{"id":83411,"date":"2025-01-30T19:43:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T00:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/?p=83411"},"modified":"2025-01-31T15:03:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T20:03:35","slug":"choosing-to-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/?p=83411","title":{"rendered":"Choosing to Begin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Photo by Jon Tyson (Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

A writer becomes an author in their own way. Each route to publication is unique, and while you can read about someone else\u2019s experience, I doubt you can duplicate it yourself. Writing is a practice\u2014something you work at repeatedly to become proficient. The arts are a prominent theme in my books and writing, like music, visual and performing arts, to do it well you have to practice. You write, edit, and rewrite to hone your craft and simultaneously work on growing courage and conviction\u2014dispelling the internal and external voices that tell you that you can\u2019t and embracing those that say you can. You’ll also need the wisdom and grace of friends, family, and other writers who are willing to share their wisdom and experience so that you grow through it as you go through it.<\/p>\n

Until my debut novel, PROVENANCE, I had never written fiction. I entered the publishing world naked and afraid\u2014with no massive social media platform, celebrity status, or inside access to the publishing world. I also had additional hurdles\u2014I am a woman of color writing about a nuanced black experience (passing) and, I\u2019m over fifty.<\/p>\n

Undeterred,\u00a0 I went to writing conferences to meet agents and queried incessantly, hoping to beat the odds. Agents in their 20s and 30s looking for the next young literary breakout talent found it hard to relate to me and my manuscript. Though the odds were against me, I believed in my hard-earned skill, and if I am anything, I am determined.<\/em><\/p>\n

After a couple of years of \u201cI don\u2019t understand how to find an audience for your book,\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t think I am the right agent for a book like this,\u201d<\/em> or no response at all, it became clear that landing an agent and a traditional publishing deal was highly unlikely for this first-time author with no platform. I may have been beaten, but I certainly wasn\u2019t broken.<\/p>\n

I wrote PROVENANCE for avid readers like me\u2014anyone who had grown tired of reading fiction about the African American experience that focused only on our history of being enslaved. I craved stories that celebrated what it means to be a person of color – to determine our own destiny and to achieve great things. \u00a0I knew I had written a good book, and I knew there was an audience for it.<\/p>\n

Not being able to land an agent\u00a0<\/span>could<\/em> have ended my quest to be a published author, but, as I said before, if I am anything, I am determined.<\/span>\u00a0I figured out how to self-publish and promote my debut novel. I worked like hell to reach an audience that I knew was there. \u00a0<\/p>\n

PROVENANCE<\/em>\u00a0took this author on an exhilarating adventure. I am grateful to the readers who helped it reach #1 in African American Fiction on Amazon, to the juries who awarded it prizes for debut and historical fiction, to the book clubs, book fairs, and libraries who invited me and my book to in-person and virtual appearances around the country. \u00a0It was a heady adventure\u2014risky and remarkable.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to 2025, my next manuscript, PROMISE<\/em>, is complete, and I am embarking on a new adventure. It is time to begin again. Putting fears of the dreaded sophomore slump aside, I am querying agents hoping that the literary world will offer this author an opportunity to share a story that challenges our assumptions about race, class, and identity while celebrating the enduring bonds of family.\u00a0So, aware of the challenges and the rewards and armed with my hard-earned skills and my hard-headed determination\u2014I am choosing to begin again!<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A writer becomes an author in their own way. Each route to publication is unique, and while you can read about someone else\u2019s experience, I doubt you can duplicate it yourself. Writing is a practice\u2014something you work at repeatedly to become proficient. The arts are a prominent theme in my books and writing, like music, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-publishing","category-second-act-authors"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83411"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83480,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83411\/revisions\/83480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}