The Waiting Game

Debra is trying to be patient...but it isn't easy.

I did it! I got my mss of "The Cowboy and the Princess" polished up and submitted. And now...I wait.

According to the publisher's web-site guidelines, I'l receive confirmation of my e-mail submission within 21 days. We're at day 17, which means technically I should hear a "Thanks we received your submission." e-mail any day now. After that, I'm to allow 8-12 weeks for a response. Is that from the time I originally submitted or from the time I received confirmation of the submission? Either way, it's a long time to wait.

I know waiting is not uncommon in this industry, but I've been working with a small press that is VERY quick on the draw for the last nine years, so to say I'm a bit spoiled is a total understatement.

I try not to think about it, but every time I open my e-mail I can't help but wonder if I'll have my initial response. And I'm trying to decide, planning ahead, if when I get the BIG response, whether I want to open it at work. If it's a no, I might cry. If it's a yes, I won't be able to scream and shout and dance around. But how in the world will I be able to wait until the end of the day when I get home? What if it comes in first thing in the morning? It'll be like Poe's Tell-Tale Heart: Open Me. Open Me. Open Me. All day long.

See? I'm not very patient.

In the meantime I'm about 11K into my new project. There are two more days left in my RWA chapter's 90 words for 90 days challenge, and then NaNo starts on Wednesday. I still haven't decided if I'm going to tackle that or not. On the one hand, I definitely plan on writing, so even if I don't think I will make the overall goal, at least I'll be accumulating words. And, my chapter challenge has been great for keeping my butt in my chair and my fingers on the keys every single day since the beginning of August. (For someone coming off of a huge dry spell, well, that was...huge!) So for accountability, it might be worth taking it on. So I have a day to decide about that.

I also have several guest blog appearances scheduled for my holiday titles and was asked to participate in a fellow Rose's release party in December. So even though I don't have any new releases this year, I'm trying to drum up some interest in my back list. My Halloween story was on sale for most of October, and my Thanksgiving story and my Christmas stories will be on sale the beginning of November and the beginning of December respectively. And I'm trying really, really hard to be active on social media.

On the down side of things, I learned today that two of my books which I'd entered into a contest didn't even place in the top five. Which I'm a bit bummed about. Let's just say it's not the shot of confidence I was hoping for to add a boost of encouragement for positive results for my submission. On the up side of things, tomorrow is Halloween and if we don't get many trick-or-treaters, I'll have a whole lot of chocolate left over to ease the sting of disappointment.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com