FIRST DRAFT STAGE
Besides fiction, I also like reading books about life experiences like Chicken Soup for The Soul.
After graduating from high school, I worked for about a year and a half. After quitting the job, I started writing fiction again. At that moment, I remembered a story I’d read in the book Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work: “I Never Write Right” by Linda Stafford. At that point, I was just thinking about submitting my work to a publisher.
I was 19 at the time (2005), teenlit was booming, and I thought I could write something like that. I started searching the internet for information on how to submit a manuscript to publishers.
Like most people, I was one of those teenagers who thought all my dreams could come true. So I only submitted my manuscript to one of the most well-known publishers in Indonesia: Gramedia.
I thought, if I submitted to two or more publishers, what if both of them wanted to publish my manuscript? lol…
According to the information, it takes about six months for a publisher to read a manuscript, so I figured even if I wanted to submit to another publisher, it would be better to wait for the results from the first one. This way, I wouldn’t create unnecessary conflict and could commit to one publisher. Am I right?