How Long Did It Take To Write This Book?
Morgan Mandel is a former freelancer for the Daily Herald newspaper, prior president of Chicago-North RWA, prior Library Liaison for Midwest MWA, and belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC. She enjoys writing thrillers, mysteries, romances and also enjoys combining them. Her latest paranormal romantic thriller is Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, Book One of the Always Young Series. I chatted with her at the Love is Murder Mystery conference about her writing process and thought you would enjoy what she had to say. She was kind enough to send along this guest post/
Yesterday marked the close of another great Love is Murder Mystery Conference. One February, three years ago, Austin and I were in the book room at that year’s conference and I was moaning about how long it took to get a book published. He suggested self-publishing. It was a scary thought, but I had nothing to lose by trying it. I hired Helen Ginger as my editor and published the romantic suspense, Killer Career, under my own brand, Choice One Publishing Company, that August.
After that, I kept getting ideas for books. I’d start one, then put it aside when another brainstorm hit. It didn’t help that I also had a day job, so my writing time was limited. I was floundering, not getting anywhere, with people asking when I’d have another book out. I had no idea.
Then, at the end of 2010, a blessing happened, although it didn’t seem so at the time. I lost my day job. Now I could spend more time writing, but at what? I’d started so many. There was the thriller with tons of characters who took a pill to be young again, another about my dog, Rascal, also a NaNoWriMo romance I’d not completed, not to mention a thriller about a guy with amnesia.
I decided to finish them in the order I’d started. In January, 2011, I ignored the other manuscripts and tackled Forever Young: Blessing or Curse. I whittled down its cast to one main heroine, a few friends, plus her opposition, and pasted the extra characters into another document for a spinoff. Sometime in August, I typed The End, but it wasn’t really the end. I rehired my editor, Helen Ginger, hired Stephen Walker as my cover art designer, completed edits and consulted about the cover art, then did the formatting for Kindle and Smashwords. I’d thought the book would be done sooner, but it didn’t land on Amazon until December 16, followed by Smashwords the next day. I then conquered CreateSpace’s foibles and am happy to say my novel is now available in print.
Anyway, getting back to my original question -- How long did it take to write this book? I don’t really know.
Learn more about the talented Morgan Mandel and her writing at http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/ , and
Website: http://www.morganmandel.com/
Yesterday marked the close of another great Love is Murder Mystery Conference. One February, three years ago, Austin and I were in the book room at that year’s conference and I was moaning about how long it took to get a book published. He suggested self-publishing. It was a scary thought, but I had nothing to lose by trying it. I hired Helen Ginger as my editor and published the romantic suspense, Killer Career, under my own brand, Choice One Publishing Company, that August.After that, I kept getting ideas for books. I’d start one, then put it aside when another brainstorm hit. It didn’t help that I also had a day job, so my writing time was limited. I was floundering, not getting anywhere, with people asking when I’d have another book out. I had no idea.
Then, at the end of 2010, a blessing happened, although it didn’t seem so at the time. I lost my day job. Now I could spend more time writing, but at what? I’d started so many. There was the thriller with tons of characters who took a pill to be young again, another about my dog, Rascal, also a NaNoWriMo romance I’d not completed, not to mention a thriller about a guy with amnesia.
I decided to finish them in the order I’d started. In January, 2011, I ignored the other manuscripts and tackled Forever Young: Blessing or Curse. I whittled down its cast to one main heroine, a few friends, plus her opposition, and pasted the extra characters into another document for a spinoff. Sometime in August, I typed The End, but it wasn’t really the end. I rehired my editor, Helen Ginger, hired Stephen Walker as my cover art designer, completed edits and consulted about the cover art, then did the formatting for Kindle and Smashwords. I’d thought the book would be done sooner, but it didn’t land on Amazon until December 16, followed by Smashwords the next day. I then conquered CreateSpace’s foibles and am happy to say my novel is now available in print.
Anyway, getting back to my original question -- How long did it take to write this book? I don’t really know.
Learn more about the talented Morgan Mandel and her writing at http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/ , and
Website: http://www.morganmandel.com/
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