Okay. So I was expecting the copy edit to come this week. I tried not to think about it. I tried to concentrate on my daily life, being in the moment. Taking my daughters to music and dance classes, doing homework, going to birthday parties. But, it was always in the back of my head. “When I get home, I may have a package from my editor.”
Finally on Thursday, I gave in to myself and emailed her. I don’t want to be a bother, don’t want to be one of “those” writers who act like their book is the only project that matters. But still.
So, when I received a prompt email back from her explaining that she had to set my manuscript aside because she was sending two other books off to the printer this week, I was extremely relieved. See, I told myself, it was not because they found a hideous error and were in a tizzy about it. It really was because one editor is just one person with many other books, in various stages of production, to attend to.
I get that.
So, in the mean time, I have querying other editors about writing articles for them. The food editor at the Washington Post was not interested in my Oyster George story. They have already done their oyster story for the year, but she suggested that I keep querying her. I did, but so far, no luck. She was not interested in a story about ramps because they don’t really grow in the Washington D.C. area, but in the mountains. (Ramps are very strong wild onions that grow in the mountains.) So, I pitched a ramp story to some magazines and have not heard back.
The question is: will I ever? Sometimes they just never write back. At all. I have to wonder about that. The food editor of the Post at least had the class to write back, several times. But many just never write back.
A friend of mine says not to bother with newspapers and magazines anymore. “You’re a book author, you should be pitching book ideas.” That is all well and good, but in the mean time, I’d like to have a steadier income. Money from books comes in spurts and you never know when you’re going to actually get it. So, magazines and newspapers help to fill that financial void.
I keep thinking and saying that this is such a weird space to be in, and it really is. It’s not in my nature to sit back and wait for this book to be published. I feel like I need to be working on something in the mean time. If not for money, then for my sanity. But it seems as if the Universe is telling me otherwise.
