how to survive on sub

I have to be honest: when someone suggested i wrote about being on sub, i thought but nothing ever happens on sub—until it does. so, what do you do while you wait?

i could go on about each phase of the process but, honestly, that might have already been beaten to death. instead, i want to talk about the waiting room. purgatory. the constant refreshing of your sheet, or notion page, or airtable, or your inbox. whichever way your agent uses to communicate sub news to you.

everyday, i open my own list (multiple times), and i check how many confirmations of receipt, or rejections, or good news there are. i wish i could say i’m so cool and collected, and i don’t even check that more than once per week, or i just don’t want to know anything at all until an offer comes through. that’s not who i am, though. i’m a worrier; i obsess. sometimes, it drives me insane.

as months pass, you not only lose hope—despite the fact that most books take a long time getting acquired; think anything from half a year to eighteen months, or more—but grow in despair. the time it takes to get anything at all seems like eternity. if you think agents take a long time answering queries, i’m afraid to say most authors will have a similar experience on sub, because most authors will not have the unicorn experience. it doesn’t mean you won’t still sell your work for six figures, by the way. if you look for it, there are countless success stories that took a while.

well, yes, but i don’t care because i’m not living other people’s life. i’m living mine! and i’m an impatient gal! an impatient gal pursuing trad pub, joke’s on me. anyway, what’s that elusive cure, you ask?

write the next thing. put the next thing on sub, even.

the moment my second book hit the sub trenches, i was healed. everything’s so exciting! even your first rejection is a rite of passage, and it doesn’t really hurt your pride. you count how many editors confirm they got the materials, and how fast, and how many of those confirmations are personalized. you look up their books online, trying to picture your own on that same page. and you forget to refresh book 1’s sheet. it doesn’t mean you lose your love for book 1, it just mean you’re going to be fine if it doesn’t sell. you have another one. hell, you might have a whole backlog, if you’re a fast drafter.

the good thing about publishing is that you get multiple chances (unless you blow up your career spectacularly, à la cait corrain. even then, people have been known to simply get a new pen name and move on). it’s not the end if a book dies on sub.

isn’t it demotivating, though? it can be. but, personally, i wouldn’t stop writing if i wasn’t trying to get published. i wrote before i even considered it a possibility. i published stories online for free. writing a book will never be a torture for me, because i enjoy the process. i’m already doing it, so might as well throw it out there and hope for the best.