It’s not uncommon for writers to feel like imposters. But they should realize that completing a book and getting it published is a huge accomplishment.
The first time you see your name on the cover of a book, everything changes. You’ve gone from someone who wanted to be a published writer to someone who has been published. Your name is in databases and catalogs, and there’s a title attached to it, and this may represent years of toil and frustration.
You enter the liminal space between the satisfaction of having completed a book and getting it published, and the expectations you have about how people will receive your work. You’ve gone from the privacy of your workspace – your desk, your kitchen table, or your shed – to the public exposure of a writer. But you may feel like an imposter.
Working alone
Writers work alone and rarely get much feedback about their work. While many writers have supportive spouses or partners and know other writers in their situation, constructive criticism is hard to obtain. You may want to find beta readers when you’ve finished your draft, but during the writing process, you’re generally on your own. What seems good one day looks like garbage the next, as your mood can dictate how you see your work.
When you’re writing your first book, especially if it’s fiction, you’re most likely working at your day job. And unless you’ve hit it very big with your first book, you’ll be working at your day job for a while. Many authors write their book for a couple of hours every morning, as Anthony Trollope did before going to his job in a post office, and have to switch their mindset between writing periods and work periods.
Rejection is the norm
The publishing process involves a long train of rejections. It starts when an author tries to find an agent to represent them. The industry works in such a way that agents are not expected to give any feedback on submissions, not even an email saying that they’re not interested. Authors send their cover letter, synopsis, and first chapters of their book out into the void and often get no acknowledgement. When an author does find an agent to represent them, it can seem more like a lucky break than anything else, as they are aware that there are plenty of authors better than they are who also deserve a shot.
This isn’t the case for all authors, and it is more common for novelists. Journalists who write in a specific field may find it easier to leverage their experience into a book proposal and get both an agent and a publisher fairly quickly. But first-time novelists constantly encounter hurdles.
The next step involves editing. In many cases, an agent will do light or extensive editing of their manuscript, and this can make the author feel like they’re not good enough. When the agent feels that the manuscript is ready to try to sell, they send it out to editors they know, in the hope that one may be interested. Agents don’t always tell their authors how many manuscripts they’ve sent out. But as time passes, if a publisher hasn’t picked up the book, agents will inform the author. This is another opportunity to feel like an imposter.
And then comes that phone call, email, or text message from the agent saying, “We’ve sold your book.” The author has a mix of elation and anxiety as the next stage begins.
Out in the world
When your agent has sold your manuscript, you still have a long way to go before it’s published. In general, it takes at least a year for editing, book design, and production, and publishers choose the appropriate time of year for each book. So you may be fretting about the future, though hopefully starting to work on your next book, while you navigate the many steps of this process.
A few months before publication, you may have a book cover, and you can start telling the world about your book. It’s up to authors to market their books, unless the publisher has spent a lot of money on an advance, and many authors are unprepared for this, and unskilled in self-marketing.
Then it’s there; the book is out. Will it sell? Am I good enough? Can I hold my own in interviews, on panels, and on podcasts? For those who create in a solitary environment, being suddenly thrust into the public eye, with little preparation, can be jarring. This is a prime period of self-examination, of wondering whether this book really is good, in spite of what the reviews say.
Because there are always negative reviews, on Amazon and Goodreads and on social media, which can reinforce an author’s insecurities. There’s a fine line between understanding that a book didn’t please a specific reader and it not being good enough. Writing is subjective, and, regardless of how many copies a book sells, it’s easy to think that some of those reviewers were right, and that the book really isn’t very good.
No matter what others say, no matter how much your book sells and what reviewers think, remember that you have accomplished something big. You went from a germ of an idea to a published book, you toiled over your manuscript for months or years, and you defied the odds and got an agent and a publisher. Your book is out in the world. You are not an imposter.