{"id":231,"date":"2013-02-18T09:27:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T22:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/starting-out-5-youve-signed-a-publishing-contract-now-what\/"},"modified":"2020-09-28T10:56:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T00:56:06","slug":"starting-out-5-youve-signed-a-publishing-contract-now-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2013\/02\/starting-out-5-youve-signed-a-publishing-contract-now-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting Out #5: You&#8217;ve signed a publishing contract&#8230; now what?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><a href=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-0rr7Y6t-Cts\/USFnKUKed5I\/AAAAAAAADHA\/bDy-dYslWNs\/s1600\/startingout.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0px initial initial;\" src=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-0rr7Y6t-Cts\/USFnKUKed5I\/AAAAAAAADHA\/bDy-dYslWNs\/s320\/startingout.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>This week, the Starting Out* series takes a crossroad into fiction.<\/p>\n<p>It takes a long time to learn to be a writer. That might seem like a strange comment in a time when anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection can just&#8230; start, self-publish, whatever. But the truth is that there&#8217;s more to being a writer than simply &#8216;writing&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>One person who is learning this on the job is <a href=\"http:\/\/sarahayoub.com\/\">Sarah Ayoub<\/a>. I&#8217;ve watched Sarah&#8217;s journey to being a published author unfold on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sarahayoub\">Twitter<\/a> and on her <a href=\"http:\/\/sarahayoub.com\/tag\/my-first-book-journey\">blog<\/a>, and it makes for interesting reading because she&#8217;s so damn honest about it all. But I&#8217;ll let her tell the story&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><b>Living the dream can be a shock to the system<\/b><\/h5>\n<p>Most people take a long time to figure out what they want to do for their careers. Some start out in certain jobs, work their way up their field, and then jump on the lowest rung of an entirely different career ladder, all in the name of pursuing a dream they didn\u2019t know they had.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what happened to me when I put journalism on hold and stumbled (quite madly) into creative writing. I was bored one night when I wrote what would become the first chapter of my now-forthcoming novel. I shelved it for years, returning to it sporadically as the story came to me. Before I knew it I had ten chapters and an-it-happened-by-luck meeting with one of Australia\u2019s most sought-after Literary Agents. She told me I didn\u2019t need a writing course, and the number of stories in my over-flowing bookshelves could finally be justified because it seemed like they taught me fiction by osmosis. Before I knew it, I had a publishing deal with Harper Collins, a Facebook page with \u2018likers\u2019 who weren\u2019t related to me, and a smile permanently stamped on my face.\u00a0 I had achieved something I only recently discovered I wanted: to be an author.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Learning to be an author<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Unfortunately, my joy has been short-lived. While I am thrilled to be living the dream, having no idea what \u2018the dream\u2019 actually involves is a lot harder than I thought. I don\u2019t know anything about print runs or advances. Admittedly, I only just think about whether or not the advance is enough to justify a writing trip to Paris, and what kind of dress I could potentially wear to the launch. People ask me questions and I respond with blank stares. I\u2019ve never had an interest in \u2018the state of things\u2019 where books and e-readers were concerned, and so talk of the market baffles me. I say the wrong things in publisher meetings and although I wrote a 66,000 word book, I can\u2019t think of a title. I have no ideas for a cover and my friend has been left with the lucky task of brainstorming ways to help me promote it.<\/p>\n<p>But the worst part? Having to perform to the standards set for me, and on some level, the standards I have set for myself. I\u2019m no longer the girl with a manuscript, I am now an author. I signed a contract verifying myself as thus, and I now have gatekeepers: agency, publishers, editors, publicity people \u2013 all anxiously waiting to see if the gamble they played on me would pay off, and whether or not I could replicate that pay-off.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m my own gate keeper too.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had a year\u2019s notice for a second novel, and yet, six or so months out from the deadline there are less than 4,000 words to its existence and I am in a crisis of my own making.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Get to KNOW what you&#8217;re doing<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>I\u2019ve slowly figured out that being my own sort of writer doesn\u2019t work where contracts are concerned. I can\u2019t have five years of writing at my own leisure anymore, and as it turns out, the editing process is a lot more complicated than I ever imagined. Between changes I made, changes my agent requested, a change my publisher wanted, and the seemingly infinite markings of my structural editor, my book has morphed into an entirely different creation (slight exaggeration, but you get the gist). Worse: I have lost <a href=\"http:\/\/sarahayoub.com\/talks-entertainment\/conversation-on-pressure-hard-work-and-fears-of-being-a-one-book-wonder\">confidence in my own abilities<\/a>, out of the fear that whatever I produce next will not live up to what\u2019s expected of me. What I committed to, signed for, promised to deliver in my excitement of things.