I have been a member of AZ Authors for only a few months and although I don't attend very many of the events, I get a great deal of information and often rejuvenation from reading various tips and articles from their website.
I have to laugh at your comments about waiting daily for the mail to come. We're all in that boat at various points at one time or another.
I have been fortunate to have my first book published in 2007, The Charon Covenant, a science fiction book. Let me warn you, once published you will now have a constant source of frustration. Instead of once a day mailbox trips, you will be on-line constantly checking for reviews or ratings.
And as for time to write. Once you're published a tremendous amount of your time will go to the publicity, daily blogging everywhere, short story postings and soooo much more I never suspected.
I work full time in bookstores that I own and put it nearly forty hours a week, plus PR work.
I hope come February to gleefully jog (o.k. drive down) to my mailbox to find a big fat royalty check, fingers crossed
Good luck to both of you.
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