Celebrate every step forward

In writing, as in life, I believe it’s important to celebrate every milestone, no matter how big or small. Finished the first draft? Celebrate. Finally fixed that troublesome scene after four drafts? Celebrate. Had someone in the industry request your manuscript? Goddamn celebrate!

I’m celebrating because my manuscript was recently accepted into the Australian Society of Author’s International Marketplace catalogue for fiction. Essentially, the marketplace is a catalogue of available work sent out to agents and publishers around the world. And my work is in it!

This is from the ASA website:

Bring on the new International Marketplace Catalogue, with a significantly extended list of recipients throughout the USA and Europe, which can be accessed on both laptop and mobile for easier browsing.

This well laid out digital catalogue will showcase your titles in a full-page listing and will be marketed directly to our extensive contact list. All that our recipients need to do is to flick the full colour pages while they sip their coffee in the morning. Each page has a contact button that allows them to receive the details of every participant whose book is of interest to them, and then the negotiations can start!

Seriously, if you’re a writer in Australia who owns the rights to your work, published or unpublished, you should check it out.  You can find out more about it here.

A mock-up of a simple cover design, with help from Naomi Giatas Design.

Of course, I could be celebrating for ‘nothing’. The response could be silence, and in the happy event that it leads to requests for the manuscript, it could still end up going nowhere. That’s the nature of publishing.

But who knows, maybe there’s someone out there thinking, ‘What I really want is a metaphysical dystopian adventure’? If there is, they now have a better chance of connecting with my manuscript than ever before.

Whatever happens, one thing is certain – I’ll celebrate every step along the way.

If you’ve got something to cheer about, share it in the comments so we can spread the joy.

Originally posted on my creative writing blog at skyharrison.com