From the Mailbag: How do you organize yourself?
I received this email recently:
I’d love a post about how you organise your publishing schedule and writing process – do you publish a book in each pen name in turn? Do you write one book at a time or do you have several on the go at once? How far ahead are you writing – are you publishing books immediately when they are finished or are you 6 months ahead or something? This is pure nosiness on my part as to how you manage your schedule! I struggle to organise myself and get overwhelmed so I find this kind of information both interesting and useful.
There are a lot of questions in here, touching on a lot of big topics!
Do you publish a book in each pen name in turn?
It depends on the season. Most of the time, I prefer to rotate through the pen names, one book each.
But for the rest of 2025, I need to build up one of my pen names, which has backslid a bit. Plus, I want to finish up a series and move on. So, for the rest of this year, I’m writing three books for one pen name, a book for Pen#2, three more for #1, then a book for Pen#3.
You can do this, too. Start with an even-handed rotation, but if one pen name takes off, or you want to bring a pen name “up”, then spend six months or a year giving that pen name a boost via more releases.
Just don’t neglect the other pen names! Make sure you add a book in here and there and be sure to keep those readers engaged with newsletters and other “here I am!” communications.
Do you write one book at a time or do you have several on the go at once?
I just write one book at a time, from developing the concept, through outlining, and writing.
Then I start a new book, from concept to “the end”.
Everything that happens after the first draft, right up to the formal release date, is “postproduction”: clean up, editing, covers, packaging, formatting, marketing, print editions, etc., etc. I could have anywhere from one to six or more books in postproduction at any one time, depending upon how far ahead of the production schedule I’m working. (See the next question for more on that.)
I set it up this way because many of the tasks in postproduction depend upon other people’s schedules, waiting times, etc. (Editing, covers, etc.). If I had to sit around doing nothing while the cover artist built the covers…well, what a waste of time!
I’ve never been tempted to write more than one book at a time. I write fairly quickly, so I don’t get bored with a story. If I hit a snag and can’t write that book, I resolve the issue (plot more, journal it out, get help) and move on.
[I’ve also watched other authors <cough, husband, cough> get stuck or bored and switch to a different book; then they never get back to the first, and it languishes forever. So, I never let myself be tempted to switch.]
Plus, I really like being immersed in a story and living it while I’m writing. I like the universes I build, and like spending time in them. If I were writing two or more books at once, that illusion of immersion would thin and eventually crack.
I do often start re-reading a series I’m writing several weeks ahead of starting to write it, just so I can pick up the story arcs and have them fresh in my mind as I settle down to plot. But that happens outside my writing time, and I consider it leisure reading.
And occasionally, I might noodle around a few concept ideas for an upcoming book if I have a few minutes. But that’s a no-pressure, shallow dive into that world.
Otherwise, I leave everything to do with building the book for the plotting & writing stage, and that lovely immersion spell.
How far ahead are you writing – are you publishing books immediately when they are finished or are you 6 months ahead or something?
Oh, I’m going to have to answer with the hated response again: It depends.
I do not publish books as soon as they’ve finished – if you mean by that; when the first draft is done and cleaned up. However, I do put a book up for pre-order as soon as I can throw an ePub together after the first draft is written. (Which is why I commission covers as soon as I’ve finished plotting, so the cover is there and ready to go as soon as I type “the end.”).
Before the formal release date, though, the book goes through postproduction (PP), which includes a heavy clean up by me, editing by my editor, and a final read-through and proof by me. Plus, all the other postproduction tasks (see previous question).
In addition, I have to give the street team approximately 2.5 weeks to read the book so they can upload their reviews on release day or shortly after.
So, my rock-bottom minimum postproduction period is four weeks. That’s cramming everything in, hounding my editor and cover artist, and cracking the whip over everyone who touches the book in any way during postproduction. It also means any pre-orders and marketing get short shrift. (I won’t put a book up for pre-order until the first draft is written.)
I’m much more comfortable with six weeks PP as a minimum.
My husband (also a writer) can happily work with a three-week PP lead, as he doesn’t have a street team.
How much time you need for PP will become apparent very quickly. A book or two in, and you’ll have a pretty good idea how much time everyone needs to get things done. Also, some of those waiting and working periods can double up. The cover artist can work on covers while the editor is editing, and so on. Some can’t: You need the book edited before it goes out to the street team, for example. You can’t put the book up for pre-order until you have a cover.
As I am one of the world’s worst procrastinators, I frequently find myself back down to six weeks’ PP on books, and that’s when I pull out a few stops. I either go to the mattresses to work ahead of the schedule. Or (last resort) I add in a “filler” book – i.e. a story that has already been written and may or may not have been previously published in an anthology or magazine; or I’ll slide in a boxed set or bundle. Either of these require no writing time, so the PP period is increased instantly.
I worked for several years with a six-month PP lead; it was a great de-stressor! Currently I’m working at just over 84 days PP and aiming to get it back up to 100 or better.
I keep a careful eye on the PP period, because this is a weathervane telling me if I’m slacking off, or if life is getting in the way, or if I’m actually doing well with my writing.
I also use the PP period to build in vacation and sick time. That’s why having 180 days of PP up your sleeve is such a great low-stress place to be. You can take a week off and lose nothing. When you get sick, you don’t have to push yourself to work, you can spend a day or two in bed.
I’ve also built up vacation time ahead of taking a vacation; I spent six weeks in Australia a few years ago. I spent the six months before that building up lead time so there was nothing much more to do than check in via email and social media and make sure the readers were happy. (Note, this also involves building lead time on your emails, newsletters, blog posts, etc. but the effort is *so* worth it!)
The Question Not Asked.
What the author didn’t ask about, that is the structure upon which all of these processes are built, is checklists.
My production checklist, which takes me from concept through to four weeks after the release date, has nearly 300 tasks in it (some are tiny reminders).
I import the production list into a project in my task manager (ToDoist) when I set up the next book in the production schedule, and that production checklist walks me through every step of the process and ensures nothing is forgotten or overlooked. As something as simple as forgetting to update your Books2Read links can be disastrous, checklists will take huge amounts of stress off your plate and let you focus on the writing itself.
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If you have a burning question, ask! Send me an email, or ask your question in a comment, below, and I’ll happily talk your head off. 🙂
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