Normally, I’d be doing some sort of Project Update post, giving a status of where I’m at with my various writing projects, right around this time. This post might contain a little of that, but really, it’s more for myself.

A reminder.

See, the family is set to move in the next few weeks. Early July, to be precise. Unless something goes drastically wrong with the home we’ve picked out between now and that time, this is what’s happening. We’re looking to get closer to April’s family for the next several years, as well as increase our square footage for an incoming Baby D (don’t ask, she’s not pregnant yet), so the move made sense.

As such, time at the notebooks or computer might be…limited.

And when I don’t write, I get into a bad headspace. See, even though I’m a stay-at-home dad and doing everything I can to try and make things as magical as possible (even succeeding sometimes), my mental security is still tied to this act. The Work. The only way I feel like I’ve accomplished something real is if I’ve written something, anything, for the day. I know that doesn’t sound healthy, and I recognize when the boys go to bed happy with 15 bedtime stories that I’ve also done a good job, but call this a bug in my system.

I know this. It’s my own demon to battle.

In another way, this is also for people who may not understand what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to become a published author. I want to write books for kids of the elementary level, falling within the age range of 8-12 years old, and I want to do this for the rest of my life.

How do I do this? Let’s discuss.

Step 1: Write a book.

This is both the easiest and the hardest part of the entire journey. You write a book. Not hard. Pick a topic, a character, a story, you want to tell, then write. There’s lots of books about how to do it out there.

My two favorites are:

ON WRITING by Stephen King (B&N)

REFUSE TO BE DONE by Matt Bell (B&N)

Read those, write the thing, and step 1 is done.

Step 2: Find a literary agent.

Now. This step.

I want to be what’s normally called a “traditionally published” author. Meaning, I want to have an agent whom I work alongside to help negotiate payments, publishing deals, film rights, overseas rights, audio rights, etc., and to whom helps me along the way to be the best author I can be.

In this day and age, anyone anywhere at anytime can put up their work online to read. That’s great! That, however, requires a certain set of skills I am not in promotion of. You ask me to talk about my writing work for more then ten seconds and suddenly I need a new shirt and a shower and it’s not even because I live in Phoenix. Self-promotion is a big part of independent and self-publishing, and I don’t have the skills for it.

So, find an agent.

There’s a lot of resources. I use manuscriptwishlist.com or QueryTracker.net to find agents who feel like they would be a good fit for my book. This involves WAY MORE reading than you’d expect. See, they put up what kind of material they like, in a certain genre they like, to be written in a certain way they like. And you have to read, and read, and read, to make sure the book you wrote all the way back in Step 1 matches their requirements.

It’s a lot of checking, double-checking, and triple-checking, to make sure not only is the agent open to a solicited query, but to make sure all of their descriptors can be applied to your book. Have they worked with authors who have written books similar to yours? Have they shown a proven track record of working hard to help their authors shine? A lot of unanswered questions you need to answer before you move on to Step 3, which is…

Step 3: Pitch your book!

You know the little blurb that’s on the back of paperbacks? Or the inside front cover of hardcovers? The thing you read when you pick it up in a bookstore or an airport that makes you go, ‘Ooh, this would be fun.’ That?

You write that.

200-300 words, but try to keep it on the lower side, with a hook, a premise, a character they’ll care about, and that’s it. That’s your pitch.

It. Is. So. Hard.

Because that pitch, combined with a little about yourself (Bio) and the first 5-10 pages (sometimes more, but that’s rare), is all an agent will see. They receive HUNDREDS of queries a month. You need to make sure your pitch stands out, is concise, but enticing enough to where they’ll ask you for more. (The whole ‘asking for more’ thing is what’s called a full-manuscript request, which is when they liked your work enough to look at the ENTIRE BOOK [which is where I currently am with one particular agent as of writing].)

Or maybe they want to sign you on the spot after reading the brilliance you sent them.

Either way, once that happens, you get to Step 4, which is…

Step 4: Sign with the agent.

If they like you, and you like them, then you sign to work together to polish up your book and make is as amazing as possible to THEN pitch it to a publishing house. A HarperCollins or a Simon & Schuster, if you will, to then go to publication. Once the signing happens, you move on to step 5 which is…

Step 5: I DON’T KNOW

No agent has signed me yet…so maybe Step 4 should have been “I Don’t Know”…

This is, obviously, a bummer way to end this post, but it’s true. I am unsigned as of writing. It’s okay. It’s not the end of the world. I’m one fish in a sea of fish trying to attract the attention of some fishermen who literally can’t decide where to put their hooks down because all of the fish are screaming at them, “Pick me! Pick me! I’ll make you the happiest filet you could possibly imagine!”

It sounds dreadful, believe me, I know. You see other writers, in your exact same position a day before, suddenly share online that ,”OMG, fam, I have wonderful news to share! I got signed by Agent Agentson at the Super Cool Trends Literary Agency! Hooray!”

But before you make that tweet, you pitch. You write. You keep writing, even when you’re pitching, because there might be a cruel reality where the book you worked so hard to write DOESN’T EVER GET YOU SIGNED so you have to make sure you go the next book ready. And then the next one. You don’t ever stop because stopping means the dream is dead.

And it’s wonderful.

I may not get to write much over these next three to four weeks, but I’m going to keep trying. I finished up Project NESS a little under a month ago, finished the pitch last week, and it’s all ready to start going out to agents.

Project GREY, my middle-grade science fiction book, hasn’t been sent out in a while. It’s still with some agents and the one full request, so I’m hoping for good things, but, man, you see enough ‘NO THANK YOUS’ and you start to doubt everything.

Don’t.

Just keep writing the next thing.

Thanks for reading,

Follow me:

Twitter: @robacosta

Instagram: @robacosta

Contact: robertmichaelacosta@gmail.com