BUCKLE UP! February 12, 2025 Leave your thoughts [ssba] [This is the second of a monthly newsletter that follows the process as two manuscripts becomes books in 2026. Join me for a behind-the-scenes look at how traditional publishing works, step, by step. To sign up, click the Newsletter tab in the menu.] ••• I talk about publishing as if it’s a journey because that’s what it feels like with every new book. And since you’re on this journey with me, there’s something I should tell you. I crash a lot. If you read last month’s newsletter, you know I have two books coming out in 2026. But when I started playing around with the ideas, I didn’t know if they would end in another crash. That’s the thing with journeys, isn’t it? We never know how they’re going to go. The biggest success stories in the world didn’t start out that way. They were people taking a leap and hoping. I remind myself of that often—that even successful people felt the fear and uncertainty before they succeeded. So…I was doing a lot of leaping. Or, to stick with the journey analogy starting a lot of trips. Rewind the calendar to 2019. That’s how long it’s been since the last time I sold a book. That novel was HOW TO QUIT YOUR CRUSH and it came out in April, 2020. Remember 2020? That was the start of COVID. Think of how much has happened in your life and in the world during that time. Five years! Even when years go fast, days can go by slowly. 1,826 days. And during all those days, I was writing. I was working on my next book. Every new idea got a brand new notebook. First purple, then orange, then red—on and on. I filled the pages with characters and plots and ideas that I imagined growing into amazing stories. They never did. A few stories made it out to editors and those submissions ended in rejection. If you asked me during those years, I might have told you it was changing markets and saturated publishers and bad timing or bad luck. But deep down I was sure it was bad writing or bad ideas. I was never going to publish again. To add to that, in 2020, my agent of 16 years parted ways with me. She had worked with me on my very first book and all the books that followed. I still have so much admiration for her and appreciate all she did for me. But I was heart-broken. And scared. I learned as much as I could about querying agents. I sent out pitches for me, for my stories, for anything anyone might want to represent. For more than a year, all of those ended in rejection, too. When you’re in the middle of failure after failure, it’s really hard to imagine the journey ever ends anywhere else. I gave myself stern lectures: “Amy, you are more than what you do. It’s enough to strive and know you did your best.” Even knowing I was right, it was hard to accept failures without feeling like a failure. I thought about quitting. I asked myself: am I giving up on myself or am I being pragmatic? Am I freeing myself for something else? Maybe you’ve asked yourself the same questions. I can’t know the right answer for you, but for me writing was still something I loved as much as I hated. I kept at it. And here’s what I can tell you: Failure doesn’t have to be an ending. It can also be a middle. Somewhere during that time, I had written a really bad picture book with one good line. I’d also started playing around with a new idea for a middle grade. My first notes included: Environmental? Climate change? Creepy seaweed? There was no way to know either of those ideas would turn into anything. Chances were good I was heading for another crash. And yet… I’m starting the journey here because I promised a behind-the-scenes look at publishing, and this is a part of it for many writers. Failure. Uncertainty. Insecurity. You don’t know what you don’t know. And the only weapon you have at your disposal? Persistence. (And a good seat belt.) So buckle up. Click here to cancel reply. Add a comment Δ