“Patience is virtue.”
“Time mends all things.”
Yes, yes.
But John Dryden warned in 1680,
“Beware the fury of a patient man.”
Because even the stretchiest elastic
will break when stretched too far.
Still
St. Augustine advised,
“Patience is the companion of wisdom. ”
So, I am fighting
to be wise.
What I’ve learned about the publishing industry:
It’s slow.
Everything about it moves like a comatose tortoise. True, like the tortoise, sure and steady gets there eventually, but it can be ridiculously frustrating watching from the sidelines.
If an agent or publisher says they’ll get back to you in a week, s/he means a month. If they say it’ll be a month, expect to hear around four months later. Four seems to be the number to multiply by.
Ironically, I was also told that from completion of novel to publication the average book takes 4.5 years. Coincidence?
Is patience a virtue?
Perhaps. Electronic publishing speeds up many aspects of the process, but the most important one, the editing and proof-reading will still take just as long as ever.
I’m counting the days until Grace Awakening Power gets back from the editor, I can make the required changes, and it can be released by Lintusen to the world! I was expecting it initially in November, four months after it went to the editor. If my multiplication scenario holds, I will see it in 16 months, or perhaps 4 months after November, which puts arrival in March.
Patience.
The watch-word for the author waiting for a book.
It’s a slow process.
Shawn L. Bird 