<\/p>\n<p>So if I could sum up the biggest lesson from my start-out, it\u2019s to get to KNOW what you\u2019re doing. Writing my first book was like sharing a part of my life: it followed the old writing adage of writing what you know. I understood my character\u2019s history, I gave her a school like mine, I used my own sentiments from high-school as story fodder.<\/p>\n<p>I thought I\u2019d be cool and set a challenge for myself for book #2. I thought I\u2019d write in a way that was so far removed from what I knew and experienced, and to this day I question what I was thinking, even though my publisher\u2019s enthusiasm for the idea means it\u2019s not something I can change and I should just move on.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m watching friends who started after me progress with their stories at full speed. They\u2019ve got plans, story ideas and excel spreadsheets tracking their progress. They know their print runs, their titles, their plans for future books. They knew what they were doing when they committed to their deadline. They follow lessons like &#8216;write as much as you can&#8217;, and edit way afterwards. I make the biggest mistake by editing as I go, or deleting everything that doesn\u2019t meet my standards. Or is the biggest mistake that I am waiting around for a story instead of making it up? Isn\u2019t that what I signed up for as an author of fiction?<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Writing my own story as I go<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Turns out, I am a lot like the person who abandons everything to climb an entirely different career ladder, only sillier. I chased the career bliss of a publishing deal in what seemed like the blink of an eye, bypassing a lot of lessons that I could have learned at each rung.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I am taking the ladder backwards, maybe I\u2019m free-falling, but either way, I\u2019ve taken the liberty of <a href=\"http:\/\/sarahayoub.com\/tag\/my-first-book-journey\">chronicling my journey<\/a> for those who might follow it, if only to save them from insecurities akin to my own.<\/p>\n<p>And in the mean time, I can take comfort in the fact that by doing so, I am writing another special story: my own, and one that only I can turn into a best-seller, if I learn to see it for what it is. A blessing for my career, despite the climb, expectations and the gamble for the characters on each rung.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>You can follow Sarah&#8217;s journey to the publication of her first novel in August 2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/sarahayoub.com\/tag\/my-first-book-journey\">here<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em>*Starting Out is a series of guest posts by new writers\/authors who are at the beginning of their writing careers and making it work. You may also enjoy <a href=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2013\/01\/starting-out-2-what-kind-of-writer-will.html\"><b>What kind of writer will you be?<\/b><\/a> and <b><a href=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2013\/02\/starting-out-4-learning-to-embrace.html\">Learning to embrace the editing process?<\/a><\/b><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-30908\" src=\"http:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-150x150.png\" alt=\"So You Want To Be a Writer book\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-600x600.png 600w, https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-1080x1080.png 1080w, https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-980x980.png 980w, https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-480x480.png 480w, https:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image.png 1125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Are you new here? Welcome to my blog! I\u2019m Allison Tait and you can find out <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/aboutme\/\"><strong>more about me here<\/strong><\/a><strong> and more about my <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/online-writing-courses-by-allison-tait\/\"><strong>online writing courses here<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Subscribe to <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/au\/podcast\/so-you-want-to-be-writer-valerie-khoo-allison-tait\/id836440322?mt=2\"><strong>So You Want To Be A Writer podcast<\/strong><\/a><strong> for more amazing writing advice. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Or check out <em>So You Want To Be A Writer<\/em> (the book), where my co-author Valerie Khoo and I have distilled the best tips from hundreds of author and industry expert interviews. <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2019\/05\/meet-so-you-want-to-be-a-writer-the-book\/\"><strong>Find out more and buy it here<\/strong><\/a><strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, the Starting Out* series takes a crossroad into fiction. It takes a long time to learn to be a writer. That might seem like a strange comment in a time when anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection can just&#8230; start, self-publish, whatever. But the truth is that there&#8217;s more to being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,690,5],"tags":[715,716,713],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice-for-writers","category-starting-out","category-writing","tag-publishing-qa","tag-tips-for-writers","tag-writing-tips"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Starting Out #5: You&#039;ve signed a publishing contract... now what? - Allison Tait Author<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You&#039;ve signed a publishing contract - what happens next? 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