about, plots that make readers demand to know what happens next, and glares from loved ones when I hint that a favourite character might not see the last chapter?

Bliss. Utter bliss.

And maybe a touch of evil enjoyment, knowing that a reader is barrelling full speed into a twist that will completely upend everything they’d read until that point.

A person needs their hobbies, after all. Even authors.