How I Went the Distance with My Book
Gratitude to New Hampshire artist Patricia Haendler for the beautiful and evocative drawing she created as the cover art for my novel the The Taking. -Dona Masi
8/26/24
I’m Dona Masi. I’m a writer, editor, and the author of the new novel The Taking. I spent a long time writing The Taking and pitching it for publication before I finally landed a publisher. My book will be published soon. It’s available to preorder now, prior to its publish release this December.
I’m so grateful for the opportunity I have of publishing The Taking. I think I’m very lucky, and I also worked hard to make it happen. We should give ourselves credit for accomplishing worthwhile things that are hard to do. I was very determined, and I wouldn’t have succeeded if I hadn’t put so much effort into it. I also suspect that sometimes I had serendipity and divine intervention on my side. I often had the feeling that I was being nudged along and led gradually and meanderingly in the right direction.
I admit there were times when I thought The Taking would never be published. Eventually, I started to wonder how I’d feel if it never was. I was right to think I’d be bitterly disappointed, because that’s the natural reaction that anyone would expect to have. But I also saw a bright side, when I thought of all the ways that I’d benefited just because I’d made the effort. They were good things, like personal and professional growth, and I would’ve missed out on them if I hadn’t tried.
It kind of amuses me that I could make lemonade out of lemons without feeling sad. But it was clear I felt more confident from the journey. I also felt a sense of accomplishment for what I’d done to get as far as I had.
To make my dream of publishing happen, I needed to learn many new things. Between everything I had to do, it was one of the biggest challenges of my life. The rewards were greater confidence in myself and greater knowledge about publishing and the book world, which added to my education and skills.
While I waited to see what would happen with my book, I tried not to dwell on outcomes but to keep moving forward instead. It was healthier to keep my emotions under control and try to stay peaceful and grounded, to avoid worry, self-doubt, and confusion.
I used the time to start writing a new novel, and I formed a writing group with three friends of mine who are writers. When I thought about The Taking, I told myself that if I didn’t get an agent or a publisher for it, then I’d do that for my next book. Sometimes, I’d get a little thrill thinking about how resilient I was, and it makes me laugh to think about that now.
We can’t know for certain if our enterprises will succeed. From my experience, I’d say that just the work and the journey are blessings in themselves.