Waiting . . .

Occasionally, when asked what I do for a living, I say “I’m a waiter.” <g>

Photo by aleksandra-sapozhnikova-BthSqlD2Cso-unsplash

Because writers spend a lot of time waiting. In traditional publishing — ie with big international publishers — there was waiting for editorial revisions/responses (which can take weeks); then waiting for copyedits (checking for small things like typos and commas); then proofs (the final read through by a proof-reader checking that everything is good to go.) That can all take several months, and then there is the long wait for the book to come out, often six to ten months or more ahead. Usually I’d get stuck into writing the next book.

Sometimes there were promotional blogs to be written beforehand, or interviews — I remember one year, early in my writing career, when the publicist arranged for me to write 22 different blogs — all about the book that was coming out, and each one had to be different. It wasn’t easy. But that kind of thing has died away these days. Fewer people read blogs, especially blogs about books or with reviews. 

And now that I’m publishing my own books, the wait is different. In the case of A BRIDE FOR MARCUS, there was a shortish wait for editorial feedback — I had three different people read it. Then there was a very short time to get the cover design (Kim Killion is fast as well as brilliant) and get the paperback layout prepared. I prepared and uploaded the e-book myself, and it was only a few days before it started appearing on bookselling websites.  Thank you to all the people who have preordered it — I’m very grateful!
I also put a pre-order alert on BookBub — my first.

The paperback takes longer — after getting the design finalized I sent it off to the printer, but I’m waiting to get the actual book in my hand and check that I’m happy with it before I can relax. 

Then when all that’s done, there’s the wait for the book to come out. — in the case of A BRIDE FOR MARCUS  it’s another two weeks  to wait. The questions rattle around in my brain: Will people buy it? If they do, will they like it? Will they put a review up? Will they tell their friends?  Should I do adverts? If so, where?
It can make you (me) crazy, so I’m trying to distract myself.

The distractions are two-fold. Firstly I’m working on a new Christmas novella. It’s the story of one of the minor characters in Marry In Haste. She was a schoolgirl, who later appeared in the story and who came to the rescue of a beloved teacher when she was having a hard time from nasty society b*tches. I liked her, and when her story came to me  I decided it would make a good Christmas story.

I’m also pondering possibilities for a new series . . . 

My second distraction is, as usual, making jewelry, and dotted around this post are some of the latest things I’ve made. I buy the beads and stones on-line, and sometimes I make them up immediately, and other times I dither, trying to decide what to do with them.

I dithered for over a year with the pale pink rose quartz beads — they’re quite pale and against my skin they can barely be seen. But finally I decided to space them with little coppery/rose pearls and I think it works quite well. And if I decide I don’t like something, it’s easy to pull them apart and make something different.

Do you read  blogs, especially blogs about books or sites with reviews? What are your favorites?  I’m picking your brains here. <g>