Keep on Writing!

by Samantha Wilde

You're tempted to give up for the hundredth time, after another rejection or another head-banging writing session (no, not the musical kind), yet somehow, you just keep writing.

HERE is the cover of my new novel, I'LL TAKE WHAT SHE HAS (don't you want what she has too?), scheduled for release a few weeks after Valentine's day 2013 (Bantam Books). In the original plan, this book probably would have hit the shelves in the year 2010.

Remember that year?

My fantastic editor, however, changed publishing houses, so I got a new editor. I overhauled the book on her edits. The, the new editor left publishing altogether.

Hold on! My agent said to me. Hang in there. Publishing is going through some serious TRANSITIONS.

My third editor, my first editor's assistant at the time of the book's first draft, sent me a fourteen page editorial letter. I did cry.

And then I revised. The book, a whole different creature, was also wildly better. I asked this editor to please stay until the book was published. "Then," I said, "you can leave."

She left a few months later. So I began working with my fourth editor, who chose this awesome cover (do you like it? would you read it?).

Until, and now let's call it inevitable, my fourth editor left!

My fifth editor is a woman I already knew about, a gifted, energetic, talented young woman.

There were times--months, maybe even YEARS--of time during which I thought, I will never see this book published. The book had traveled so far from its original editor, it felt as though no one had an investment in it at all (except me, of course). I sent a copy out to one of my all time favorite novelists, Claire Cook, and she wrote this: "Samantha Wilde has a dry wit, a big heart, and a sharp eye that doesn't miss a trick. I'll Take What She Has is a smart and funny behind-the-scenes look at private school life and the grass-is-always-greener friendships of three women who, like most of us, would have fabulous lives if only they could get out of their own way!" 

I cried again. For different reasons.

You may not be experiencing the exact same challenge, but most writers have moments of hanging on by their ball-pointed pens. Being discouraged, feeling rejected (by agents, editors, other writers and readers), plagued by doubts, concerned about sales...the list could go on but I won't write it because YOU already know it...is NOT the end of the story.

HANG ON! Keep on writing. Listen to the voices of encouragement and useful criticism. We don't know the fate of our books or of our lives. What's ours to do is: keep on writing!

Let me know if you like the cover!

Samantha Wilde is a full-time mother of three. Her first novel, THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME, helped a lot of new mothers make it through their day. She blogs about being a feminist mother, teaches yoga and serves in ministry (she's an ordained non-denominational minister), has a weekly radio ministry program: You Are Loved and also, occasionally, sleeps.