Walking Away
This time last week... ;) I was getting ready for the Colorado Gold conference.
This week has been little computer time and mostly downstairs hard copy time, fulfilling something my publisher requested that I do which I find...less than wise or productive. Which is why it's gone slowly, I suspect.
Also, the bee sting did seem to wipe me out for two days. I'd thought I'd never have another one in my life (I used to get several a summer when I was a kid, and I haven't missed them).
But now I have to buckle down and get this task done, go back to Singer for a World proposal, and then am under a lot of pressure to meet a (now) short deadline for Heart Fate. A story I've enjoyed writing...so I can only hope that continues.
I'm not sure how I could have managed this differently because I DO want Keepers of the Flame to be a good book. The only way in the beginning to have avoided this crunch was not to accept so short a deadline on Keepers of the Flame, or to insist on selling all three books (because adding another subplot to a book I'd already had in mind and much written took a lot of thinking and writing and rewriting time and made it about 130 pages longer). That would not have been acceptable to the publisher. So I would have had to walk away from the series after the first three books, because the publisher would not have changed their minds. I didn't want to walk away.
I spoke to another published author at conference who wants a boost in his career that can only come from his publisher. He is ready to walk away from any deal that doesn't include getting up to the next level. It has reached that point with him that he can give up what he has won from his current publisher. Even if he doesn't sell his work to another publisher at the same price, he has other priorities in his life than writing, and is financially secure.
For most of us, this business is not about bluffing. You have to be ready and willing to walk away if you don't want the deal that is offered, and that usually takes some thought ahead of time to prepare for any emotional fall-out.
And for most of us, the writing career is not serendipitous. You have to think where you're going and what you want.
May you know where you're going today.
Robin
This week has been little computer time and mostly downstairs hard copy time, fulfilling something my publisher requested that I do which I find...less than wise or productive. Which is why it's gone slowly, I suspect.
Also, the bee sting did seem to wipe me out for two days. I'd thought I'd never have another one in my life (I used to get several a summer when I was a kid, and I haven't missed them).
But now I have to buckle down and get this task done, go back to Singer for a World proposal, and then am under a lot of pressure to meet a (now) short deadline for Heart Fate. A story I've enjoyed writing...so I can only hope that continues.
I'm not sure how I could have managed this differently because I DO want Keepers of the Flame to be a good book. The only way in the beginning to have avoided this crunch was not to accept so short a deadline on Keepers of the Flame, or to insist on selling all three books (because adding another subplot to a book I'd already had in mind and much written took a lot of thinking and writing and rewriting time and made it about 130 pages longer). That would not have been acceptable to the publisher. So I would have had to walk away from the series after the first three books, because the publisher would not have changed their minds. I didn't want to walk away.
I spoke to another published author at conference who wants a boost in his career that can only come from his publisher. He is ready to walk away from any deal that doesn't include getting up to the next level. It has reached that point with him that he can give up what he has won from his current publisher. Even if he doesn't sell his work to another publisher at the same price, he has other priorities in his life than writing, and is financially secure.
For most of us, this business is not about bluffing. You have to be ready and willing to walk away if you don't want the deal that is offered, and that usually takes some thought ahead of time to prepare for any emotional fall-out.
And for most of us, the writing career is not serendipitous. You have to think where you're going and what you want.
May you know where you're going today.
Robin
posted by FantasyAuthor RobinDOwens | 7:30 AM
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