No Publishing Journey Looks the Same

To find an agent, or to self-publish? That is the question many authors ask themselves. Whichever way you choose, no publishing journey is easy—and no publishing journey looks the same. Today, long-time Wrimo Elayna Mae Darcy, author of Still the Stars , shares their publishing journey, and the things they learned along the way: 

When put under a microscope, NaNoWriMo turns out to be much more than an annual writing event—it is an idea that contains vast multitudes. As individuals, it teaches us the joys of dedicating ourselves to a task and striving to achieve it. As writers, it provides us with a community of like minded dreamers and word weavers to lift us up when all feels lost. And as I recently learned, the Wrimo’s journey also proved to be an unlikely mentor on the pursuit of self publication.

As a seasoned Wrimo with seventeen years of participation under my belt, the NaNo Way comes easy to me now. Pick an idea, chase it with reckless abandon for 30 days, revel in whatever I manage to accomplish at a brewery with writing friends when it’s all over, repeat annually. But as my boy Obi-Wan Kenobi would say, NaNo looks quite different “from a certain point of view.” 

I’ve spent many a noveling month working on writing and rewriting the same book, a project called STILL THE STARS. And as I tackled it November after November, I also did massive amounts of research on the publishing industry. I wanted to devour as much information as I could. How to query, what’s it like working with an agent, what’s the revision process like with a professional editor, the list goes on. By the time I started querying, I thought for sure that this established, tried and true path was the only one that could lead me to success for my fictional work. I used the same focus and determination from years of NaNo noveling and directed it all towards this new goal.

But as rejection after rejection from agent after agent rolled in and the years wore on, there was a strange, familiar feeling that washed over me. It was the same sense of doubt I’d get when a NaNo project would hit a wall. It was a feeling of hopelessness, of wanting to just defenestrate the whole book and take up knitting instead. I began questioning why I was even bothering in the first place when it felt like the universe was holding up a giant sign saying NOPE. NOT FOR YOU.

If you’ve ever participated in NaNo, this is a feeling which conjures to mind the soft, aching lyrics that go, “Hello darkness, my old friend…” As this feeling started taking up all my energy, I very nearly gave up. But then I took a step back and asked myself the age old question, WWNMD? (What Would NaNoWriMo Me Do?)

“Our resilience is one of our most powerful weapons.”

Every time those feels hit in November, or I have to experience one of my Phillywrimos or writing sprint buddies encountering them, I am conditioned to respond with resilience. To just keep putting one word in front of the other, even if I end up needing to spend ages editing it later. One of the most valuable pieces of writing advice anyone ever gave me was, “You can’t fix a blank page,” and that is something that has been reinforced into my DNA with each passing November, as I manage to rally out of that hopelessness and keep forging ahead. 

What I needed was to apply this same energy not just to the act of writing, but to my publishing journey as well. The road to publication is just as fraught with road bumps, dark nights of the soul, and plot twists that would make even Agatha Christie’s head spin. But we don’t give up, do we? NaNoWriMo teaches us that. That our resilience is one of our most powerful weapons.

That’s why I finally decided to change course and pursue self publication. Because the truth that no one wants to tell you in an age of endless blog posts about “How To Publish Your Book In X Easy Steps” is that no writer’s journey is the same. Just because your favorite author managed to land an agent after a frenzied few weeks of writing one manuscript or because someone else you know stuck with querying 500 times over 10 years until they got their yes, does not mean you have to. Your journey is yours, just like any first NaNoWriMo draft that you’ve poured your soul into. 

That’s why despite lots of folks trying to convince me otherwise, I decided to Kickstart my book to self publish it and set up my own indie publishing imprint. Is it a traditional path? Maybe not. But NaNo has taught me that my story matters, no matter what path I might choose. I can take those same lessons learned in the writing of my stories and let them grow beyond the page into an education for the self publication journey and beyond. I encourage you to do the same. 

Don’t let anyone tell you what your publishing journey “should” look like, because whoever offers that advice is lacking the one thing that you happen to be the only person in the universe to have—yourself. Don’t be afraid to chase something like self publication even if industry experts are telling you you’ll never make it that way. Because if NaNoWriMo has taught me anything, it is that even if the story doesn’t go the way I planned, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth writing. The journey alone is always worth it. 

Read Chapter One of STILL THE STARS here & support the campaign on Kickstarter!

Elayna Mae Darcy (she/they) is a queer YA author, poet, and filmmaker from Philadelphia. A self proclaimed NaNoLifer, Elayna has participated in the annual event ever since she was 14, and currently serves as one of the MLs for the Philly region & a sprint leader on @NaNoWordSprints. They are the author of two poetry collections, UNRAVELING LIGHT and DARKNESS UNDONE, the sci-fi short story, CONTINUUM, and STILL THE STARS will be their YA debut. You can learn more at elaynamusings.com or find them on twitter at @elaynamae.