Just to point it out, Peter Selgin, the author of By Cunning and Craft from Writer's Digest Books, has a nifty article about the long road to publication and that one novel that still hasn't sold after umpteen revisions. Unfortunately, "A Short History of Everything: The End is Nothing, the Road is All" is not one of the articles on the Poets & Writers website, so you’ll have to track down the print copy to read the article.

I wanted to point it out because I find it amazing that I know who he is, and I got to help with the proofs for his book. I'm still surprised to see articles and books written by people I have a connection to. I remember when I saw an article from one of my professors in Writer’s Chronicle years ago and I finally realized that there is a world outside of my college, and there might be more to my professor than I thought. That naive awe catches up with me on occasion.

Seeing others succeed is wonderful, but seeing something you worked on appear in print is something altogether different. It’s a rush to see the end results of your dreams and efforts.

I was on the staff of Ellipsis, my college literary magazine, the first time I felt the end-result rush. I had a few sleepless nights as the prose editor trying to choose which stories to include, and then a few more bad nights when one of the stories I picked had already been accepted elsewhere and the author had neglected to inform us (PLEASE don’t do that to editors, especially if it’s a college publication. Student editors are fragile creatures). Finally it was done. Our beautiful magazine. I almost cried the first time I held it (Yes, I know I'm emotional). I'm NEVER getting rid of my copy.

One of the proudest moments of my life was when I was in a Barnes & Noble in Boston with my mom back in March and I took her over to the writing reference section. I was able to pull out book after book I had helped on in some way. From choosing illustrations to developmental edits to going over the final proofs, these were all texts I had touched in some way to make them (I hope) a little better than they were before, to be the best version of themselves.

I understand the thrill writers get in seeing their first book in print, because even as an editor I feel it too. How do you feel when you see your stories in print? Is the second time different from the first?