Comments on: Outside the Box Marketing

By: Joanna Campbell Slan

Joanna Campbell Slan — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 01:37:59 +0000

I do write fast. I was a journalism major in college, so I learned to be very disciplined. And I work long hours. What can I say? I have a great capacity for work. It’s a blessing.

By: Diane Schultz

Diane Schultz — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:47:47 +0000

I agree. That is very fast. But it’s good to hear. I can always set that as my goal. I am definitely in the learning stages here now.

By: Nancy J. Cohen

Nancy J. Cohen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:23:29 +0000

Joanna, you must be a very fast writer! Jeez. How do you do it? I am in awe. I need a month or so to plot, 4-6 months to write the first draft, another month or two for polishing/editing. Or maybe you don’t sleep?

By: Joanna Campbell Slan

Joanna Campbell Slan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:53:22 +0000

And Nancy? I find that a short story takes me three days to draft, and a week to edit and clean up. So, I did manage to squeeze them in.

By: Joanna Campbell Slan

Joanna Campbell Slan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:51:56 +0000

Diane, I wrote four books this year (actually from Dec. 2011 to Aug. 2012). Two were 85,000, and two were 100,000. Plus six or seven short stories. The longer books were historical. Um, you can’t schedule the edits, so you never know when you’ll be doing those. I just find the short stories pop into my head between the books, but rarely during the initial draft of a book. When you are writing, at least when writing the first draft, or editing, it’s best to not let anything slow you down. At least, it works that way for me. You see, you need to keep the voice and the continuity.

I’m not being very clear, but the best way to sum this up is…this year I didn’t get to “clear the decks” for when I’d write books and when I’d edit or promote. There’s a six week golden period after a book is released and you MUST promote then, but otherwise, I found myself having to juggle edits/corrections/drafts and so on.

By: Joanna Campbell Slan

Joanna Campbell Slan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:44:07 +0000

Thanks so much, Mary!

By: Nancy J. Cohen

Nancy J. Cohen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:33:33 +0000

Oh, and my romances come in at an average of 450 manuscript pages while my mysteries run 300 pages or so.

By: Nancy J. Cohen

Nancy J. Cohen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:31:22 +0000

I’d like to hear what Joanna has to say about this because I’m writing in two genres and have no spare time for short fiction. I’ve had two releases this year and that means double promotion to two different audiences. And then I have to work on the next books in these series.

By: Diane Schultz

Diane Schultz — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:13:42 +0000

Reminds me of Janet Evanovitch’s “tween” novels for Stephanie Plum. Not having a series, I wouldn’t know the answer to this, but do you find that you want to write short stories and novellas — either within or outside of your series — while you’re between the publishing of two of them? I imagine you’re busy, but I’m only imagining. Please help me understand where you tend to find yourself. For the published one, there is marketing, appearances perhaps at local and/or national events. For the next one – is it already at the publisher and are rewrites started, or are you still writing/editing the drafts before passing them over to the editor? Assuming you’re doing one a year. And for another wrench, what if you’re doing two a year? I know that it’s good to have creative works in different stages of the process so that you can switch gears from one to another when you need to let one “simmer.” Not sure how it works in reality for the different projects which are both books and short stories/novellas. Thanks for sharing these tips, Joanna and Nancy.

By: Nancy J. Cohen

Nancy J. Cohen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:54:33 +0000

If I go on email or the Internet, I am lost. So the writing must come first or I’d be too distracted to get anything done.