Important dates in the life of an author

There are many important moments in an author’s life, often interspersed with long moments of drudgery in between:

The moment lightening strikes and you get that idea for a story that you can’t walk away from. The one where the chracters start talking to you. The ideas start flowing. It’s magic!Then there’s the drudgery of building out a proposal that sells the idea to a publisher. Some people love this stage, but it’s agonizingly hard for me.Then there’s the moment you get the call from your agent. We have an offer!After that the contract arrives. Woot! Now they are often signed electronically, but that doesn’t impact the beauty of that moment when you realize someone believes enough in your idea to pay you write it.Then there are months of writing, editing, beating your head against the wall, wondering what anyone saw in your idea, before you have to hit send and release your baby to the world.Then you get to dream about or start your next idea while you wait for edits.Rinse and repeat.Cover. checkBack Cover copy. Check.Marketing Plan. Check.Creating pages of ideas for letting the world know about your precious book. Check.Then you get the moment that the first copies land on your doorstep. Unboxing the books never gets old. It’s the magic of seeing your book in front of you. Holding the hours of labor in your hands. Magic!After that you walk into your local bookstore, nervous with anticipation. There it is! Your beautiful baby. You autograph it. Take photos to send to local friends and pray lots of people swoop in to buy it out of stock. Maybe you join a book club, a library talk, a zoom with readers. Each is another moment your book comes to life.

And then you rinse and repeat. The life of an author.