Trust Me, You Will Be Published

After seven years of writing consistently, and that means every day even if it was for only 15 minutes, I wondered if I'd ever be published. All of it just seemed so difficult; the learning, the practicing, the editing, the rejections...

In my eighth year of writing I made my first sale. The sale was to The Ensign, an LDS magazine, and my short article was printed in the Random Sampler section; the place where readers share their experiences.

I was thrilled.

After that I continued to sell, but not as frequently as I would have liked. I'd sell an article one month, go two, and sell another. But mostly (dare I say it?) I was learning, and with the learning came many and varied opportunities to improve my work.

I received much criticism in the beginning, and much of it I didn't take in. But as the years went by, I got better at receiving criticism and my writing improved.

I published a book before I entered college in my 40s. I'd published with the local papers, written some articles for local magazines, had won some contests, but hadn't yet published a book.

But then it happened. A local publishing house accepted my book, "A River of Stones."

I was elated!

I was published.

But my story doesn't end there. I think it takes some grit to publish with a local publisher and then learn, through the years following, that what works for you personally is to go another route.

It wasn't easy for me to leave my publisher, because when I did I really wasn't sure what I was going to do. Would I find another publisher or publish on my own?

Honestly, I never wanted to be a self-published author. I thought the self-published crowd just didn't know how to write and so they had to publish their own works.

I was wrong.

As in all learning, I discovered that being published for me meant I no longer had to wait and see if a traditional publisher thought my book would sell because it was the right topic, the right length, the right voice....I could publish it myself.

Yes, you will be published if you continue to pursue your dream. Whether you decide on the traditional or self-published route, if you continue to work at what you love, you will be published. 


Photo by Melody Campbell, courtesy of Flickr

There's just no getting around it.