Juggling
Or what I do when everything needs attention all at once
As a rule, I don’t like being bored in my professional life. I enjoy being productive, and I get antsy when I feel as though there’s nothing for me to do. This has the happy consequence of meaning that I find a lot of satisfaction both the process and final product of traditional publishing. However, there are a few times the year where different books are all at places in their cycle which mean they demand attention at the same time that I can find it all a bit much.
Because of how long it takes to bring a book from concept to publication with a traditional publishing house1, there are natural busy and fallow periods. This is how an average book schedule might play out for me:
Write the first draft (active working)
Send it to my editor for notes (rest)
Work through developmental edits (active working)
Send it to my editor (rest)
Work through round two of developmental edits if needed (active working)
Send it to my editor if round two was necessary (rest)
Work through line edits if needed (active working)
Send it to my editor if line edits were needed and wait for the news that the book was accepted into production (rest)
Work through copy edits (active working)
Send it to production (rest)
Proofread first pass pages (active working)
Send it to production (rest)
Answer any queries for first pass pages (active working)
Send it to production
Generally after I have sent off first pass pages and answered queries, I am done with the manuscript. However, at every stage there could be additional work that pops up from writing and/or approving jacket copy, pitching ideas for placement to publicity, calls with publicity and marketing, asking fellow authors for blurbs, and writing my social media and content marketing campaigns.
It is also worth noting that I am publishing roughly two books a year—one historical fiction and one mystery—which are staggered about six months apart on the calendar. That means that at any given time, I can be writing an upcoming historical novel that will be two releases from now (2026, for instance), copy editing or proofreading my next release (2025), and promoting my most recent release (2024). Then, on the mystery side, I can do be doing all of that as well, only shifted back six months.2
Much as I love this job and feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do it full-time, this is a lot of book in progress at any given time and I’m convinced that only my agent Emily, my husband, and I are able to actually recite my combined historical fiction and mystery writing, production, and release schedule off the top of our heads.3
The good news is that I’ve done this enough times now to have a general sense of the rhythm of a book’s publication cycle. However sometimes, despite my best efforts, different books crash into each other and the work piles up.
This happens to me most often when I am writing the first draft and working on developmental edits for a book. These are creatively and mentally intense parts of the process, and they also stretch over the most amount of time.4 This means that there are more opportunities for other books to pop up and need attention during that time.
In April, I set out to start writing the first draft of Evelyne Redfern #3, and I did! However, two other major projects came across my desk that month:
first pass pages for Betrayal at Blackthorn Park (out October 1, 2024)
copy edits for The Dressmakers of London (out February 18, 2025)
I have found over the years that I struggle to write first drafts and work on other books at the same time (something about split focus, I’m sure), so I set aside my manuscript at the beginning of April to proofread Betrayal at Blackthorn Park. Once that was in, I managed about 24,000 words on Evelyne Redfern #3 before the copy edits hit my inbox towards the end of the month. Again, I set aside the first draft to handle those, and now I’m back to them again.
This kind of back and forth between books used to stress me out. However, I’ve learned over the years that the best thing for me to do is not to try to do everything haphazardly, but instead to take a deep breath and focus on one thing at a time.
I take the project with the closest deadline and work on that first. I split it into tasks and figure out what actually needs to get done to finish it. In the case of reviewing copy edits or proofreading first pass pages, I divide the number of chapters or pages across the number of days I have to complete the task and chip away at things because I find that if I do that kind of work for too many hours in the day I will begin to miss things in the manuscript. When a project is done, I move on to the next, and the next, and so on until I am down to a singular project again (in this case the first draft).
When I first quit my day job and turned to writing full-time, I found myself seeking out the ideal day. While I was still working a 9-5 job, I’d convinced myself that if only I could focus solely on writing, my day would open up in to the ideal balance of writing, marketing, exercise, reading, cooking, and socializing. A few months in, I was despairing of the fact that I’d never managed that ideal working day and one of my friends gently told me that my ambitions were probably pretty unrealistic.
Traditional publishing is a process that pulls in many people across many different departments. There are numerous steps along the way, and each of those require attention—sometimes on relatively short notice as an author. However, with a little juggling, it’s possible to cobble together a mostly pretty good working day on a regular basis, which is what I now generally strive for.
As I write this, I have whittled down my major tasks with close deadlines to zero, and I am back at writing Evelyne Redfern #3. It feels good to be creating something new again, and I’ll squeeze as much as I can out of that feeling until the next deadline pops up and I’ll be juggling once again.
Generally two to three years, although if you’re moving at a very fast clip to slot into a certain spot in an upcoming publication schedule it could be 18 months.
Here’s a look at my 2024 as it has been and as I suspect it will be:
January - Finished developmental edits on The Dressmakers of London; worked on pitches for my 2026 historical novel and Evelyne Redfern #3
February - Finished copy edits on Betrayal at Blackthorn Park; worked on pitches for my 2026 historical novel and Evelyne Redfern #3; publishing meetings in NYC
March - Researched and prepped to write the first draft of Evelyne Redfern #3; started proofreading first pass pages for Betrayal at Blackthorn Park
April - Finished proofreading first pass pages for Betrayal at Blackthorn Park; started writing Evelyne Redfern #3; started copy editing The Dressmakers of London; attended a crime writer’s conference in the UK
May - Finished copy editing The Dressmakers of London; continued writing Evelyne Redfern #3
June - Continue writing Evelyne Redfern #3; proofread first pass pages of The Dressmakers of London; write social media and content marketing copy to promote trade paperback of A Traitor in Whitehall (out September 10, 2024)
July - Submit first draft of Evelyne Redfern #3 to my editor; begin researching and plotting my 2026 historical novel; write social media and content marketing copy to promote trade paperback of A Traitor in Whitehall; write social media and content marketing copy to promote Betrayal at Blackthorn Park (out October 1, 2024)
August - Begin writing 2026 historical novel; write social media and content marketing copy to promote trade paperback of A Traitor in Whitehall; write social media and content marketing copy to promote Betrayal at Blackthorn Park
September - Write 2026 historical novel; work on developmental edits for Evelyne Redfern #3 (this is a total guess depending on when I receive my editorial letter); promote trade paperback release of A Traitor in Whitehall; write social media and content marketing copy to promote Betrayal at Blackthorn Park; attend a writer’s conference in the US
October - Write 2026 historical novel; work on developmental edits for Evelyne Redfern #3; promote release of Betrayal at Blackthorn Park; write social media and content marketing copy to promote The Dressmakers of London (out February 18, 2024)
November - Write 2026 historical novel; work on developmental edits for Evelyne Redfern #3; write social media and content marketing copy to promote The Dressmakers of London
December - Write 2026 historical novel; work on round 2 developmental edits for Evelyne Redfern #3; write social media and content marketing copy to promote The Dressmakers of London
Why anyone else would want to be able to do this, I don’t know.
For the sake of this, let’s say six months for a first draft and two months for a developmental edit.