You've Written a Novel. Now what?

The Dreamworld

Imagine What the World would be like if Martin Luther King did Not have a Dream?

After watching countless videos and reading countless blogs on writing/publishing advice, all I can say is...Huh? When did we start teaching people it's not ok to dream, or to dream but dream small dreams. When did we make that our common speak? Imagine you've just written a novel and log on the internet to look for advice, the first video you see, more or less says - don't expect anything major to happen next.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You just finished your very own novel! Do you know how impressive that is? I have so much Crazy Mad Respect for you! Well done! WOW.

According to Nathan Bransford here, about 15, 000+ people query an agent a year.... seriously? Out of 7.12 billion people....maybe that's just in the US but still! You wrote your book, never let anyone dim that excitement down. Yes, the hardest part might be what happens after you write your book. Yes, querying and getting published takes time. Yes, you might be rejected.
Say this with me:

Some Will, Some Won't
So What? Next!

We spend so much of our lives being told not to dream, not to take risks. I say DREAM! and dream BIG! Why shouldn't you? Why shouldn't you want massive success from your work? There isn't a reason, there's only an excuse. I've watched people both with insider knowledge and without, give brilliant advice but they always dim it with 'success is a myth' or 'don't expect the heavens to raise for you'. WHat? No. I believe in my work, I believe in people and I most definitely believe that success is solely possible by force of will.

It might have taken me only when everything shut down around me to write a book but I did and I'm insanely jazzed that I did. It flabbergasts me to think that so many words came out of my head and landed on pages. I never thought I would achieve that at this stage but I did. So I'm DREAMING now, I'm a big FAT DREAMER and I shout it to skies.

Some of the advice are based more on personal experience, but Veronica Roth or Rick Riordan can't really say from experience that massive success is not common or achievable. Yeah, they might have gotten some rejection but their epic talent and brilliant novel success far outweigh any of that. They can comment on it, yeah but they would be the people I would focus on. Because they DREAMED, they thought it up, wrote it and DREAMED.
Read this by Veronica Roth BEFORE she was famous, she dared to Dream it first.

So I'm going to listen to the advice but I'm definitely tuning out the whole, "Don't expect big things." speeches. Don't get me wrong those blogs and posts are amazingly helpful, especially on the "HOW TO" parts. I just believe that once we have written a novel, we should smile our cheekbones off and celebrate. Then with pride and hope, submit our queries.

Find Literary agents of fiction here.
Find awesome query examples here.

Have you been told not to Dream lately?
Reach OUT to me, I got your back.

Read The Story That came from a Dream

~Be Kind to One Another~ Ellen Degeneres