Guest Post by Author William Michael Davidson

The Most Difficult Thing On My Road to Publication

There are many difficult things that come with the long wait until publication, but I suppose the uncertainty comes when you start to face rejections. You always expect some rejections (because it’s just part of the process). But when the start to come in droves, it makes you step back and wonder if what you’ve created is worthy of being in print.

Yet I have to be honest: The road to publishing The Remnant was very easy compared to other works I’ve done. I really only sent this novel out to a few publishers, and my contract with Dancing Lemur Press came very quickly. I was stunned, but when I looked closer at the publisher, what their mission was, what kind of books they published, I realized why it happened quickly. I think we were a good fit. It was like being on a blind date and walking into a room to meet that person and realizing, from the get-go, that there was chemistry. That was what it felt like.

Ironically, I wrote The Remnant while trying to publish another work of mine entitled Storm Taken. Publishing that novel has been a long, arduous journey, and if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s this: Every writer should be writing something new while trying to publish something old. If I would have focused all of my energy on publishing Storm Taken, The Remnant wouldn’t exist. At the time it was a side-project—just something to fill the time—but it has evolved into much, much more. I’ve already finished writing the first draft of the sequel and am excited about writing the third book in the trilogy.

But back to the question at hand: The hardest part of the publishing process, for me, is the angst that comes with handing over your manuscript to a publisher and wondering if it’s good enough. And then dealing with the rejections and wondering if you’ve completely deluded yourself into believing that what you have is publishable.

But maybe, in the end, it wouldn’t matter. I’ll be the first to admit that even if The Remnant never would have seen the light of day, I would have still written it. And even if nobody wants to publish the second or third book, I’ll still write and edit them.

Because the joy is in the process, right? The best part about writing—in my opinion—is sitting in front of the computer, typing away, and losing yourself in your idea. If that’s all that ever happened with The Remnant or any other novel I’ve written, at least I have that.

And that’s a lot.

Thank you to Mr. Davidson for sharing his book and sharing his thoughts on the publishing process. 
Please check out my review with giveaway post.