The Writer's Carefree Life

When I tell someone I've retired from medicine and am now writing, they may not say it but their expression conveys it: You have it so easy! I probably foster the image, when I tell them that now I can take my coffee into the study, boot up my computer, and go to work in my PJ's. But there's a lot more to being a serious writer than just that. For the sake of brevity, let me just give you the bullet points in the birth of a book.


Search for idea
Craft story arc
Find a killer first sentence/paragraph/scene/chapter
Start writing
Shore up a "sagging middle"
Find a killer last sentence/paragraph/scene/chapter
Revise (several times)
Agonize
Query agent
Proposal to agent
Full manuscript to agent
Rejection by agent
Repeat above steps several times
Acceptance (finally)
Agent shops book to editors
Rejected by editors
Rejected by more editors
Accepted by an editor
Contract negotiations
Revisions: macro edit, line edit, copy edit
Check galley proofs
Pre-publication marketing efforts
Book launch
Post-launch marketing efforts
Despair when copies remaindered (sent back by bookstore)
Absolute desolation when book hits backlist (taken out of print)
Take a deep breath
Start over again

Sound daunting? Well, it's worse. Because the writing of the second book should start as soon as the manuscript for the first one is ready to go out. And the third one follows the second (if you want to keep writing). So take the list above, copy the whole thing and reinsert it alongside the first about halfway down. See? The fun never stops.

But when you sign a contract with a publishing house, doesn't that guarantee that your other books will be published? Maybe. First of all, multi-book contracts don't grow on trees. Publishers nowadays aren't willing to gamble on an unproven product or author. And suppose your first book tanks. Think the publisher is going to say, "Well, we lost a ton of money on your first one, but the second one is bound to do better?" Yeah, right. The same way a baseball team says to its star outfielder, "So what that you led the league in errors last year and barely hit your hat size. We want to sign you for another year." It's a business, folks.

But, as I said in my last post, I love it. It's a challenge. And everyone loves a challenge. Don't you?

Be sure to come back next week for some news about my own "pre-pub marketing efforts" for Code Blue, and an interview with author Shawn Grady about his new book, Through The Fire.