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After you type “THE END”

This writing thing is hard.

No, change that. This writing thing isn’t hard; it’s all the stuff that comes after the writing that’s hard.

First there’s agent wooing (If you’ve ever written a query letter, you know what I’m talking about. Writing those things will suck your brain out.)

Then there’s rough manuscript editing (aka “word chopping”, aka “soul searching”, aka “head banging”)

Then there’s publisher shopping (Ok, so really, this part is your agent’s job, but lemme tell you, waiting on pins and needles to hear back from them is NOT easy.)

Then there’s contract negotiating and legalese translating and ink cartridge replacing (Those contracts are wordy little buggers.)

Then there’s more rough editing (Coffee, anyone? Perhaps a Valium instead?)

Then there’s line editing (Which comes with an epiphany that sounds something like: Oh dear Lord, every word really does count! Shit.)

Then there’s copy editing (Wait….I haven’t gotten to this part yet myself. I’ll let you know about it sometime in the next few weeks.)

And then there’s the hardest part of all: platform building (Tweeps are not easy to come by…unless you want to pay for them.)

So, apparently I had it all backwards when I started typing words into my computer a year and a half ago. I thought the actual writing would be the hard part. Turns out I was wrong. The real work doesn’t start until you type THE END.

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