Written by Adam Bassett.
I graduated from my college at age of 21. At the age of 22 I became a published author.
About a year ago, May 2015, I was in my graduation cap and gown (though it was rather hot that day and I was right in the sunlight so I may have taken both off early) at the State University of New York Potsdam. I'd spent much of that year working on my assignments, which mostly involved graphic design, web design, and a fair amount of writing.
This was the life of an art and creative writing major.
But then I'd graduated and suddenly it was all over. I had the beginning, half edited seed of a novel, had two bachelor's degrees, and no clue what I was going to do next. I got a job at a local movie theatre back home, found a place as a freelance web designer with a local media group, but it wasn't enough. I had that almost-novel sitting on my laptop, which I was constantly editing and trying to get feedback on. Eventually I hit a point where I wasn't sure what more to do with the little book I'd written. So I sent out a few dozen query letters. Just over 35 in total.
Within days I began getting responses (though some took weeks, others months). "We're not taking queries at this time," "It doesn't seem like a good fit for us, but best of luck!" were the hits, but one thing remained constant: nobody wanted to work with me. Nobody, except for the one publisher I sent a query to-Boyle & Dalton.
After making sure it wasn't a scam I signed the contract and we set to work. I waited for the editor's comments and then set to work on fixing what they found issue with. Ultimately every decision was mine, this being among the benefits of working with a smaller publisher like Boyle & Dalton, but I found that I liked nearly everything they suggested. So I sent them my revised version. We did that once more, and it started to feel like a real novel, not just an idea conceived in college. We discussed prices, I designed the exterior design and worked with B&D on the interior, and when it was all put together we were just waiting on the supplier.
291 days after I graduated my debut novel was for sale on three of the largest online distributors. A few days after that it was for sale on the fourth. Within a few weeks it was in bookstores in my home town.
It's exciting, thrilling even, to have people buying your book and telling you about it. I made a piece of art and people are taking it into their homes, spending their time on it. That's unreal.
That said, it's far from glamorous.
I still don't have a decent job. There theatre is not terribly consistent, minimum wage, and not at all what I want to be doing. The web design gig has been slow and massively inconsistent. Start to sound familiar? Like many college graduates I'm not where I want to be and it's a struggle to find the job I spent the last four years training for. The book makes me about $2 per sale (less, in some cases), so I can't rely on that, especially considering I'm largely unknown as an author.
Though, we are all unknowns, trying to scream into the already roaring world. My best advice is just to keep moving forward. Take breaks, relax, but everyday strive toward something. For me, that's a graphic design job and a decent readership. I'd like to be able to publish my next book, after all. For you that might be in a job in engineering, teaching, whatever it is keep working toward that goal. Then the next, ad infinitum.
Adam Bassett is the author of A Package of Moods, as well as a web and graphic designer. You can find more about him, and view his blog, at his website. You can also keep up to date with him on Facebook and twitter.
Stories are not told by one person. Royce Pharmaceuticals has released six new products: Happy, Affection, Calm, Inspiration, Alert, and Lust-each applicable through a convenient adhesive patch.
Shortly after their release, Sara's mother begins to lost her battle against cancer. Her father begins to use Happy and Calm just to make it through the day. A college graduate working at a coffee shop, a young nurse who relies on Alert, a high school boy trying to do better than his parents, a businessman from Royce-everyone has a story to tell, and each is beginning to entwine.