Tayari's Blog: Letter To A Young Writer

Dear J,
First off, let me take a moment to congratulate you on finishing your manuscript. Sit with that accomplishment for a while. No matter what happens next with agents and publishers-- YOU HAVE WRITTEN A BOOK. You set out to chase this long-shot and you did it. Take a minute. Brew up some tea. Invite your closest, most empathetic friends over and celebrate that for a while.

Now, on to the part about publishing, etc. When I was about 24, I wrote a novel called "Evangeline." Short version is that I never published it. I did query agents and I sent it to a publisher. I didn't get anywhere with it, but I learned a lot about the process. I am not saying that you won't get anywhere with yours--- I am just saying that whatever happens with your manuscript is part of becoming a professional writer.

(I should also say that I am so glad I didn't publish "Evangeline." I loved it so much when I wrote it. And I worked harder on it than I have worked on anything in my whole life. But, it was a pretty young book.)

I was very fortunate in that I did not become obsessed with "Evangeline." I have known a lot of writers who have sort of gotten stalled in the careers because they dedicated themselves to publishing their first manuscript and were unable to focus on new work. Whatever happens to you, you can never lose sight of the next page, the next thing. Really. Here is a scary story: a writer I know spend nine years finding a publisher for his first book. Finally, it was published. So he is finally making his debut--eleven years after finishing the book. Yes, he is now a published author, but what has he got to show for the eleven years? What new work?

I think that what I really want to tell you is to query agents, keep the faith, but above all, KEEP WRITING. The writing is the only thing that you can control and it is the only thing that will help you get better and it is what you will need to sustain you over the course of your career.

Best of luck to you, J. Keep me posted.