This summer I promised myself a nice, long break from writing. The hard work was done, I told myself. My novel was finished. Time to kick back in a hammock somewhere, preferably on a mountaintop, and sip fruity beverages.

Nope.

Not only did I spend the entire summer working, I think I spent as much time if not more each day than when I was writing the novel.

I’m new to this whole creative writing enterprise. Theoretically I knew the next steps to get my manuscript to publication, but this summer I learned a hard truth: if you want to be a traditionally published author, you don’t get vacations. Not at first, anyway. Get that book deal first.

That’s because nowadays writers don’t just write. On top of a perfectly polished manuscript, in order to stand out above the rest of the slush pile, writers need to have:

Established readership

Social media

Website

Other publications

A genius query letter with carefully selected comps

Trust me, I’ve spent hours pouring through successful author’s websites, social media, publications, and query letters. All of them point to writers who had positioned themselves as a good investment because they already HAD these things.

I’ve learned that you aren’t just selling them your book. You’re selling them yourself. You. The whole package. They want to make sure you can hack it and also that, you know, people will actually read your book.

So here’s how I spent my summer, or as I like to call it, all the ways writers like to torture themselves in between big projects.

Beta Reading: I joined three beta reading groups. Two are in my genre and one is mixed genres. I swap 10k-15k words of my manuscript each month and in return I critically read their 10k-15k word excerpts (~five 10k+ word chunks in total). Then we have monthly calls to discuss (total of 6-8 hours of calls per month). Then I edit my manuscript and send out the next chunk.

Comps: I read at least one book per month in the hopes that I can find the perfect comps. These are ideally well-known and successful books (think: bestsellers) that you can compare your own manuscript to, so the agent/publisher knows how to market you and knows if they might be interested.

Website: I launched my website (as you are obviously aware). I maintain it at the minimum once each week with a blog post and if there is other news (oh, just wait, do I have some BIG news soon!).

Social Media: I landed on maintaining just one social media account for now, tiktok, because it is the easiest to produce. I post on there every weekday. I found that I really needed the weekend break. In addition to posting original content every day, I also set a timer for 15 minutes of engagement (e.g. following, liking, and commenting).

Short Stories: I write and submit one short story per month to online and print magazines in my genre of horror and related genres. Then I manage these submissions accordingly. Rejections and acceptances and withdrawals require your immediate attention because these are busy folks (many are volunteers).

Outlining: While all of this is going on, I am also preparing to write my next novel, eta winter 2026. I finished the first draft of the outline and I’ll revise in the coming months.

All of this is a LOT of work. So if you’re thinking of going the traditional publishing route just let that sink in. After you finish writing your novel, THIS is what’s waiting for you on the other side. Who knows, maybe you’ll strike it rich and get an immediate offer from one of the Big 5. But for the rest of us this is the reality of what it means to be a traditionally published author today.