Emotionally Preparing to Go on Sub

Many stages in publishing are emotionally fraught, and that is especially true for going on sub with a new project.

This is true whether whether you're trying to sell your debut novel, come back from a gap in your books, making a career pivot, or taking a book out wide after a disappointing experience with your current publisher. 

You find yourself checking your email 100 times a day, even though you logically know that hitting refresh on your inbox won't make an offer come through faster.

You imagine best case scenarios (Maybe this time I'll get one of those magical 48-hour offers!) and then feel like a failure when those unlikely scenarios don't come to fruition. 

Silence from editors feels like a screaming indication that your book sucks, you suck, and your career is doomed forever. 

Every week (hell, maybe even every day!) you waffle between asking your agent for an update and worrying that you'll be such an annoying pest that they'll drop you as a client. 

While the submission process will always be a fertile ground for emotional freak outs, there are things you can do to lower the pressure and stay in touch with your creative process so you can focus on other deadlines, writing something new, or simply enjoying your life.

Why Submission Feels Fraught

It's normal to feel anxious about the outcome of submission.

You care deeply about the book that you've written. You care about the longevity of your career! And depending on the role being an author plays in your overall household income, there may be very real financial stakes involved, too. All of that creates an above-average emotional weight to this part of the process.

Submission is also the place where this particular project's fate is out of your control for the first time. Up until this point, you've been the master of your universe. The pre-submission writing and editing process is fully within your control, with the exception of the moments when you're waiting for your agent to read and weigh-in with their thoughts.  

Once the book goes out to editors, though, your role with this story is temporarily on pause. Whether your book ends up traditionally published is out of your hands (for now, at least). The book is what it is, and whether it lands on the right editor's desk at the right time (before they've signed something that's too similar to your concept) is mostly up to your agent's submission skills, timing, and luck. 

This is... not a position the human brain enjoys to be in. 

Our brains crave certainty, and going on sub is inherently uncertain. You can't control whether a specific editor loves your book. Even if they do love it, you can't control whether they manage to get the rest of the publishing team on board. 

Yes, there are things you can do to give your book its best shot (taking your time to make the pages shine, picking a book that is very YOU while also leaning on your agent to help you pick something that makes sense for the current market, etc.), but once the book is out on editors' desks, there's nothing left for you to do for this particular story. That can feel really disorienting after having spent so long being in complete control of the writing itself. 

So, if you're feeling #NotGreat while on sub, you're not alone. You're not broken. This truly is a challenging part of the process, especially if you don't have tools to help you cope. 

The High Pressure Stories We Tell

The first step to create a calmer emotional experience of submission is to identify and redirect all the high pressure stories we place on the submission process.

I'm going to share the common thoughts that I hear from authors, but a great way to find your specific thoughts is to put some variation on "I'm worried that..." or "I'm afraid that..." or "If this book doesn't sell..." at the top of the page and then brain dump all the thoughts, fears, and worries that come up, no matter how silly, over-the-top, or illogical they seem. 

To get you started, here are some of the most common high pressure stories that we tell ourselves during submission: 

If the book was going to sell, it would have by now.

This is the best thing I've ever written. If this doesn't sell, nothing will.

My writing isn't good enough. / I'm not good enough.

I'm going to let my agent down.

This is my make-or-break moment.

If this one doesn't sell, I'm done. Clearly, I don't have what it takes.

I need to sell something soon or else readers will forget about me.

There are only a few editors left on the sub list. There's no way I get a decent deal now.

If reading through that list you felt a little ping of "oh, that one is me" go ahead and write it down at the top of your list and then continue to brainstorm the thoughts that you specifically have. 

Don't worry about creating new fears for yourself. Whatever you find while you come up with this list was already in your brain, even if it was subconscious. Getting it out onto paper gives you a chance to deal with the fear instead of letting it leave you with a constant, low-hum of anxiety, dread, or worry. 

Disproving Those Painful Stories

Once you have your list of high pressure stories, it's time to disprove them. You want to put on your editor hat and find all the "plot holes" and inconsistencies that you can. (This is a big part of what I help authors do--just like an editor can find issues in your book that you can't see, as a coach, I can spot the weak spots in the stories you tell about your career that your brain might miss.)

No matter how true a story feels, if it leaves you feeling terrible and makes it harder for you to write, IT IS NOT USEFUL. Constantly reinforcing a "true" story that feels like shit does nothing but make it harder for you to write your next book. You're not being "realistic" by reminding yourself of those terrible thoughts. You're kicking your creativity in the groin and then wondering why you feel bad. 

