YES!!!!!!!!!!
I mean, what else can be said about this? From Publisher's Marketplace:
FICTION: Debut Jessica Tom's BAD TASTE, pitched as THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA for foodies, about an aspiring cookbook author who discovers the glamour -- and toxic realities -- of the New York restaurant scene when she's recruited to serve as a ghost writer and surrogate eater for a famed Times' restaurant critic desperate to hide that he's lost his sense of taste, to Chelsey Emmelhainz at William Morrow, in a pre-empt, by Stefanie Lieberman at Janklow & Nesbit (World).
I started working on BAD TASTE in 2009. You might know it by a different name, but chances are, if you've ever heard me talking about writing any novel, I was talking about this one.
Since then, it's been a long road of obsessive plotting, writing, revising. Intense spurts of hustling. And, always, always determination in the face of fatigue, complacency, and doubt.
The Publisher's Marketplace announcement came out on a Thursday. I said "yes" to William Morrow and my editor Chelsey Emmelhainz just two days earlier. I'm a writer, and therefore a dreamer, but I never quite imagined the subtle ways a Publisher's Marketplace announcement could make a difference.
Here's what has surprised me, one week after I got The Call and this became a Thing.
1) It will feel unreal. When you work so hard on something, after awhile all you know is the work. It's like you're on a long road trip, with a destination that you and your GPS can only guess. Once you're there, you can't quite believe it.
2) You will walk into a bookstore and feel a sense of camaraderie. When you sign with HarperCollins, they give you this amazing Welcome Kit with heart-stopping sentences like this: "Congratulations, and welcome to HarperCollins....the house of Mark Twain, the Brontë sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F. Kennedy, Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Margaret Wise Brown." And even just walking into a bookstore, I can't help but feel a sense of family, that I'm pursuing an art that's much deeper and wider than myself.
3) Your friends and family will be so proud of you. Writing is a lonely pursuit and, if you're anything like me, you will keep the process relatively private. But open the doors a little bit, and the rush of support and pride and excitement is a reward unto itself. Your friends will say you are an inspiration, but you will be inspired and strengthened by them just as much.
There's still tons more to say and I plan on writing more about the writing and publishing process. If you have a request, please let me know in the comments below and I'll do my best! Author websites have been such a great resource for me, and I'd love to pay it forward.