Alexa Orr asked Teresa R. Funke:

How long did it take to publish your first book?

Teresa R. Funke My first book, Remember Wake, was a ten-year process. I started out by doing research and interviews and felt fully prepared to write the novel, but when I tried, I realized I had no idea how to write a book. So I backed up and wrote short stories and personal essays for a few years to try and find my voice. After publishing a few of those, I felt ready to tackle the novel again. So just to write the book (and revise it many times) was a seven-year process. I then spent three years trying to get it published. I had an agent for a while, and then some interested editors, and finally I decided to self-publish and had to teach myself how to do that. So it was ten years from the moment I committed to write the book until I held a published copy in my hands.

The second book took 8 years. The children's books, though, now take me only a little over a year. I'm getting faster!

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