Forget the Sugarplums...

These days I ain't got sugarplums dancin' in my head. No, I'm daydreaming about a publishing contract.

Of course, I'm not quite there yet. My manuscript will be finished in the next two weeks (there's just a few places I need to rethread a tiny storyline and a little flashback I need to put in place), and then I'm sending it to my favorite editor-for-hire, Margo Dill, who's agreed to take a second stab at it. (What a glutton for punishment she is.)

Recently I had the pleasure of sitting next to Pat Wahler at an author event. Pat has three books out right now. (Children, can you say "overachiever"?) I had just finished reading her I am Mrs. Jesse James and picked her brain.

Pat makes the path to publishing look like a walk in the park on a flat, tree-lined trail. She's that talented and that much of a professional. However, if I'm really really lucky, I might be faced with choices in the next year or two. Will I bust my butt to get a traditional publishing deal? Or, will I form my own imprint?

I picked a bit more meat off Pat's brain, and these are some of the tidbits she offered up:

• With traditional publishing, the publisher puts out the money for editing, the cover design and layout, the ISBN number, printing and so on.

• When a writer forms their own imprint, the author needs to pay for an editor/proofreader, an artist to design the cover, and someone to do the interior design and layout. Of course, this also means the author has the final say when it comes to decisions. The title. The look of the cover. The printer.

• By taking either path--traditional publisher or creating an imprint--a writer becomes rich  internationally famous exhausted, because the author has to do the marketing. Pat's set up book signings and written press releases. She's created book marks, business cards and advertisements. Multiply that times three (since she has three brand-new books out) and what do you have? You have a writer who's working on their next book, because according to Pat, the best way to sell a book is to publish a new one.

Pat left me with some final words that made publishing fairies dance in my head. She said that when a writer's book is finally published, "Savor the moment--worth all the time, trouble and money it took to get there--when you can officially say, 'It's true. I'm officially an author.'"

I look forward to that moment...

Sioux is a middle school teacher, a dog rescuer, a wife, mother and grammy... along with being a frustrated writer. She's in awe of her writer friends--some write poetic prose, some write historical fiction that's so authentic, it doesn't seem like fiction--and hopes to someday join them with her own book.