Time Management

Things used to be simpler several years ago when all we had to worry about was selling to a NY publishing house. When I wrote for Kensington, I turned in one book a year. Easy, right? I wrote my Bad Hair Day mysteries and nothing else. No blogs or Facebook posts. I didn’t have a second publisher to worry about making deadlines with double the work.

It wasn’t until my option book was turned down that I started writing in other genres to see what would sell. Now it’s years later, and while I’m still looking for a home for my two new mystery series, Wild Rose Press has picked up my romances. I am preparing to launch a new paranormal series with Warrior Prince.

Meanwhile, Five Star published my tenth Marla Shore mystery. So years after I thought this series was dead, I’m writing it again. Before starting the eleventh book, I completed the first three books in my Drift Lords series. So those are all done, except for the edits, page proofs, and promotion.

And herein comes the juggling act. I am attempting to move forward with Bad Hair Day mystery #11, but I keep having to halt work on this project to do page proofs and revisions for the Drift Lords series, not to mention planning the promotional campaign for the series launch.

Meanwhile, those two completed mysteries linger in the back of my mind. Should I continue submitting them to small press or self-publish? If the latter, should I publish them as stand-alones or as the first books in new series?

Before deciding on these titles—and we’re still waiting for responses so hope remains in that regard—I would like to self-publish my deceased father’s book. He hitchhiked across the U.S. in 1929 and his journal includes some fascinating adventures. So my projects include:

1. The Drift Lords series from The Wild Rose Press

2. A new Bad Hair Day mystery

3. The possibility of self-publishing three titles

4. The possibility of one of my other mysteries selling in the interim

Never before have we had so many options. It’s an exciting time but it’s also consuming. Who has free time when we can publish our entire body of works through various formats, and then when we have to spend hours on the social networks promoting them? And this discussion concerns new works, not backlist titles. Those need time and attention, too, in the accelerating ebook market. So does writing additional material for world building extras for readers, and more.

Soon I’ll be heading off to Malice in Bethesda. I’m excited to meet new friends and visit with mystery writer pals I haven’t seen in a while. So if my posts are sparse in the next few weeks, it’s because I am happy and busy or we’re on the road.

Are you still writing at the same pace with the advent of new technologies? How have your writing/reading habits been affected?