There's More To Writing a Book Than Just Writing

My writing output has been a little ragged lately.

I give myself plenty of time to complete a book. I also keep myself on an easy schedule – produce 1,000 words a day, seven days a week. Once I get going, it's pretty easy to surpass 1,000 words. If I miss a day or two here and there, I don't worry about it. I have enough days where my output tops 3,000 words to make up for it.

But lately I've missed A LOT of days.

There are the usual interruptions when you write more than one book a year. The copyedited manuscripts to look at. No sooner do I get one completed when the next one comes in. These have a knack for being delivered just as I am preparing to go on vacation. I worked with the copyedits for If These Walls Could Talk while on my Florida vacation over the holidays, punching holes in the manuscript pages and putting them in a large binder that I carried with me. A few weeks later, the galleys for A Love For All Seasons arrived. Then there are interviews, promo material to send to conferences, a couple of signings during Black History Month . . . all of which take time.

With all that behind me now, it's nearly May and the books will be out soon (A Love For All Seasons is already on sale in many areas), so it's time to get the word out. Over the years I've amassed quite a mailing list, which has been rather haphazard, at least until now (many names are on the small forms people have filled out at my book signings.) As I inform everyone who has e-mailed me over the years about my new releases I am finally getting the list unified and in order, to prevent me from sending out duplicate notices and annoying people (okay, if any of these people also belong to my website mailing list they might get two, but hey, nothing's perfect.) This is such a huge undertaking that some days go by without me writing a word. But hey, what's the point in writing a book if I'm not going to tell anybody about it?

Fortunately, even with all that's going on, I'm still on schedule with the mainstream project I'm calling The First Fifty Years. It's due in New York on July 1st, which by coincidence is the day I wrap up my own first fifty years. My 50th birthday is July 2nd.

This business is definitely not for the easily fatigued.