If you think the experience of being published will be all wine and roses, that it will dispel all traces of your self-doubt as a writer, take a look at this hilarious, sobering article, Publish and Perish.

I am so incredibly grateful for all of my publishing experiences; I know how lucky I am to be in this position (especially now, with--bestill my heart--my new situation at Ballantine), and I don't ever want to lose sight of that. At the same time, I saw more of myself than I would have liked in this article--that potent mix of hope and despair that swells up and cycles around after a book comes out. It just serves to reinforce, yet again, how the writing process itself holds the most enduring source of joy.