The truth is that there were times when I wasn't even convinced I would ever complete it. I wrote the majority of the book in what little spare time I had while working over 40 hours a week and helping my wife raise our young children. Thus, moving on to the publishing process was really the last thing on my mind.
For me, the act of writing a novel was primarily a personal challenge. It was something I could say I had done. It was a piece of work that I could one day hand to my kids and tell them something like, "Look at what your father wrote when you were young."
So when I finally finished the manuscript last summer, and felt quite good about the story I had created, the fruits of low expectations tasted particularly sweet. The possibility that a publisher might be interested in it suddenly entered my mind.
I began to actively research the publishing process, figuring out which publishers accepted unsolicited manuscripts, weighing whether or not I should seek out a literary agent, and even familiarizing myself with the process of self-publishing. What I learned was the same thing I'm sure many aspiring authors discover during their research: It's pretty tough to get your book published.
You come to realize that the overwhelming majority of publishers only accept manuscripts via agents, and that acquiring an agent can be nearly as hard as actually writing the book. You realize that independent publishers who do accept manuscripts directly from authors get swamped with the work of thousands of writers each year. It can take publishers up to a year to respond to you, even if it's just to let you know that they're not interested.
Needless to say, I wasn't feeling all that self-assured when I first started sending out my manuscript. I didn't let that get me down, however. I was in no hurry. I didn't require any assurances. I just told myself that if it happened, it happened... And if it didn't, it didn't.
That's why the fruits of low expectations tasted sweet again when I heard back from BQB Publishing only about three weeks later, who let me know that they were interested in taking my book to print. It was so unexpected that I don't think the reality of it even sank in until I was actually talking to the owner of the company over the phone.
During that conversation, I remember one of the questions she asked me being, "What are your expectations for the success of the book?" I told her that quite frankly, I didn't have any expectations for it. And I really didn't. I planned to work hard in promoting it and doing everything I could to make it a success (which I'm doing now), but I had no grand notions of it becoming some runaway bestseller that took the world by storm. If it happens, it happens... And if it doesn't, it doesn't.
Right now, only two months after the release of From a Dead Sleep, the fruits of low expectations that taste the sweetest are those of the people I know and have met, who have finished reading my book.
When a new author gets a book published, it's a safe bet that a good number of the initial purchases are from their friends and family. Thus, I wasn't surprised that those were the readers I heard back from first. And what I've found amusing is that a lot of these people clearly had pretty low expectations for the book, before opening it.
You see, prior to my announcement of the book, a good majority of my friends and family honestly had no idea I had been working on such a project. Many of them didn't even know that I had an interest in writing. Their only exposure to my written work was that of the comedic, Daly family Christmas letters I send out each year. Though those letters receive rave reviews, they've certainly never instilled confidence in anyone that I'm a serious writer. Thus, the news that I had put that skill to work in writing a book probably produced more than a few winces.
In fact, I know it did, because I've had a number of friends confide in me as much. Some of them have found the book so thoroughly enjoyable and impressive that they have, out of guilt, admitted to the low expectations they initially had, and have felt an urge to essentially apologize to me. Of course, no apologies are necessary. I get it. I wouldn't have taken myself seriously either.
That sort of reaction brings a smile to my face, because I know it's an honest critique. When I hear things like that, or when I hear people tell me that they finished my book in a single seating (it blows my mind how anyone can do that) or that they were up until four o'clock in the morning reading it, I know it's real.
And when someone I've never met reads the book and contacts me to tell me how it spoke to them, or that they related closely to one of the characters, that's an expectation I could have never have dreamed to have had.
I'm excited to see where my journey as an author will take me, but I'm also keeping my expectations in check. Because doing that makes the milestones all the more enjoyable.
