I made the first payment. I celebrated by myself (side effects of being a bit of a loser). I asked what happens now, and the consultant told me that I could send my manuscript, but that it wouldn't be looked at until the second payment two weeks later. I was a BIT disappointed, but what can you do. I understood it was a business.

Before I sent my manuscript, I Googled "how to format my manuscript". OH BOY. I had work to do. Wrong font (I write in Calibri, don't judge me, it's pleasant to look at). I also hit enter twice between paragraphs rather than having my stuff double spaced (years of publishing on Wattpad has conditioned me this way, as it ruins your format if you don't do it this way). How big of an indent do I need? How do I change it? How do I number pages? How how how. Page breaks? Those were new.

There was a LOT of formatting crap to do, and I did it. Changed the font, removed all those double-spaced paragraphs, then properly double-spaced it.

I must say, I will change my default settings on my Word program because I don't want to do that ever again (even though ALL my works currently typed up are still in these Wattpad-based settings. Curse myself.) Nevertheless, I am thrilled I did this. I found an author on Wattpad who published via FP and they shared their journey. Their manuscript was sent back and they were told to format it properly.

So, I was scared. Really scared. This was my baby, my confusing-as-hell baby. Written was I was fourteen, altered a few years later. "Polished" and put on Wattpad a few years after that. Taken down because it was HORRIBLE and had SO MUCH purple prose. Also, problematic as hell. So, I rewrote it. From scratch. Keeping only some of the core elements of it. Threw it back on Wattpad. Gained a very good following, reaching 74K reads. Took it down about a year ago because I wanted all my original work secure and away from prying eyes.

Since I had rewritten this story so many times I hardly knew what was real and what wasn't. What parts were confusing? What would be a surprise to the reader that I couldn't flesh out anymore because the story was so blended in my brain? I thought, surely it is too confusing. Betas are nice, they help with this, but some betas might not be as honest as an editor.

I got a call from FP and missed it, so I called them back. Phone call cut out because the new house is ALSO a dead-zone. So, the consultant sent me an email saying "This is probably why you're calling" and it was my manuscript evaluation that was supposed to take 2-4 weeks AFTER the second payment. I hadn't even made my second payment. Neither Scott or I knew how that happened.

I opened it. I ran away from the laptop. I KNEW I was going to see "This is too confusing, try again please!"

Far from it.