A Guest Post From Debut YA Author, Jillian Cantor

Today at Look At That Book HQ we've been honoured with a guest post by newly published author, Jillian Cantor who is the author of The September Sisters. You can find out more about Jillian and her book The September Sisters over at her blog - http://www.jilliancantor.blogspot.com/ Read on...

My “Glamorous” Life as a Newly Publisher Author

I’ve been waiting most of my life to be able to call myself a published author. Well, since I was nine, anyway, so it’s been about 21 years. And since my first book, The September Sisters, was officially released last Tuesday, I am finally able to call myself one. Exciting? Absolutely! Nerve-wracking? Yes. Glamorous? Not so much.

You see, it took me a long time to get to this place. I wrote another book before The September Sisters, that I could never get an agent for. And then even with The September Sisters – it took me a long time and a lot of rejection – 5 ½ years worth – to go from the first draft to the day of publication.

A friend of mine, whose second book just came out, told me that the publication day for your first book is a funny thing. You anticipate it, and it feels like such a momentous event, that when you wake up that morning, you expect everything will be different. Only, it’s not.

And she was right! I woke up Tuesday morning feeling exactly the same as I did the day before. I updated my Facebook status to announce that I was now officially published, and after a fleeting moment of excitement, I went downstairs to make breakfast. I should add that I was dressed in my oh-so-glamorous sweatpants, toting a box of Kleenex and two kids (All three of us had horrible colds).

I spent most of the morning wiping runny noses, and answering e-mails and phone calls from my well-wishing and awesome friends. And then, since it was a nice day outside, and I felt I had to do something, I changed out of my sweatpants and took the kids to the bakery to get celebratory cookies (my son’s idea). When my husband got home, all four of us went out to dinner, where I tried to keep my youngest son from throwing his rice instead of eating it.

After my kids went to bed, I spent my normal few hours at the computer, working on revising my next book, stressing out about whether or not it was any good or whether it would ever sell. And then I stopped and looked The September Sisters up on Amazon. It had reviews! And a sales rank! People were buying it and reading it, and I realized that everything was different, even though nothing really was. I was now a published author, and no matter what else would happen from this day forward, I would always be a published author. I felt utterly overwhelmed and amazed and proud. . .and then I went downstairs to do the dishes!

Thankyou so much for guest posting today, Jillian! The September Sisters is out now :)