More Than One Book a Year

Been trying to catch up on some business reading—writing business. I let it haunt me, as the RWR, The Writer and Writer’s Digest stack up. One way I catch up is by reading during the commercials of must-see TV.

Hey, I know no TV is must-see and watching is time wasteful. I admit I do a certain amount at the end of a day—I’m almost catatonic anyway.

Like today, a simple little thing(renewing a prescription from an online pharmacy) for my mother-94, a sometimes (more and more often now) forgetful mom, turned into a wasted hour, hair-pulling, a few…colorful words, a phone call where I was put on hold for thirty minutes, a solution, but too late and a call to the doctor-also put on hold after going through a complicated phone tree—finally success, but I was left ragged and out-of-sorts. It didn’t end there either, what with the wind hindering me doing some much needed yard work, the meal planned for dinner, freezer-burned. (I just bought it, too, uggg!)

By the way, music helped—Lionel Richie’s Tuskegee and Mumsford and Sons’ Sigh No More right now.

What I read during those commercials can sometimes be as frustrating, or overwhelming as the day. Like the article by Cynthia Eden titled Editor Expectations After the Sale, in RWR that states that though publishing schedules vary at each publishing house, the preferred schedule seems to be twice a year or at the least, every nine months. Yikes, although I get the reasoning. So many books are being published each year that authors need to have plenty of releases to build a backlist and keep reader attention.

I know how fast the public’s attention can be lost and changed, but two books a year reminds me of something my mom use to say about authors and how she picked the authors she read. She thought if an author pushed out too many books a year, they just couldn’t be as well done as an author that put out a book a year consistently. I often found that true, but as with everything every writer has their own best pace. (An interesting question-How do you pick your books, by author, title, subject or popularity? Think about it and think why. This answer surprised me when I asked friends, family.)

I was going through an old file and found an article in The Writer in 2009 about the pressure put on writer’s to produce at least one book every year and that many writers were feeling the pressure, especially when there are authors that have moved the product of books into a top brand supplying the market by working with a team of co-authors. The author’s is a manager, developing ideas and plots, then cowriters fill in the story by writing that into a full-length manuscript. A production line of sorts and other artists have used this method to make a good living.

I can see the reasoning and why. Not many authors make enough to live on writing without some way to supplement what they earn writing. As a business and earnings strategy it is smart.

I’ll admit, I’m lucky, I don’t need to earn a living with  my writing, if I did maybe I’d be interested in doing the same strategy. But is that what I want to do with my writing? Is this what I’ll need to promise in order to get published? Or can I still do it my way?

Is it even the best way to get really good, fresh books out to readers? Hey, I’m a reader and I can tell you nothing is harder than waiting for the next book of my favorite authors (Kaki Warner or Charles Martin or Kristin Hannah) Is the only way to get published to go along with this crazy schedule?

I pray not. I write with the prayer it is not. I’m wearing so many hats, important hats not only to me but to my loved ones and only one is my writer’s hat. Still, if I’ve learned anything over the years, I’ve learned—it is what it is, but it will become what you make it.

So, I write, I send things out, I get things back, I edit and try again.

It reminds me of when I was raising my three boys. I did it differently than my sister, my sister-in-laws, my neighbors. I was criticized for one thing or another, but we did what was important to us, according to what kind of parents we wanted to be. Our way wasn’t the recommended way, the common way, but my boys survived childhood in one piece, became adults I’m proud of.

I’d settle for something similar with any of my books. I’ll go my pace and pray it’s enough that I’m writing the best book I can  and when/if I get the call I’ll do the best I can do, for myself and my writing. Shouldn’t that be enough? Isn’t that where the best art comes from?




By the way: Where have I been? I've been writing.