Author Hard Days 1–7: The First Week of Rebuilding My Writing Career

After nearly a year of back-and-forth with a publisher over my completed gothic short story collection, Project R, I received a rejection.

That rejection became the starting point for Author Hard, a 30-day project documenting the actions I’m taking to move my writing career forward.

I’m Reagan Westerly, a gothic fiction writer and social media professional. Rather than waiting to see what happens next with my writing career, Author Hard is focused on the work I can actively do: writing, querying, researching opportunities, developing my author platform, creating new fiction, and finding new ways for readers and publishing professionals to discover my work.

The first seven days focused heavily on building the infrastructure around my writing career.

Organizing Writing and Publishing Opportunities

One of my first Author Hard projects was organizing the opportunities available to me as a writer.

A writing career involves more than completing a manuscript. There are literary agents, independent publishers, publications, podcasts, interviews, submission opportunities, networking opportunities, and other potential paths for getting work in front of new people.

Part of the first week involved bringing those possibilities into a more organized system so I could spend the rest of Author Hard actually pursuing them.

The goal was to move from knowing opportunities existed to having a practical way to track and act on them.

Pitching Myself to Podcasts

Author Hard also included pitching myself as a potential podcast guest.

Podcast appearances can provide writers with an opportunity to discuss their work, creative process, publishing experiences, and the realities of developing a creative career.

Rather than waiting until I had a traditionally published book to begin having those conversations, I started looking for relevant opportunities during Author Hard.

That effort led to securing a future guest appearance on Present Poetry, hosted by Erynn.

Working on My Author Website

My author website was another major focus during the first week.

I worked on developing ReaganWesterly.com into a clearer central home for my writing, current projects, professional information, newsletter, published work, and online presence.

Social media platforms can change, audiences can move, and individual posts have short lifespans. My website gives my writing career a permanent home that I control.

The site is continuing to develop alongside Author Hard, including pages and content related to my gothic fiction, Project R, Project H, newsletter, professional work, and the Author Hard project itself.

Developing Project H

While much of Author Hard involves the professional work surrounding writing, the writing itself remains central to the project.

During the first week, I continued developing Project H, my current gothic novel set in 1920s New York City.

Project H follows a society journalist who helps transform a lonely heir into a sought-after host. As the parties surrounding him become increasingly lavish, the gatherings begin feeding darker forces.

Work on Project H during Author Hard has included developing the story and preparing it for the drafting process.

The novel is part of my next phase of fiction while I continue pursuing publication opportunities for Project R.

Creating an Author Media Kit

Another first-week project was developing a professional author media kit.

The media kit creates a centralized resource for information about me, my writing, my professional background, and potential media opportunities.

As I continue pitching podcasts, building my online presence, developing YouTube, and pursuing other opportunities connected to my writing, having those materials prepared makes it easier to provide consistent professional information.

Building a Free Gothic Story for My Newsletter

I also began developing a new piece of gothic fiction specifically for my newsletter.

One of the challenges of building an audience as an unpublished fiction writer is simple: someone can discover my work online and become interested in my writing, but my larger projects aren't currently available for them to read.

Project R is pursuing publication, and Project H is still being written.

I wanted to create something that could eventually give new newsletter subscribers immediate access to my fiction.

That led to the development of a completely free gothic short story intended for my newsletter.

The story is being treated as an actual piece of fiction rather than something created solely as a marketing tool. Development has included the concept, title, logline, expanded premise, and story planning before drafting begins.

Building a Query Tracker

The first week also included preparing for the next submission stage of Project R.

I created a query tracker to organize potential literary agents and publishing opportunities for the collection.

Project R is an approximately 40,000-word gothic short story collection, which means finding appropriate submission opportunities requires careful research into agents and publishers who may be interested in its genre, format, and length.

The tracker gives me a centralized place to organize that research and document submissions as Project R goes back into the world.

What Happened During the First Week of Author Hard?

Days 1–7 of Author Hard were primarily about creating infrastructure.

I organized opportunities, pitched podcasts, worked on my author website, continued developing Project H, created a media kit, began developing free gothic fiction for my newsletter, and built a system for tracking Project R submissions.

Not every part of building a writing career produces an immediate visible result.

A significant amount of the work happens before a manuscript is submitted, an opportunity appears, or a reader discovers a story.

Author Hard is documenting that part too.

The first week created the foundation for the next stage of the project: introducing my fiction in more detail and beginning to send Project R back out for consideration.

Author Hard is a 30-day project by gothic fiction writer Reagan Westerly documenting the work involved in actively moving a writing career forward.