Good Joo Joo

I have officially been a published author for one week and I’m noticing a surprising trend. People suddenly think I’m an expert at something other than embarrassing my kids by posting a video of me dancing on YouTube. (Thank you millions of YouTube viewers who had sense enough NOT to watch it, and as for the 13 who did watch it… shame on you, you know who you are.)

   My point is, people are now asking me for advice on how to do the following:

1.     Write a book
2.     Get an agent
3.     Publish a book
4.     Keep the dream alive

I have a simple answer for questions 1 through 3: HECK IF I KNOW?

I feel completely unqualified to give expert advice on how to maneuver through the  labyrinth of the publishing world, because I never maneuvered. I muddled. I puzzled, pondered and Googled my way. There was never a single point in time where I felt like I knew what I was doing. In fact, I’m pretty confident that I did a lot of things wrong.

When I sent my first query letter to a literary agent, I was trembling and thought I was going to be sick. I felt completely vulnerable. Curiously, this was a very well-known and highly respected agent, who shall remain nameless because, out of all the query letters I sent, she is the only one who never responded, even with an auto-reply of “go away and leave me alone.”

It actually doesn’t bother me, because remember that when I hit the send button, I was so panicked I thought I was going to spew. That’s some pretty bad joo joo to release into the cyberworld, especially when it’s directed at an innocent literary agent’s inbox.

But that’s beside the point. The only question I feel like I can answer is number 4:  how do you keep your dream alive? Here’s my answer:

The only way to keep your dream alive is to KEEP DREAMING.

Don’t let your foolishness and faux pas stop you. When you make a mistake, laugh at yourself, Learn from everything you do. Pay attention to details. Ask for advice and help, but don’t ever expect anyone to believe in you more than you believe in yourself. Dream big and dream every day.

I dream big, but I will never aspire to be a hoity-toity, rich and famous author. My biggest dream as a writer is to make people smile and laugh.

Yep. That’s my big dream.

I think that’s pretty good joo joo.

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Please visit my website at http://annkhowley.com/#about-ann