Deadlines and Rejections: A short story
A Note from your author: New location, same ramblings. As you can see, I have moved from Mailchimp to Substack. If you signed up for one of my newsletters, that is why you’re here. I hope you stay with me.
A Perfect Circle Four months into 2023 and I have hit two deadlines. The first was the final, final proofs for Kiss the Girl, book three in Disney’s series of standalone contemporary romance novels. I’ll be talking more about it closer to publication (August 1st!). I have a special pre-order gift in the works. But that’s not what this newsletter is about.
Thanks for reading Zoraida’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
It’s about deadlines and rejections.
I sold my first book twelve years and a month ago. March 16, 2011. The book was The Vicious Deep, a novel that is now out of print. It is still my heart child, the book that was my first step into the ~ahem~ tempestuous seas of publishing. When I think of this book, I remember the 23-year-old I was. Big dreams. A little naive. Loud and happy. I was paid a four-figure advance, but it didn’t matter because I had a full-time job, which I didn’t quit for another six-ish years. It was also a book that was rejected all over town. I was lucky enough to find an editor that loved my voice and wanted to work with me. She left Sourcebooks around when Book 2 was in edits, but she taught me so much about how to edit a book.
Bookmaking is a cyclical process. Though every publisher has different protocols, the process generally goes as follows: Draft 1, Edit 1, Edit 2, Line edit, Copyedit, 1st pass/proofs, final pass, 2P (second pass).
When you think of how long it takes to make something, you can’t help but marvel at the fact that someone is going to read a book in a day, a week, a single feverous sitting.
Though what happens when the book is printed is largely out of my control, I still think of that reader. I think about who my audience is. I think about who my audience isn’t. I write with myself as my first audience. But this is my job. I am an artist and the corporate boss all at once, to a certain extent.
Twelve years in this industry makes me feel out of place. I had more ideas now that when I first started, but as I struggle to meet my deadlines, I also feel like. I am running out of time. This is, of course, bananapants. There is no time limit to success. But there’s something about creative industries that want to reward the new, the shiny. As someone who loves shiny things, I get it. Our industry is going through a lot of changes. There’s uncertainty about what will sell big, what the next trend is, what is the book. It is enough to feel discouraged as hell.
But. Here’s the but… I remember being an 18-year-old intern, once upon a time, and this exact same thing happened then! Seventeen years ago! (Sorry, I am having a moment about my grizzled old age.)
So this is me giving myself some grace when it comes to writing. To deadlines. To quiet books releases. To books that last, long after the buzz dies down. The thing I control is the shape that my books take. Everything else is external and dependent on the business partners I’ve chosen.
The second deadline I met this year is the first draft of my follow-up to The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina. What is this mystery book? Well, not such a mystery. See the announcement below from almost a year ago.
The Fall of Rebel Angels is no longer set for fall 2023. Sorry, I tried. I am so beyond burned out, I might as well disintegrate into ash like an incense stick. Or snapped like Thanos is in charge of my life. I wrote the first version of a book that has been living in my head for seven years, spinning, percolating, morphing into a story-shaped thing. It’s still not ready, but I will be working on it this year.
Small confession: I’m also realizing that my difficulty in writing lately comes from wanting to be better. Sharper sentences. Unique imagery. Wity dialogue. I strive to get better with every book, which means approaching my 21st novel comes with a lot of self-inflicted pressure.
Thanks to you, incredible readers and friends, Orquídea Divina is my best-selling book. None of my books have had this much support from a publisher, and I felt it for the first time. I’ve had writer friends text and email me as they read, which always feels great when your colleagues and people you admire compliment your work. It is almost paralyzing to think of writing when all I want it for the lucid dreams of angels and demons and witches needs to be better than anything I’ve written in the past.
With the highs come the lows. I had a publisher (kidlit) reject a book I really wanted to write. My Stripped adaption is canceled in development. I got another pass on a project I’ve been chipping away at for literal years. These will not be my last rejections, and I’m okay with that. I have learned things work out on their own. Success looks different at several stages, but I will keep feeding my ambition. Feel, then move on is my motto this season.
In some ways, not a lot has changed in my decade-plus of being a writer. Some successes feel big. Some rejections feel brutal. It is a cycle. The only way to stop it is to get off the track and I’m not ready to do that (despite the many many threats of quitting and running away to the woods).
Until next time.
Write on like,
Zoraida
Thanks for reading Zoraida’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
