Comments on: What was I thinking? https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&%23038;utm_campaign=what-was-i-thinking Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism Tue, 31 Aug 2004 13:37:54 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Gena Showalter https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-141 Tue, 31 Aug 2004 13:37:54 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-141 My publishers work very well with each other — they’ve been amazing about the whole thing, in fact. We’re even doing some cross-promotion.

Here’s how it goes: My agent and I work up deadline dates, and then she lets each publisher know when the other will be publishing what. I’m pretty much on a schedule with HQN, having a book out every Feb. and Sept. Right now with Pocket, I’m scheduled for June 2005.

]]> By: Natalie Damschroder https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-140 Tue, 31 Aug 2004 13:26:55 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-140 How do your publishers feel about each other? Do they take the other house’s release dates into consideration when they schedule your books? I think I recall that you’re agented…if so, does your agent help with your calendaring for deadline dates for contracts and stuff, or is it all up to you to remember that maybe you can’t write two whole books in six weeks?

]]> By: Gena Showalter https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-132 Mon, 30 Aug 2004 21:53:24 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-132 And I’m still trying to learn that secret handshake. The moment I have it memorized, I’ll post.

]]> By: Gena Showalter https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-130 Mon, 30 Aug 2004 20:48:17 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-130 You know, when I’m writing that rough draft, I hate to take time to look something up (damn laziness!). So if I can’t remember someone’s hair/eye color, I’ll just write something like this and I know to look that up before I type it in the computer. The civilization rules are pretty much drilled into my brain. And I must say, when I mess something up my critique partners are great about catching it. I don’t know where I’d be without them.

]]> By: Kate Rothwell https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-129 Mon, 30 Aug 2004 20:37:12 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-129 whoops sent too soon. . .do you have characteristics of the secondary characters memorized or listed somewhere so that when they get their own book they’re consistent? Charts? Folders? The notebooks? Or just your head?

]]> By: Kate Rothwell https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-128 Mon, 30 Aug 2004 20:33:58 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-128 Holy MOLY. Wow. Gena! You’re amazing.

I whined endlessly (yeah, still doing it) when I had to write a book in five weeks. I’m a pantzer too, but I had some trouble keeping my characters and sub-plots straight when I was “rushing” that book and copyediting another. How do you keep your civilizations and their rules straight? Do you refer to those notebooks?

So. . . what about that secret handshake?

]]> By: Natalie Damschroder https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-127 Mon, 30 Aug 2004 20:31:12 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-127 They sound excellent, and I can’t wait for all of them. 🙂

]]> By: Gena Showalter https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-126 Mon, 30 Aug 2004 19:48:45 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-126 Natalie, you certainly picked my favorite topic so it’s not work at all! My books for HQN are all paranormal/fantasy romance. The first two have alien heroes, and that second book is titled The Pleasure Slave, due out February 2005. The third has a dragon changeling hero (due September 2005), the fourth has a human (gasp!) hero — the heroine is not quite human, however — and the fifth is a secret — but let’s just say I’m very excited to write that book. All of the above mentioned books are connected slightly through secondary characters, though absolutely stand alone. My books for Pocket are part of an Alien Huntress series. The first is due June 2005 under a promo called The Bad Girls of Downtown Press. I’m so excited about all of these books that I almost can’t wait for the release dates to get here!

]]> By: Natalie Damschroder https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-125 Mon, 30 Aug 2004 19:31:55 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-125 So, Gena, what are the books about? Is the second HQN book connected to the first? Are the three (and more) after that connected as well? Or are you doing all stand-alone books? How about the Pocket books? Do you anticipate selling more to Pocket? And what are the release dates of all the books that have them so far?

Sorry, I’m making you work hard today. 🙂

]]> By: Gena Showalter https://booksquare.com/what-was-i-thinking/#comment-124 Mon, 30 Aug 2004 18:53:14 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2004/08/30/554/#comment-124 I write everything down in notebooks — but the real magic happens if I’m able to find the notebook again and retrieve the brilliant, my-story-can’t-survive-without-it idea. If I can’t find the idea notebook (which is more often than not), I just make something else up and try to keep a mental list of what I’ve done and want to do. Also, I write all my rough drafts long hand, so will sometimes scribble notes in the margins and pray I can read those later. Does this method suck? You bet, but it works for me so I won’t complain too much.

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