Let's Talk Insecurity

Thanks AlexRemember, the question is optional! 

July 5 Question: What is one valuable lesson you've learned since you started writing?
The awesome co-hosts for the July 5 posting of the IWSG will be Tamara Narayan, Pat Hatt, Patricia Lynne, Juneta Key, and Doreen McGettigan!


The I-Word is not too big, only ten letters long. Yet it carries one of the biggest, scariest emotions writers deal with every day. Here are three questions that cause my insecure quotient to rise.

Is this book ready to submit?
The first question is huge. You have only your own intuitions to follow until you offer it up for readers and feedback. And you must do that. Others will see the positives and the negatives. They'll call attention to things you missed while tending to the big picture. They may open up new threads that escaped your notice. And they'll help you answer that first question.

Who should I submit to?
Today the choices are many: sub to an agent, sub to a small press or do it yourself. Each of these choices takes you down a different road, and before you start, you have no idea what that road will be like. It's only after you look back that you either regret or cheer your decision.

How should I submit it?
Time was that you queried, then waited. When the rejection came, you repeated that process. Today there are all kinds of ways to sub your manuscript. And . . .drum roll here. . .the Twitter Pitch Party is one of the most recent successes in the sub process. 



#IWSGPit
July 27, 2017
8:00 am to 8:00 pm Eastern Time
Are you pitching? Will you take a look and follow the party? It should be wild and a lot of fun.Beware the White Rabbit (Anthology: They Call Me Alice), Leap Books, Summer '15
Sliding on the Edge, C. Lee McKenzie, WestSide Books, Spring '09
The Princess of Las Pulgas, WestSide Books, Fall '10
The First Time, Fall '11 (Anthology story: Premeditated Cat)
Alligators Overhead, Outskirts Press, Fall '12
Two and Twenty Dark Tales (Anthology story: Into the Sea of Dew