Hello, friends!
The deadline for Season 11 is upon us! I have been thinking a lot about what it was like for me submitting all three of my manuscripts to Swoon Reads. Decidedly, it was nerve wrecking every time.
I know I have said several times that I submitted MMIOS with very little hope that it would be chosen, but the nervousness of submitting was still there, front and center. From the first submission to the third, I went through the same emotions.
So, I have put together a (super long) but relatively comprehensive list of what I went through when I was finally ready to submit. I feel like it's pretty safe to say that most of us (in one way or another) felt like I did.
If you are still contemplating whether or not to submit, maybe my list will help urge you to send your writing into the world!
Take it from me, you never truly know what the universe will give back to you!
Read your manuscript until it feels like gibberish.
Spend a minimum of 45 mins simply formatting your manuscript to the Swoon Reads specs (i.e. page breaks, title format for chapters, .docx files, etc).
Freak out about designing a cover.
Scour the site to see what other people did for covers.
Admit that there is no way you can design a cover as awesome as anything Katie Kaleski designed.
Search the internet for free images.
Consider paying $1 for an image because you found the perfect image and it just has to be that image.
Find another image because, $1? No way.
Create a dozen versions of the same cover until you hate all of them.
Choose the one you hate the least.
Http://www.swoonreads.com/submit-a-manuscript/start/
Type in your title.
Question your title.
Delete your title.
Re-enter your title.
Upload your manuscript.
*Sweat*
Pick your genre.
Question your genre choice.
Google genres.
Pick different genre.
Subgenre?
Question whether you NEED a subgenre.
Google subgenre.
Choose a subgenre.
Wait, short description? What?
100 words? That's super easy. You can handle that.
Except it's 100 characters, not words... What the--
Write short description 1 millions times.
Chose the one you hate the least.
Wait, long description? Gahhhh.
Okay, 850 characters is do-able. You did 100 so 850 will be a breeze.
1,356 characters later...
*Sigh*
Edit the hell out of the long description.
849 character's. Score!
Hover the cursor over the Next button before moving forward.
Time to commit to your cover art.
Consider using the default cover Swoon Reads provides.
Open second browser to see how many people did that.
Too many people do that.
Upload your cover.
Pray it fits the specs.
Smile because it looks better in the tiny box than you thought it would.
Hesitate before going to the third step.
Review.
Regret.
Fret.
Mutter something about “now or never” and “might as well” and “here goes nothing”.
Submit the whole shebang.
*Breathe*
Refresh browser 1 million times to see if anyone added your book in the 45 seconds since you uploaded it.
Re-read your short description.
Re-read your long description.
Add your book to your own reads.
Open your book and flip through it so it registers as read.
Vote all the hearts on the swoon index.
Wait.
Check your profile.
Change your profile picture.
Change it back.
Tweet the link to your book.
Screenshot the cover for Instagram.
Use the same screenshot for Twitter.
Check the website for any adds in the last 5 minutes.
Text your friends to tell them it's posted.
Question why it's taking them so long to log-in and add your book.
Apologize when one of them says they are at a funeral.
Promise yourself you won't check every two minutes
Break promise for an entire month.
<3 Mel