Is Patience Always a Virtue?

The Summer of 2017 was about to pass the baton over to the upcoming Autumn. It was already August, signifying six months since I signed the contract and started working with the agent. The remaining eight publishers never responded at all.

Unfortunately, the perception of time is not an absolute measure, it’s always being relative. To me, a period of a half a year without any progress seemed insurmountably long.

I was losing my recently acquired philosophical patience.

I began to question and doubt my choice of an agent. I wasn’t sure if I had to find another agent or go an alternative way. As I was searching information about other literary agencies and book publishers, I learned that some people successfully publish their work without any agency involvement whatsoever.

But something else was on my mind then. There was another sensitive matter regarding my contract with the agent, which I had to admit was the most unpleasant one, the one that bothered me the most. It was regarding my book, Girl, Taken, in the Russian language.

As you may remember, Girl, Taken was written in two languages – in English and in my native one. Actually, the Russian manuscript, Неволя, served as a womb for the English version. It was main. It was principal.

The contract I signed with the agent wouldn’t let me publish the Russian version of the book. We would have to wait for the success of the English version first, and then translate it into other languages later, if needed, as well as by their own chosen translator.

For me, it sounded ridiculously silly, as I would never agree to mess with the book in Russian. I wanted it to be published eventually, and only in my original writing. However, at the time, it all seemed like a very far-away project and I did not want to think about it.

Then and there, my mind was only revolving around one thing: I desperately wanted Girl, Taken to be accepted by the agent, integrated into work and be successful. I had no time or wish to wait any longer, and I couldn’t spend any more time finding another agent. I realized that the Russian version would be a stumbling block with every single agency I could possibly find. I preferred to overlook that paragraph of the contract, despite my rioting inner voice, which howled louder than a leaf blower against my dismissal. Like Scarlett O’Hara, I decided to think of it tomorrow.

Or later on, when the time truly came.

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Don’t forget to check out my book “Girl, Taken – A True Story of Abduction, Captivity and Survival”

As always, thank you for your time, and stay awesome!

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