Nate Ragolia's Blog: Nate's Notes - Posts Tagged "writers"
I finally got published! Now what?
Or, attaining a goal, indie publishing, and the marathon lives of creatives.
I don’t remember exactly when I knew I wanted to be a writer. It was sometime during elementary school. I have evidence of this in the form of an old report card (the kind graded with checks and pluses) on which my teacher noted that “Nathan wants there to be a weekly writing workshop time.� During that time, I filled notebook after notebook with yarns and adventures written in cursive pencil.
In college, I majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. I did this because it was the only job that I really wanted. I would be a writer. I knew it. I knew the odds were long and absurd. I knew that, even in 2004, how and what we read was changing. Still, I just knew, and unlike many of my peers, I kept writing long after the campus disappeared in my rearview. I kept writing through the rejections and the dreadful silences of emailed pitches that went unanswered. I gave up for windows of time here and there, but I always came back to writing because I am a writer. All the while, I dreamt of writing a book. Seeing my name on a cover. Having someone, somewhere, read my work, discuss it, love it or hate it.
Then, in the fall of 2013, I actually heard back. There are few feelings better than receiving an email reply that combines both acceptance and validation. My soon-to-be editor at my soon-to-be publisher, Black Hill Press, wanted me to know that she liked my work and wanted a book. I was overjoyed. And I wrote and wrote, until I had something for her. Over the following year, we edited and edited, expanding and contracting the words until they were as tight as they could be. I spent that time counting down. First to the contract. Then to each manuscript review. And finally, to the publication date.
On January 6, 2015, my life’s dream came true. I had written a book, which now existed in physical form, with a brilliant cover, and all my words inside. I had done it. I could finally exhale. I could finally embrace my success. I was a writer.
And I did embrace success� until January 7th.
Almost immediately, I had to switch gears, from writer to marketer, salesman, brand manager, etc. I discovered that while this amazing indie press had given me the opportunity to achieve my goals, they weren’t equipped to make me a best-seller. What I thought had been the marathon, my life writing until I was published, turned out to have been nothing more than the opening few miles.
Creatives live marathon lives. We create, bask, take criticism, recreate, bask� repeat. That’s how we work. That process doesn’t begin and end with an individual piece of art, either. We fine tune every aspect of how we present our art, just as actively as we create it. We have to, and that can be disheartening to realize, but it’s also exactly why we have a distinct advantage.
My skills in combining sentences to paragraphs, paragraphs to pages, pages to chapters, translates into combining Tweets into blog posts, blog posts into essays, and essays back into Tweets. In other words, if somehow I wasn’t a creative person, I couldn’t talk about my book, advocate for it, and push it. And if I couldn’t do those things, I don’t think I could have ever written the book at all.
There You Feel Free is a story that took my focus and passion to write, and getting it out into the world will take that same drive. Being on board with an indie publisher means being on board with the new marketplace that technology has given us. We all have a pulpit, so we strive to enlist an audience. That means that my life’s goal has had to change. I’m not simply a writer. I’m also a PR agent, a marketer, and an advocate for my own work. My book isn’t an ending. It’s just another beginning in a string of beginnings that make up my 21st Century writing career. The challenge attached is a beautiful one.
Twenty-something years after demanding 3rd grade writing workshops, my path is mostly unchanged. Write the stories. Share the stories. Start again. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
There You Feel Free
I don’t remember exactly when I knew I wanted to be a writer. It was sometime during elementary school. I have evidence of this in the form of an old report card (the kind graded with checks and pluses) on which my teacher noted that “Nathan wants there to be a weekly writing workshop time.� During that time, I filled notebook after notebook with yarns and adventures written in cursive pencil.
In college, I majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. I did this because it was the only job that I really wanted. I would be a writer. I knew it. I knew the odds were long and absurd. I knew that, even in 2004, how and what we read was changing. Still, I just knew, and unlike many of my peers, I kept writing long after the campus disappeared in my rearview. I kept writing through the rejections and the dreadful silences of emailed pitches that went unanswered. I gave up for windows of time here and there, but I always came back to writing because I am a writer. All the while, I dreamt of writing a book. Seeing my name on a cover. Having someone, somewhere, read my work, discuss it, love it or hate it.
Then, in the fall of 2013, I actually heard back. There are few feelings better than receiving an email reply that combines both acceptance and validation. My soon-to-be editor at my soon-to-be publisher, Black Hill Press, wanted me to know that she liked my work and wanted a book. I was overjoyed. And I wrote and wrote, until I had something for her. Over the following year, we edited and edited, expanding and contracting the words until they were as tight as they could be. I spent that time counting down. First to the contract. Then to each manuscript review. And finally, to the publication date.
On January 6, 2015, my life’s dream came true. I had written a book, which now existed in physical form, with a brilliant cover, and all my words inside. I had done it. I could finally exhale. I could finally embrace my success. I was a writer.
And I did embrace success� until January 7th.
Almost immediately, I had to switch gears, from writer to marketer, salesman, brand manager, etc. I discovered that while this amazing indie press had given me the opportunity to achieve my goals, they weren’t equipped to make me a best-seller. What I thought had been the marathon, my life writing until I was published, turned out to have been nothing more than the opening few miles.
Creatives live marathon lives. We create, bask, take criticism, recreate, bask� repeat. That’s how we work. That process doesn’t begin and end with an individual piece of art, either. We fine tune every aspect of how we present our art, just as actively as we create it. We have to, and that can be disheartening to realize, but it’s also exactly why we have a distinct advantage.
My skills in combining sentences to paragraphs, paragraphs to pages, pages to chapters, translates into combining Tweets into blog posts, blog posts into essays, and essays back into Tweets. In other words, if somehow I wasn’t a creative person, I couldn’t talk about my book, advocate for it, and push it. And if I couldn’t do those things, I don’t think I could have ever written the book at all.
There You Feel Free is a story that took my focus and passion to write, and getting it out into the world will take that same drive. Being on board with an indie publisher means being on board with the new marketplace that technology has given us. We all have a pulpit, so we strive to enlist an audience. That means that my life’s goal has had to change. I’m not simply a writer. I’m also a PR agent, a marketer, and an advocate for my own work. My book isn’t an ending. It’s just another beginning in a string of beginnings that make up my 21st Century writing career. The challenge attached is a beautiful one.
Twenty-something years after demanding 3rd grade writing workshops, my path is mostly unchanged. Write the stories. Share the stories. Start again. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
There You Feel Free
Nate's Notes
My name is Nate Ragolia and I'm a writer. In this blog I will talk about writing, books, music, and probably dogs.
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