Another Revision: Finding Patience and Asking for Help
The revisions aren't done. But neither am I! 💪🏻 Learning to embrace patience, manage self-doubt, and find joy in the small things in the publishing journey
Note: The recording above is a reading of this newsletter, the content is no different. If you’re someone who needs or prefers to hear their news, I hope you enjoy my melodious voice.
Hello! I’m Caroline Davis, a YA sci-fi author represented by the literary agency behind Hunger Games. I’m currently preparing my first book, MAY WE PLEASE THE SEA, to pitch to publishers this Fall. This newsletter shares my latest author updates & creative process musings.
I’ve been eagerly waiting to announce my next big milestone of “I’m pitching my book to publishers!!”, but….
(For those of you who have been here awhile, you might already suspect what I’m about to say)
Yep. More revising.
My agent got back to me yesterday on the 4-month rewrite I submitted in July—the book needs another round. (As a reminder: I also did a 9-month Revise & Resubmit before that rewrite, so it’s been a lot of revision).
I’m not angry. Or sad. If the book isn’t ready, it isn’t ready. 🤷🏼♀️ I’d rather spend the time on it now than later, when I’m on deadline and under pressure. But still, there’s that simmering feeling of doubt. “Can I not pull this off?”
I have to remind myself that I’m new to this. This was a career switch. I was the Intern, then the Analyst, and now I’m the Senior Associate chomping at the bit for a chance to manage a team and (whew, sorry I reverted to my LinkedIn corporate days there for a sec). Anyways, my writing journey is slow. And I have to be okay with that.
I’m driven by external validation. Let’s be honest, most of us are. Our society, our schooling—grades and awards and performance reviews—they instill that in us. A need to perform. To please. To achieve.
The slowness of my author journey has forced me to embrace a deeper patience. To look at my timeline for success on a scaled-out level….years, not months…and to find satisfaction in that day-to-day.
I’m working on reframing my mindset towards my Author Career from that corporate hustle-bustle must-hit-these-goals-by-these-dates fixation to more like my gardening approach: TLC, chipping away over time, and hopefully a little rain. One day, there will be a harvest. But for now, more planting and weeding await me. (🥲 except it’s a revision)
You are amazing. Wow. Thank you for being here. As I was gearing up to pitch to publishers (🥲 yes, not yet, I know. One more revision), I knew I needed to grow my newsletter. Publishers want to commoditize my art by plugging my stats into an Excel model to determine my profitability see that authors have an engaged community, so I decided to sell myself out to capitalism be vulnerable and ask for help.
And y’all delivered!
Starting Aug 16th, I gave myself the goal to ask 6 friends every weekday to join my newsletter. It felt SO cringy. So…shameless. How dare I interrupt your life to inconvenience you with such an ask! But I reminded myself that I love helping others, I love when I can do something to boost someone else. So I took that tiny kernel of goodness and I pressed send. Over and over. And no one told me I suck. In fact, people were…gasp..SO NICE!
This is the Stats section, so I have to give you the stats:
❓ Friends Asked: 180
✅ Friends who subscribed: 144
🌟 Success Rate: 80%
I don’t share this to reduce you to a number (but, aren’t we all, she asks in her somber cynical tone), but to show you the power of leveraging your community! To show you that asking works! Don’t be afraid to tell your friends what you need from them. They might overwhelm you with their enthusiasm and support 💕
But seriously, ya’ll’s responses were so lovely, I screen-shotted them to look back on on those more frustrating days (like this week 🥲). Thank you for supporting me.
Between my day job and my author career, my writing and my obligated self-marketing, it’s easy for me to feel overwhelmed. Like I’m not doing enough. I need to do the job stuffs, and write the author newsletter, and post on the social medias, and oh don’t forget that book you’ve rewritten three times. Do that some more. And also, start your next one. And why aren’t you on TikTok??
When my brain gets into that frenzy, I ask myself,
“what, if I accomplish it, will destress me the most?”
I know, it’s not rocket science. But the tweak here is I’m not telling myself, YOU HAVE TO DO THIS. I’m not saying, this is #1 on my to-do list and if you don’t do it, you suck. I’m identifying the source of my anxiety, and I’m cheering myself on to tackle it.
Because sometimes the thing causing the most stress isn’t that hard to do. And getting it done will be less stressful than thinking about it all day.
So try that framing. See if it helps. 💕 It’s helped me.
🌊❤️,
Caroline
P.S. I hope to have more exciting updates for you next month, but who knows. Until next time, I’ll be revising.
On the 🌟Instagram🌟:
Loved this! I feel you, from someone on her fourth complete rewrite of her current book. 😭
You absolutely got this. Revisions are so tough, but it will be worth it!