From The (Somewhat Crazy) Mouths of (Writer) Babes

I saw today's The Doctor is In on the amazing Buzz, Balls and Hype blog and it triggered something. So much so, that I left a comment. And I started working on this blog... instead of the novel that's due. Bad Fred. lol. It was freaking 3 am-ish.

I wrote my first novel, Down For Whatever, for fun. Aspired for publication, glad it happened. No voices. No pressures.

I wrote Right Side of the Wrong Bed in between the time I sold DFW and when it was published. Again, no voices. No pressures.

Thank God I did. Because working on my third novel has been a crazy, non-stop -- lies, I've STOPPED a lot -- ride. Once you're published, you tell yourself it's about the writing, completing a project in its own time, blah blah blah. (Or is it wa wa wa, as in the adults on Charlie Brown?)

But the reality is... you're thinking moving units, wondering if that one book club member in NYC or San Diego will like what you're working on, how to maintain your base while expanding your readership, or if you write THIS will it result in THAT media coverage or book festival, hoping you're creating the next fiction phenomenon. Well, at least I do.

And if you could see my laptop, and all the abandoned manuscripts you'd think I was as productive and idea-frenzied as hmmm... Eric Jerome Dickey, Jackie Collins, um... who else cranks them out that fast?

So anyway, tonight while I was SUPPOSED to be writing, I was reading. The Buzz, Balls and Hype blog. And for some weird reason, picked up Eric Jerome Dickey's The Other Woman again. My third time reading that novel. It really is THAT good.

Lesson. Finishing the writing project is just the beginning. The reality is you're also marketer, publicist, event planner, and a little bit of a hustler. Basically, you're a partner with your publisher who has invested money and time into you. Going into this thinking you're just the writer is a little... crazy.
fs