Saturday, November 10, 2012

Waiting at the Finish Line

I had a chance to stop by BAM last night, and after checking out all the new releases I picked up some books that I'm going to save to read as my reward for crossing the NaNoWriMo finish line:



I have a few more to get that have yet to be released; Rogue Rider, Larissa Ione's latest release, will be out on the 20th, and Shawntelle Madison's Kept will hit the shelves on the 27th. I was hoping Linda Howard's Shadow Woman would be out in November, too, but looks like we have to wait until January (and for an excellent list of all the paranormal and fantasy reads that will be released in November check out this post by Jackie over at Literary Escapism.)

I'm late setting up my prize for NaNoWriMo because a) I've been insanely busy writing one book, revising another, and promoting a third, all in one month, and b) for all my planning I really didn't think about what sort of reward I wanted for winning. Maybe writing this book is kind of the reward.

I know, you're shaking your head, but it's true. I get to do whatever I want with this story for an entire month. Unlike my 2009 NaNo novel I'm not going to try to sell it; once I finish Taken by Night I'll be adding it to my library of free reads. So when I'm done I'll really be done -- no pitching it to the agent, no writing up proposals, no contract negotiations, none of that.

Simply selling a book often takes five times as long as it does for me to write it. Add to that the editorial, coming up with new titles, revisions, galleys, production, hiding under the bed until the cover art comes in, hiding under the bed again after seeing the cover art . . . you get the general idea. Taking a book from idea to release date takes me about two years on average; multiple that by 50 novels (I'm currently in editorial on my 50th, which by the time it's released will have taken four years) and you can understand why for once being able to skip all that for once is a genuine reward.

What's waiting for you at your NaNoWriMo finish line? Let us know in comments.

6 comments:

  1. So far I don't have a finish line for 50K. I do have a daily finish line for when I meet my 2k/day goal, though. That finish line consists of a pat on the back from my boyfriend and a York Peppermint Patty. What can I say? Chocolate is a good reward.

    Actually, getting back in the habit of writing is the biggest reward I could ask for. I guess that's my NaNoWriMo finish line reward...

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  2. Recently read Soulless by Gail Carriger, after hearing about it a few times around the internet. I loved it so much, it's the only book I've ever read from cover to cover twice in the same day. It's got all the wit and fun of Georgette Heyer plus vampires and werewolves -- pure joy!

    Hence my reward for finishing NaNo (I call it my NaNo carrot) is the next four books in the series. Can't wait!

    My three kids are all doing the junior version of NaNo, and they also each have a much-desired book awaiting them at the finishing line. There'll be a lot of happy readers in our house come December.

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  3. I'm not doing NaNo, but co-incidentally I will be finishing a book at the end of the month. I have a huge sheet of watercolor paper waiting for me.

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  4. What I really want will never be at my finish line, so the next best thing is just writing again every day. One word or 1000, it doesn't matter. Writing. That's what counts.

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  5. I have some of these books and its really amazing and i am waiting for the shadow Woman to get release.

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  6. I'm not doing NaNo, but if I finish this book by the end of the year, I'm treating myself to...something. Dunno what. but something.

    Hope ya like STOLEN!

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