I have been writing, more or less full time, for a couple of years now. I have come out with two novels, and I have a third which is close to completion. I conceived an anthology of short stories, even if I could not quite bring it to term and had to hand it over to someone else to midwife at the end.
Right now I am working on a novel with a co-author that is very different than anything I have ever attempted. It is a historical fiction, third person with multiple points of view, a hybrid Cold War Era thriller and literary romance.
I am staying fairly productive and feeling good about how I am developing as a writer.
I do have to face that I am not a good publisher, however. I think I’ve given it a good shot, but I’m really spinning my wheels. Granted, lately I have not been working on promotion, but there have been times when I have, to very little avail.
So I am still working on finding a publisher to work with. I did have one prospect that looked good at the beginning, but right now I am counting down the last few days to the “if you haven’t heard anything by now the answer is no” date.
So next week I’ll most likely be working on sending out queries again. I’m not happy about that, but I do believe that selling my books once, to a publisher, is going to be easier in the long run than trying to continually sell my work to the public.
Not that I expect a publisher to do all (or even most) of the promotion. However, having a publisher with an existing product line and their own web presence is going to make that a lot easier, not to mention handling editing and formatting issues.
I really want to be able to concentrate on writing, and that’s tough to do while also trying to be editor and publisher and book designer and marketer and salesman.
It’s hard for me to focus when I have multiple tasks. Everything gets so overwhelming that I dither and try to decide what to do next. I’ve boiled things down to three jobs:
Finish The Worms Of Heaven.
Continue working with my co-author on the Cold War book.
Find a publisher to handle The Book Of Lost Doors series.
That, I think I can handle.
mishaburnett 
You’re a great writer, Misha. All you need is someone with a printing press to realize it.
Thank you. It can be really hard to keep going, and comments like this make all the difference.
I do hope you keep going – I’m almost finished catskinner’s book and I wish it didn’t have to end. So glad I still have another published book to look forward to!
It’s good to look over what will help you move forwards 🙂
How are you dealing with the multiple POVs in your next project? I was thinking of trying in my next book, but it’s not something I’ve done before.
It’s interesting, we are taking turns writing sections and so we are each writing our own versions of the character’s perspective. So far it seems to be working, but it may end up being awfully busy before we’re done with it.
You’ve just described one of the reasons I’m frozen at the moment. Not writing, not promoting, not doing anything related. Because there’s just too much to do and I’m worn out by it all.
It’s so easy to get overwhelmed. But it’s like the old joke about how you eat an elephant–one bite at a time.
I’m trying to get in that frame of mind, but am still working on it. Struggling with which bite to take first.
I like your plan. Simple plans are the best. I should probably do something similar myself, because I have about a gazillion things going on and none of them are moving forward. I personally vote that you do #1 first and finish The Worms of Heaven, because I really want to read it! 🙂
I’m working on it, Michelle. Where’s “Chasing Nonconformity”, BTW?
Ahhhhhhh I know! It’s currently in my mother’s hands. She’s supposed to finish her read-through by the end of May, otherwise I disown her and she’s not allowed to go to our friend’s wedding. Granted, I don’t actually have a system in place for stopping her from attending, beyond shaking my head and making “tut tut” noises …
Just seems marketing could be easier if there were genre platforms out there on the web with a lot of traffic. Even if they crossed a bit. A greater concentration of books for specific audiences in one place for customers to peruse.
I think that there are for some genres. Many of the romance subgenres have active fan/writer sites fro promotion. So far as I know there isn’t really one for what I write, whatever it is.
I like multiple POV and it’s coming back into style I think. All we can do is what we can do and take on the possible not the impossible. I have to get back to promotion I wish I could find the magic answer