On Writing & Mental Illness - What the hell kind of struggle is this?

Fiction writers who seek an agent in hopes of being traditionally published need to do a shit ton of work.

They need something to write about.
They need to write it.
They need to read it for continuity.
Edit to make the continuity work.
Read it for typos, grammar errors, punctuation.
Edit the typos, bad grammar, and punctuation mistakes.
Read it for imagery, dialogue, metaphor, character arc, and other literary devices.
Edit the shit out and replace the shit with gold.
Find beta readers* to read it for overall readability (and please throw in some compliments with the criticism so we don't fall apart).
Read beta readers' feedback, notes, comments, etc.
Cry, yell, scream, bluster, dust ourselves off and pull ourselves together with thicker skin and some measure of objectivity.
Read it AGAIN to see if the readers' comments make sense and warrant merit.
Edit some more.

Maybe you get the idea how insane this process is and why writing often requires or creates mental instability.



Whether you get it or not, there's MORE.

The manuscript is as polished and perfected as the writer can get it. It's time to query literary agents and pitch in hopes of landing a contract.

Now it's really time to rise above. We must now learn to accept dozens or hundreds of rejections, and this book has to get demoted from "baby" status to "money-making thing" or we'll never survive the rejection, often labeled as "pass".

This is where I'm at. The query process is on the horizon and coming into view. I have to learn how to query and pitch, first of all. Thank you Writer's Digest online tutorials. Part of this stage of the process is telling agents about "comps". These are titles comparable  to what I've written so they can gauge market placement and chances of sales. I found out this very morning that agents don't do the homework for the writer, and they take comps quite seriously. There shouldn't be an iota of guesswork.

Since This Darkness is Mine: The Dark Gift of Bipolar is a novel based on a true story, and comp titles have to be same genre, same sub-genre, but I'm finding few titles as close as A Beautiful Mind, but comps can't be more than 3 years old, I'm really in a quandary. 😒

Back to the search engine. I had to get pretty specific for Google, but I found some recent debut (debut authors get comped against debut authors) titles that are either memoir or novels based on true stories. Since I happen to know that authors get paid slightly more from Barnes and Noble than from Amazon, I ordered through BN.com.

I'll report back sooner or later.

Don't be surprised if I'm not quite as impressed with what's on the market as I am with my own novel 😉


Make someone else's day magical!
Mackenzie

*beta reader is to a book what beta test is to technology. They look for what you instruct them to: realistic dialogue, typos, grammar, diction choices, imagery, dullness, confusing passages, overall readability, etc.