Anna DeStefano's Blog

Readers and writers often ask me the same series of questions:  what is your schedule like? where do the ideas come from? how do you complete so many books a year? how many books do you work on at one time? how do you do that? what else do you have to do besides writing? and, is this your dream job come true?

And since I’m between projects at the moment, it’s a good time to dive into all these questions and more.I’ll  get my feet wet  today. Keep coming back Thursday and Friday for more 411. By next week, I’ll be nose-down into getting to and making the most of the RWA National Conference in DC, and we’ll be talking about that (once I download a twitter and facebook app ;o)

Let’s have some fun and attack the questions out of order. I’m not on deadline at the moment, so my brain’s rebelling against all things organizational. And, besides, I’m never sure where these posts are going once I start, so who knows where we’ll end up as we get down and dirty into my crazy professional life…

Yes, this is my dream job.

Being a commercial fiction author–writing words and emotions and painting realities onto paper and sending them out into the world for people to actually buy, hearing from them and how much my books mean to/entertain them, and getting to wake up the next day and start all over again…It took me 30 years to get to where I could say this crazy life is what I wanted to do, but here I am, living the dream (to quote a good friend ;o).

But, for you writers out there, it’s a grueling job.It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done, and I’m still not making the “big money,” and it gets harder with each new book because I always want to do more and give readers more and achieve the next level of story telling, and there’s no guarantee that any of this very hard work is going to accomplish in overall sales the success I’m thrilled to have achieved satisfying my fans’ longing for another story… On deadline,  I go for weeks at a time working 20 hour days. While planning, I’m at times sure I’ll never be able to pull another novel out of my a*s. While promoting (usually while I’m on deadline and planning), I’m way outside my comfort zone and never sure if I’m crossing the line between networking with readers and fellow writers, and selling used cars. And the list of occupational hazards to my mental health goes on ;o) Still, all said and done, I wouldn’t want any other job. Ever. Because this is my dream.

And speaking of all that very hard work, let’s attack one more question today (again, check back tomorrow for more and more and more, until you and I both are sick of this and I get back to talking about Dark Legacy’s release in late August ;o)–How many books do I work on at one time? The short answer–I always try to be working on 4 novels at once.

FOUR! some of you might be asking.First, let me explain that I’m a full-time writer. I was before I began writing fiction, only back then I was writing 600 pg. user guides for a Fortune 500 corporation–also hard work. Exacting, precise work that prepared me for the non-stop challenge of making a career out of fiction. So, simply put, the hard work of building a presence/brand/name in fiction now doesn’t scare me. I’m willing to put in the time. And in my experience, unless you’re very lucky right out of the gate, one book a year/working on one book at a time ISN’T going to get your name out there enough for editors/agents/other writers and readers to follow your career and be willing to do what it takes to make your success happen. Do I make now what I made as a senior tech writer? No. But mostly because I was very good at working hard as a tech writer and I achieved a lot of success in that career. I make enough money in fiction to make this work for now, and I’m busting my a*s now to achieve in this my, hopefully, last career.

So, 4 at once…

1) I never want to be without a publishing contract (though I am from time-to-time, because this business can be excruciatingly slow when it comes to reviewing and acquiring new projects), so I’m always working on new proposals (fiction and on-fiction) for my agent to pitch to existing and new publishers. Probably one of the hardest things to do is create pitches and proposals for totally new projects/novels, and this process can take longer than any of us want to admit. So, I’m always working on the next sale(s), a few hours every day, no matter what else I’m doing. Hard, yes, because this means breaking away from my current work-in-progress (WIP) and re-adjusting my perspective/creativity to a nebulous, not-yet-written book. But essential, if I want to have another paid project to move onto once the WIP is done…

