Monday, December 31, 2007

2007 -- not the best of years, and not the worst

I think the thing I feel the most accomplished about this year was the work I did on my book. I hired a writing coach last January who read the book chapter by chapter. We either met in person or by phone to discuss her notes and then I incorporated them. My goal was to get finished by the end of August so I could submit the completed and reworked draft with my application to the UCLA extension memoir master’s program, and even though I wasn’t admitted I was encouraged by the instructor to begin submitting the book to agents.
Rather than do that right away, I asked my coach to reread the book front to back. That process has just been completed. In the next week or so, I’ll make some necessary changes and get the book ready for other submissions: to a publishing house specializing in women’s literature that is having open submissions during the month of January, and to several agents. I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and take my chances. Otherwise, I’ll never know. It will be a good way to get feedback. I could back track and get someone else to read it with a critical eye, but I don’t think I want to do that just yet. If I don’t get any encouraging responses from the January submissions then I’ll see about another read through.

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