erastes: (Default)
[personal profile] erastes

Question for all of you who have had more than one novel published, or anyone suffering from 2nd novel syndrome.

How do you do it? I've had my finger hovering over the "submit" button to my publisher all day, and haven't been able to press it.

What if they don't want it? What if they do and then the readers hate it?

ARGH!

Come on, please - how do you cope with this 2nd novel syndrome?

Oh and *mutter mutter* I'll have to write some fanfic later just to get it out of my system. Lucius deserves it.

Date: 2007-07-23 03:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] liz-dejesus.livejournal.com
Don't think about that otherwise you'll never get anything published again. Take a chance and hope for the best. Good Luck. ;)

Date: 2007-07-23 03:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cbpotts.livejournal.com
If you don't make it through the 2nd novel syndrome, you'll never get to experience the unmitigated bliss of 3rd novel syndrome. Or 4th novel syndrome. Or 5th...

Jane Yolen (who has 200+ books out there) once told me that the key is to just keep going. She's one of the people I really admire, and I think she's right on this one.

Date: 2007-07-23 03:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rwday.livejournal.com
Submit. You know that's what Lucius would say...

Date: 2007-07-23 03:39 pm (UTC)
ext_3319: Goth girl outfit (Default)
From: [identity profile] rikibeth.livejournal.com
I WILL LOVE IT. SUBMIT IT ALREADY.

I'm still glowing from your kind words about Severus/Evan, you know.

And I'm going to glom on your fanfic VERY HARD. I may even dust off an old incomplete -- it's called "Edge of Seventeen," and it's an outtake from the Blacks' House Party sequence in Immortal Beloved -- Lucius/Narcissa het, can you forgive me? He's a very Valmont-esque seducer in it, anyway.

Date: 2007-07-23 03:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] storm-grant.livejournal.com
Yes, I'm sooo experiencing 2nd novel syndrome. Before I wrote for me and my few fannish readers. Now I write for the world! It's the written-word equivalent of public speaking.

~ Stormy/Gina

Date: 2007-07-23 04:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slashpine.livejournal.com
To be honest, I don't know how an author (you) even gets the courage to submit the first time!

(All my incomplete novels are in a box under the bed, whilst I continue 20 yrs of chunking out research and technical reports I despise, for audiences I'm indifferent to, and usually with only the "corporate" name on the front. Little writer's block eh.)

DO IT FAST! AND ON WITH THE LUCIUS!!!

Date: 2007-07-23 05:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jodi-davis.livejournal.com
I call myself a big whiny baby - and then I just do it. Like Annette Benning in American Beauty.

Date: 2007-07-23 06:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mindyklasky.livejournal.com
Yep - Nike actually got this one right. Just do it.

(And keep in mind that there are several more steps in the publication cycle, so that IF you discover some huge, broken part of your novel, you'll have time to correct it.)

And then move on to Novel the Third. :-)

Date: 2007-07-23 07:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com
Aw thanks. Pathetic, aren't I.

Date: 2007-07-23 07:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com
*shudder * I can't imagine 5th ... the agony!

Thank you!

Date: 2007-07-23 07:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com
*shivers deliciously*

Date: 2007-07-23 07:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com
Don't even say the H word in my presence.

*Avada Kedavra's*

And I meant it, few fanfics remain in my memory, but Immortal did.

And aw thanks!

xxx

Date: 2007-07-23 07:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com
I know! scary isn't it?

Want to hide under this blanket with me?

Date: 2007-07-23 07:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com
Oh I wish you'd pull them out and finish them!

Lucius on way, I promise!

Date: 2007-07-23 07:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com
That's exactly how I feel, like a whiney Diva.

I'll do it tomorrow.

Then hide under the bed.

Date: 2007-07-23 07:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com
Good thought - there are bits I'm not happy with..

Thank you!

Date: 2007-07-23 07:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] msminpdx.livejournal.com
Honestly? Just do it. I hate that this phrase has been turned into a corporate advertising slogan, but it's still the best way to sum up the sentiment. Just do it.

It was harder for me to put my 2nd novel in a trunk than it would have been to send it to my publisher. I had my reasons, though, and I made the right decision.

My 3rd will be published next year, and I'm waiting for word on my 4th.

It gets a bit easier but the anxiety remains.

Date: 2007-07-23 07:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com
Excellent. I will. Tomorrow.

Thank 'ee!

Date: 2007-07-23 08:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] storm-grant.livejournal.com
I think, from all the replies, that it's going to be a very crowded blanket. ;-) And also fun!

Good luck with the submission. Standish was great and you can only have improved since then, eh?

Date: 2007-07-23 08:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] liz-dejesus.livejournal.com
Nope. Not pathetic at all. It's perfectly normal to be scared. Let me know what you decide to do. *crosses fingers* ;) You'll be fine.

Date: 2007-07-24 01:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shiawmeimei.livejournal.com
Just push the button. I do that every time I submit. And then after I push the button, I freak out and wonder why I did that.

One word of advice.... Don't look at it again until you have edits from your editor or a rejection. It's too nerve wracking to second guess your work.

Good luck, fingers crossed!
Shayla

Date: 2007-07-24 02:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tharain.livejournal.com
PUSH THE BUTTON, MAX!

Date: 2007-07-24 02:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] omnivorously.livejournal.com
'Just keep going' is almost always good advice, when it's something difficult.

Date: 2007-07-24 02:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] omnivorously.livejournal.com
Let that be a lesson ...

Date: 2007-07-24 02:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nagasvoice.livejournal.com
Goodness, it is crowded under here.
Have some champers, we'll all feel better.
Good Lord, what was that grabbed the bottle, anyway?
Was that your cats?
On second thought, don't answer that, I *know* about some of your characters!

Date: 2007-07-24 05:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lee-rowan.livejournal.com
Oh, for heaven's sake--Standish made #1 on Amazon. If one publisher doesn't want Book #2, another one will. You don't write junk.

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