2) I am on target at the moment to draft three new manuscripts a year. Yes, that’s hard. Yes, I’m exhausted. But keep in mind that as a commercial fiction writer the reality is that I need a really good novel on the shelves about every 6 months, in order to keep my name out there and my fan’s eager to read more and my numbers growing, so one day I can hopefully ramp back to writing one really good novel a year that will sell more than the three I’m currently writing combined. A hidden cost of this kind of publishing schedule (besides constantly having to write proposals to pitch for all these projects, see Step 1), is that I’m always working on revisions/line edits/gallies of at least one completed project. These are editorial revisions that have to meet someone else’s requirements, and they take time. Lots of time. Revisions are ripping your lovely work apart to better fit what the editor thinks a reader wants (another post soon about the joy of collaborating/compromising with editorial when you don’t always agree with the revision notes you receive). Line edits are tweaking passages/beginnings/middles/ends etc. to fine tune the verbiage you use and the voice you’re trying to protect as more people touch your work. Gallies and/or copy edits are about grammar and style and they’re enough to drive any author insane. Each step can take weeks of focus and careful thought. The problem–if you’re a working writing, you’ll be working on at least three other things that take focus and careful thought at the same time…

3) In this market, unless you’re already a branded author (and even then, the rule remains–you just have a team helping you at that point), you have to always be building your brand/platform and promoting whatever you have on the shelves and whatever else you do in addition to writing (I teach writing craft and communications workshops, for example). Always. You’re not just as good as your next book (though you have to remember the book always comes first). You’re as good as what you do about your next book. And as wonderful as my publishers have always been, early on and through being a midlist author, the responsibility for getting people to notice and read and review and talk about my work on a regular basis ultimately falls on me, the writer. So, I’m always promoting at least one book that’s on the shelves/market.This takes careful planning and ongoing networking. Your audience for promoting isn’t just readers (look for another series of posts down the road on the need to focus on your contacts in the writing community, in publishing, and in the circle of reviewers/journalists/booksellers/librarians that make or break whether anyone cares once your book hits the shelves). This is often the most time-sink/distracting thing I do, because promotion involves being an extrovert (going to conferences, building and sustaining an online and social networking footprint, teaching and speaking and signing, planning trips on my own to meet with my publishing partners, etc.) while I’m wrapped up in the introverted work of writing day-in and day-out so I can pitch, complete, and revise/edit those three books a year I talk above.

4) And finally–BTW, it’s not an afterthought that I’ve left this for #4–I’m always, always, ALWAYS working on the draft of a manuscript.On deadline. On tight deadline, because fitting three drafts into a year given all the above work that’s going on around my writing process means turning a first draft into an editor basically every three/four months or so. Drafting drains the most energy from me. And that’s assuming that I’ve come up with a great plan for the book, while I worked on step 1 above. If my planning has been cut short by all the other distractions of my commercial fiction job, drafting becomes more excruciating. The last three weeks before a deadline, I tend to shut down all the rest and write only. 20 hours a day sometimes. No excuses. No writers block. No “waiting for the muse to strike.” Because on the other side of that deadline is the  next conference, proposal, edit/revision letter/galley proof that has to get done. Not to mention that I can’t be a successful commercial fiction writer if my agent and editors can’t trust me to meet my deadlines. No pressure–just do or die. Win or go home. Put up or shut up. Do I want this to be my dream job/career, or just a hobby? Whether or not I execute my contract on time answers this question for my publisher, so before all else, the writing has to come first.

As I’ve said, the book is everything. It’s what readers and editors and reviewers and booksellers and librarians and even other writes ultimately focus on. Each novel doesn’t come with the cliff notes version of everything else you were working hard at doing (did I mention I have an active family that demands my time, too?) while you were writing the book. Each book has to rock. Yet, as you can see, writing is only a quarter of the work I’m doing at any given time.

More in another post tomorrow, as promised. Though, I’ll be on the road dealing with some family stuff, so I might have to post a bit later in the morning. But I’ll still be working on my career, regardless. I often dictate into a voice recorder while I drive, especially when I’m working on a new synopsis. It’s kind of like brainstorming with myself… I’m in between deadlines at the moment, so this is a perfect time to focus on process and evaluate how I can do all this better–before I have to dive into the book that’s due in mid-October and the proposals floating around my mind and the edits that are sure to come back to me soon for the book just turned in. And did I mention that I’m spending the week next week in DC at the RWA National Convention doing the networking/promotion/selling thing?

Let me know your questions, if I haven’t already scared you away ;o)

Tags: writing articles

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.