I am still in France but I am no longer in Paris. We are now in The Antibes. It is MAGICAL here. The house has everything so I really have NO DESIRE to leave the property… like at all. There is sea, and food, and a bed… I’m good.
That’s not what todays blog is about though. Ohhhh Nooooooo nooooo noooooo. Today I am writing about… WRITING!!!! Yes you read that correctly. I am going to document my adventures in writing. Are you ready for this?? Heeeeeeere weeeeee goooooooooo!
So about 4 years ago I came up with a character and a story. I researched and researched how to submit to agents and publishers. I researched query letters, was able to ask a few people “How the hell do I navigate this??” Joined a few writing groups on FB. Joined the children’s book society because they have workshops. ALL OF THAT. The thing about the workshops… Is that you have to actually have the time to ATTEND the workshops. My work schedule is INSANE. I emailed people left and right and got honest feed back and a lot of that honest feedback hurt. No for real THAT SHIT HURT!!! I had to take it, store it, make the changes, and keep it moving. For 4 years I have submitted multiple manuscripts to publishers and agents. I sent my work via email, hard copies, osmosis, telepathically, you name it and I was sending to EVERYBODY!!!! Sometimes I would get a response back and sometimes no response at all. I have saved EVERY letter sent and every response received. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.
The thing that sucks about all of those responses… Is that they were all turn down letters. Every single one politely said “Thanks but no thanks” “Its a no for me Dawg” “Mmmm maybe someone else will like it.” “I didn’t vibe with it” “No.” “No” No” “No” There are more ways to say “Hell no” But I haven’t gotten those yet. It’s never too late though!! I just KNEW that I was going to get my big awesome book deal that would eventually keep getting extended because my writing is just that good and that I would then get a call from a network that they want to turn my AMAZING books into an animated series.
WELP!!!! Let’s fast forward. Last week I received ANOTHER turn down letter and literally just wanted to toss my whole damn laptop from the window. Burn every spiral notebook, journal, stationary… ALL OF IT!!! KABOOM!!! My dad told me a while back that I should self publish, my old boss told me to self publish, random strangers said to self publish, good friends said to self publish, even my boyfriend said to self publish. But me being HARD HEADED, I just knew that traditional was the way to go. Well that last turn down letter really pissed me off and the entire traditional route can KICK ROCKS with their shoes off right now. That is unless I get something saying “YES WE WANT YOU” and in that case just keep your shoes off and dig your toes into the sand and enjoy.
Today is Day 1 of learning about self publishing. I have been on a few sites reading “what to do and what not to do” of self publishing children’s books. I think my eyes started to cross after the 5th website. All of this to say: I am still researching. Then on top of that I have to now find an illustrator and not just any illustrator but THHHEEEEEEEEE illustrator. There are a bazillion artists out there but I want to actually connect with the artists style. On top of all of that I have to also factor in “What bill are we going to be able to skip on to pay the illustrator”. HA!!! My head hurts and its only day 1!!! I am going to continue to document this process as I go along because writing is how I make it through any and all situations.
So buckle up buttercup is going to be a bumpy ride.
singleinbrooklynblog 
Well I’m here for it. I simply adore your style of writing Khrys. On my days when I feel totally bummed out I’ve ran across some of your adventures and you literally took my mind on a trip where all the visuals played major parts in my so call recovery on that day. Congratulations on the beginning of your self publishing adventure!
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