I got my third request for a full manuscript last week.
That morning I drew the “You Are the Oracle” card from a deck by author Rebecca Campbell. My question was, What can I do right now to achieve my dream of becoming a best-selling author?
The card I drew was “You are already doing it.” I don’t think I need to report all the details from the guidebook here. The card title says it all.
The novel started as a conversation last year during a walk, as most of my novels and screenplays do. I wrote the first chapter for Katie, and she loved it and asked for more, so I wrote more, and she demanded more, even though she knew what was going to happen because we had it all worked out. I started in mid-September and was pitching the final draft to agents in early December. I had several requests for the first 10–15 pages, and an agent interested, but he was diagnosed with cancer during my massive re-write that took the novel from 122,000 words down to a more manageable 93,000. In October of this year (2021) I pitched it again to 5 agents (face to face via Zoom) during an online convention and 4 of them requested the first 10–50 pages (different agents request different amounts). Out of those 4, one decided it wasn’t the right project for her. Three are still considering it, and this one has asked for the whole manuscript.
Now, everything is in the hands of my writing.
More on the writing and rewriting process anon, but for now, I am just waiting, again, and remembering that the first step in achieving best-seller status is to simply write the damn book, and if that one doesn’t make it, take some classes and write another, and another, and another.
So, I’m already working on the next best-seller.
Stay tuned.
