It has been one year since Keeping Sweets hit the Coming Soon shelf on Dreamspinner Press and I can’t believe that it has flown by already. There have been some big personal highlights in that time span; I changed careers, bought my first home, and became pregnant with my first baby. But there have been some major writing highlights in there too; my first book came out, I had a short in my first anthology, I wrote a trilogy of novels, I attended GRL in Atlanta and GRNW in Seattle, and I co-authored my first book.

I have learned a lot this year. More than I ever thought possible. I am far from knowing it all. I still feel like a total newbie, but here are some of the most important discoveries I’ve made.

1. The importance of beta readers. 
Keeping Sweets was my first story, and I was so nervous that it was going to fall flat, I didn’t even tell anyone I was writing it, let alone allow anyone to read it. And I got lucky, because Dreamspinner Press saw something in the story and accepted it despite the roughness of the submission. (The edits were a bit brutal though.) Now, I don’t send anything in without at least two people reading through it. It’s an extra set of eyes before I send off a piece of my heart for someone to judge, and it’s definitely worth it.

2. How to use social media. 
There is great debate about this one. There seems to be a fine line between the personal and the promotional. I’ve seen abuses of both. As a reader, I want to know about the goings-on in my favourite author’s life, but I don’t need to know about the side effects of their irritable bowel. It’s why the acronym TMI was invented. The other side of the coin, however, is that complete lack personal information leaves readers feeling like their newsfeed is one long infomercial. No one wants to be bombarded with thousands of posts urging them to spend their money. A certain level of promotion is needed or no one would ever know know the book exists, but everything in moderation.
Social media is about connecting with people, and truthfully, the best side effect of becoming an author has been the people I’ve met–most of them through facebook–they’ve become my extended family and even though I haven’t known them long, I can’t imagine what my life would be without them.

3. To Grow a Pair
Most writers I’ve spoken to (and I may be the leader of this group) are introverts. Painfully shy. More likely to saw off their own arm as an excuse not to have to speak publicly, or even appear publicly for that matter. GRL was a true test of my nerves. And truthfully I did hide out in my room for a significant portion of the retreat, but I am so glad I ignored the pit of terror that formed in my belly at the thought of taking the elevator down to the conference rooms. I met some absolutely amazing people and I made some incredible friends, and to think I would have missed out on that if I’d let my nerves rule my life. So as scary as it can be sometimes, suck it up and just go.

4. To Grow a Thicker Skin
When Keeping Sweets came out, I was advised not to read my reviews. Yeah right, like that was ever an option. I was checking Goodreads incessantly to see if there were new reviews. There were fantastic ones, and there were a few that wounded me. It was tough not to let the bad ones get to me. But if I had, I don’t know that I would have written Hope Cove. You’re never going to please everyone and for every person that hates your book, there is someone who is going to love it. It’s difficult not to let the negative ones get to you, and I still haven’t developed a foolproof system on that one, but shrugging off the mean readers of the world has gotten easier with time.

5. It Never Gets Any Easier (or Any Less Exciting)
When I received the letter that Dreamspinner wanted to publish Keeping Sweets, I literally jumped up and down in the parking lot of the grocery store. I was so thrilled. I was elated and relieved because submitting that story was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. And for me, it has never gotten any easier. I still feel the churning anxiety that comes with hitting the send button with each submission. I still experience the psychotic meltdown that comes about a week before release. And I still float on the amazing excitement that comes when the book shifts from Coming Soon Page to the New Release Page. Every good review or message from a reader telling me they enjoyed the story makes me eternally happy. I’m still new–I’ve only been an author for a year–but the publishing process still hasn’t lost its shine and I hope it never does.