I'm trying to sort through the massive change that's transpired over this year. For at least half of my career, I could pitch an idea and if it was liked I would go forward. For the other half I had to write the whole thing before it was considered. You might think writing the whole thing came first. No, it came last. As if the fact I have published a good number of books already said nothing about my ability to write a book. (I have an analogy here but I'm not going to use it.)
I really started to hate this business and not want to write anymore. I prayed to not write anymore. Then the great blessing of ebooks arrived and over the course of the year, I started to love the process of creating a book.
You can't pitch anyone an ebook, you have to write it. So if I'm not getting the balm of money to write a less than pleasurable book, I should love the project. I'm sort of right back to the beginning of my career when I loved what I wrote and that was the reason for it.
I don't know what I'll write next. Bad Apple 3 probably. Just Kate is my bestselling book at B&N, followed by Summer Horse. At Amazon it's Not Low Maintenance. This doesn't tell me anything. A Young Adult book, a Middle Reader book and a Women's Fiction atypical love story that doesn't follow the romance formula.
How lucky that all these books are finding an audience. In the world of tradpub, this kind of shotgun approach is frowned upon. And Joe Konrath proves me wrong every day. Stick to what you're good at. Stick to the one thing. We can't pigeonhole you if you don't stick to one thing. That tyranny is dead. Although I'm sure it's still very valid advice in epub--get a lot of books under your belt about vampires or brutal killers and the audience will find you.
The next post will be the recipe for Indian Pudding, something required at this time of year.
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