Epiphany

In October, I attended Moonlight and Magnolias, a fabulous conference hosted by Georgia Romance Writers. Day 2 was a Michael Hauge workshop which changed the way I thought about my writing goals.

Publication is one of those far-of goals for a lot of writers, the thing we want more than anything else, to see our name (or pseudonym) in print on a book jacket on a shelf at the local B&N. Sitting down to WRITE the dang book is hard, but finishing the manuscript is only the beginning. The writer has to turn into a seller - a promoter of our work to garner the interest of an agent or editor, enticing them to say, "Yes. I want that."

Mr. Hauge posed this question, a fill in the blank. "I will do whatever it takes to sell my novel, just don't ask me to _________________."

It took me weeks to figure out the answer. It's not a matter of giving up time or devoting the energy to write, it's not even networking, which I'm decent at as long as I can take breaks to recharge. I'm nervous when it comes to pitching and querying, but I know that if I don't do it, no one else will do it for me, so logic says self-promotion is a given. What then?

During my third round of revisions on Dark Water, in the midst of a love scene, when I was contemplating a word choice, it hit me: I'll do whatever it takes to sell my novel, just don't ask me to disappoint my mother.

Huh. The thought was at once freeing and disconcerting - I am, after all, an adult, and have been for several years. As much as I'm worried about my mother accepting her daughter as a romance author who allows the occasional F-bomb to sneak in (with purpose, not just for shock value, mind you), it also forces me to recognize that I can't spend my life trying to live up to the expectations that I believe others have of me.

I'm sure my mother is proud (she calls me Ava sometimes now, which is not the name she and my father bestowed upon me), maybe not because she's a fan of what I write, but because she's a fan of ME.

I got an email from someone the other day and her signature line said, "Be yourself. Everyone else is taken."

Now it's your turn, fellow writers, to fill in the blank. "I will do whatever it takes to sell / finish / promote my novel, just don't ask me to ____________________."

Happy Writing!

Ava