Well done! Your manuscript is complete. You did your homework and found a great editor. You sent your manuscript off and they told you that you would get your edits back in a month.

What now?

Waiting is not funny. That editor may be the first person other than you to have read your manuscript and, for a new writer, this can be hellish. It's taken you ages to get your work ready; you’ve been joined at the hip for so long and now you’ve been wrenched apart.

Calming your nerves during this trying period isn’t going to be easy. What you must do is take the energy bubbling away inside you and turn it into something positive. Here are some ways to maintain your sanity while you wait for your edits.

Do NOT Do Any Work On Your Book

No matter what you do, you must not do any more work on your manuscript. Editors hate clients who keep on sending them “just a small change” after they have started to work on the manuscript. Once your manuscript has been sent off to the editor, you must leave it alone. If it isn’t up to scratch in the first place, it shouldn’t have been sent in the first place. Just sit tight, wait for your edits, note any changes you want to make and do your revisions when the manuscript comes back.

Start On Your Next Book

If you haven’t worn yourself out writing your book, start on the next one. If you don’t want to write it just yet, you can at least start planning it. This keeps your momentum going and takes your attention away from the book with the editor. Unless the next one is a sequel to the first, of course.

If you intend to continue writing for many years, you should always have another book ready to start on.

Start Planning Your Book Launch

Book launches can take some time to plan, months to prepare for. There is much to be done and much to think about; regardless of whether you are going via a traditional publisher or are self-publishing, both require book launch strategies led by you to ensure that it is discoverable and that people want to read it when it gets published.

Look For Opportunities to Guest Post

When you plan your book launch strategy, you should consider writing for other online outlets. Start researching blogs, websites and online magazines that your target audience frequents and work out which ones to pitch to. Once you have some ideas, check out your chosen websites for links that you invite you to write for them – this is usually found at the bottom of the webpage. You can also go to a search engine and type in “How to write for …” and add the name of the outlet.

Don’t pitch to just any outlet. Make sure it is a relevant site to the topic of your book and is the type of site your target audience is likely to visit.