To disprove a story, you want to collect evidence--either from your own experience or from the experiences of other authors--that contradict your story.

Here are some (short) examples of what this looks like:

Story 1: There are only a few editors left. There's no way I'll get a decent deal now.

• Plenty of authors sell books when they're down to the final few editors on their list 
  • If you don't have any personal examples, now you do! My debut, These Witches Don't Burn, sold when we only had 3 editors left with the book and only one of them offered. That book has now made me over $100k despite its original $20k advance. (You can read the full breakdown of my author income here.)
• Authors have sold to one of the final editors and still gotten a 6-figure deal (I personally heard an example of this recently!)
• Authors who sell on exclusives (when the book goes to just one editor) have gotten 6-figure deals, so clearly the number of editors left with the book doesn't have a direct correlation to the size of the deal

Story 2: This is the best thing I've ever written. If this doesn't sell, nothing will.

• I've thought something was my "best book" before only to write something even better later - that could be true again
• It's the best I can do right now, but I'm always growing as a storyteller 
• A book not selling may have nothing to do with quality and everything to do with current market trends, luck, or timing 

Story 3: I'm going to let my agent down.

• My job is to tell a great story - my agent's job is to know when it's ready for sub 
  • In other words: If your agent gave you the green light to go out, that means they believe it's ready - which means you did your job and did it well no matter what happens next
• Agents know that not every project sells - they won't hold it against me 
• And a repeat from last time: A book not selling may have nothing to do with quality and everything to do with current market trends, luck, or timing - my agent knows that

I recommend doing this exercise with all the unhelpful stories that feel really true. Collect as much evidence as you need until the story loses its power over you. As a bonus, keep these lists somewhere you can easily access on the days the old story gets loud again.

 
Focusing on the Long Game

There's a reason why the most common advice for dealing with submission anxiety is to write the next book: it works.

Publishing is all about the long game. It's about building a body of work. Book after book after book. 

Writing a new novel while you're on submission has lots of advantages. It can be a welcome distraction. It feels good to be creatively fulfilled. If your book doesn't sell, you'll have something new ready to send out without too much delay. AND! If your book DOES sell, you'll need another book again at some point anyway -- either as a book 2 on a contract or something in a new category or genre to diversify your income streams. Having another book in the wings is always a good thing. 

That doesn't meant you need to rush, but it does mean that giving yourself space to fall in love with a new project is always a good use of your time. 

If you've previously struggled to write while on submission, here are some tips to help make it a little easier: 

1. Make sure you've gone through the steps above re: identifying and disproving high-pressure stories around sub. If your predominant mindset is one that stress you out, it's going to be really hard to access your creativity. So start there.
2. In nearly every case, I recommend that you do NOT write a sequel while you wait. If the current book doesn't sell, you'll have a book 2 that you can't really do anything with (unless you decide to self publish the series). PLUS! If the book does sell, your editor may want you to make changes that ultimately makes all the work you did on book 2 irrelevant. 
   • The exception here is writing a sequel that is more of a companion book -- something that could standalone and be published even if the first book never makes it onto shelves 
3. If you're still struggling, consider switching age groups or genres. I've found that, for me, no matter how much I work on my mindset, I struggle to wiggle out of the thought "I'm writing this new YA in case the current YA doesn't sell." The feeling of the new project being a back-up plan in case of failure just bleeds into every aspect of the story in a way that's not helpful. My solution to this is to jump between age groups. While trying to sell adult, I write YA. While trying to sell YA, I write adult. That way, I can frame the book as "this can be my next thing to sub, no matter what happens with the current project" and that naturally puts me in a better headspace to write.
   
   

Final Thoughts

Submission is a challenge for nearly every author, and it's a challenge that isn't going away anytime soon. It's part of our industry, whether we like it or not. Even if you have a good relationship with your current publisher, submitting a new project to your editor can trigger the same thoughts and feelings as going on a wide submission. It's worth it to build the skill of disproving the high-pressure stories we tell about submission. It's worth it to do the work of redirecting our brains to a more useful place. 

When you do this work on a consistent basis, it's possible to go out on sub with a project that you adore and still enjoy your day-to-day writing life. You can be on sub without constantly refreshing your inbox. You can stay focused on writing something new. You can recover quickly from rejections without spinning into a despair spiral about your career being doomed. It's possible to be on sub and still feel good about your career, even when an offer doesn't come in as fast as you'd hoped.

Because an offer will come eventually. Maybe not for this particular story (no author sells every single book they try to publish), but if you keep writing, if you keep growing with each new book, you will get there eventually. I promise.

Happy writing,
Isabel 

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