something means nothing until it means something
“I screwed up,” She told me.
“I should have sent a shorter letter. I said too much. I shouldn’t have said that much. That’s why she dumped me. Maybe I didn’t say the right thing? No, I definitely said too much. But what else could I have said?”
We were walking around Seattle on a dark, rainy, November night.
Some painful conversations are better had on the move in the dark.
My friend was rehashing everything that had been said, not said, might have been said trying to find some explanation for why things had gone the way they had.
We could have been talking about a failed romance.
This was worse.
My friend’s first agent had dumped her.
As aspiring newbie writers, we’re raised on a lot of bullshit myths.
One writing myth is that once you sign with an agent you’ve made it.
Nope. Sorry. Not the case.
Signing with an agent guarantees you nothing.
(Especially not having that same agent a year later.)
I often tell my clients, “Something means nothing until it means something.”
If you’re going the traditional publishing route, it’s not unusual to have several different agents over the life of your career. Especially a career of many decades.
Like many other types of relationships in our lives, sometimes things don’t work out.
No harm. No foul.
It doesn’t mean you’re never going to get another agent.
It doesn’t mean you’re not going to find another publishing path.
It doesn’t mean you’re never going to write another story.
It doesn’t mean no one’s ever going to read your book.
It doesn’t mean you’re a terrible writer.
It doesn't mean you're a terrible person.
These moments can feel like massive setbacks.
Sometimes they even feel like THE END.
Maybe it is.
And that’s okay.
The only guarantees you have are the stories in your head and the words you put on the pages.
The agent who dumped my friend?
She broke my friend's heart.
It felt like The End of her dreams.
It was The End for that novel.
But it wasn’t THE END.
It took her many years to find her stories again, but she’s come back to writing.
As of today, she’s several drafts into a fantastic new novel. Her best one yet.
And this new novel wouldn’t be what it is if she’d hadn’t had that experience with her first agent.
Keep going.
Hello!
My name is Jocelyn.
Story warrior, book lover, day dreamer, gardener, and creative. I help serious writers roll up their sleeves, get their novel ready for publishing, and reach readers. When I’m not elbow-deep in the story trenches, I’m outside world-building in my garden and battling weeds with my three criminal mastermind cats.