Time, Deadlines and Success in Publishing

Publishing is all about timing. We all know that if you are in the right place, at the right time, with the right book, your story will make it. Today, however, I want to look at a couple of other aspects of time that might add to your success. 

First of all, let's talk about the issue of timeliness. 

I don't know how many times I have had a submission come in from an author that I thought had some potential. So I ask for more. It might be a partial, or it might be a full manuscript. And I never hear, or worse yet, I hear up to 6 months later. Really? What happened? I WAS excited then but the odds are, that excitement is completely gone. I might not even remember what it was that sounded interesting. Sure, I have a note in my log of requesting the material but that is about it. If you can't get back to someone in a timely manner, you are just shooting yourself in the foot.

In the last 6-12 months or so, I have had a couple of projects that I was VERY excited about. I told the authors to send me that additional material. I had editors that I knew were interested. It is now April and I have yet to hear from them.  

Timeliness is also a factor when it comes to your production rate. We know that authors are successful when there is a constant reminder of their name in the public. But, if you can only produce one book a year, don't count on a lot of success. Readers will have moved on. Remember, as soon as they read a book of yours and they love it, they will immediately go out to find your next book. If there isn't one, then they move on.

The other aspect of time is that of deadlines. Editors can and will be flexible when things come up with not being able to get a book finished. I do want to remind you that we are not talking about months but maybe a week extra to get that book finished. However, if this happens all of the time, you simply will not see those great release times in the future. I think authors forget that there are a lot of other people involved with the production of your book. Everyone is waiting on you.