Staying on schedule

Lynne Patrick

This time last year I was writing cover blurbs for five titles, each of which was neatly stowed in a publishing slot with a production schedule drawn up and an ISBN allocated.

Looking back at the scarily efficient person who achieved that orderly and systematic piece of organisation, I hardly recognise myself. This year’s situation is far more me.

I think I know what we’re publishing next year. I do know what’s coming out in April and May; the June, July, August and September titles are in progress, but at this precise moment I still don’t know what order they’ll be in. I had it all worked out, until one author surprised me by promising to deliver a manuscript three months before I was expecting it. Then blow me down if another didn’t do the same thing!

But whatever I decide, and whichever title gets placed where/when in the year, everything has to be pretty well set in stone by early November. Publishing works months in advance. And we work relatively quickly. The kind of publishing house which brings out more titles in a month than we do in a year is probably planning for 2011 by now.

I’ve heard it described as a process akin to pregnancy and giving birth, and though I’ve never personally experienced the same degree of physical pain (could be different for authors, of course…) the nine-month span, rushing to meet deadlines (keeping clinic appointments – geddit?) and sense of euphoria and achievement at the end seems to fit.

But at the moment that all seems a long way ahead, with a whole lot of hurdles to jump.

Especially since I’ll be taking three weeks out in late September/early October.

My pre-vacation to-do list looks something like this:

-  Check we have enough ISBNs. If we haven’t, order a new supply. (Not often a problem for big companies, who order hundreds if not thousands at a time. Since the choice is ten or a hundred, and a hundred would last until my teeth and hair and possibly brain were falling out, we buy them ten at a time.)

-  Talk to the cover illustrator and designer, both freelances, to ensure they know what they have to work with. In fact, to ensure they’re still part of the team next year. I live in dread of one of them pulling out.

-  Juggle the production schedule into shape. At the moment the words Either and Or appear far too often for comfort!   

-  Draft contracts for the authors. Since all our contracts are the same, this is pretty routine, but it still takes time.

-  Start editing the first title, which is my special concern. I almost said baby. Not quite.

-  Somewhere in the gaps, fit in a promotion event in a bookshop an hour’s drive away; a press release about Crème de la Crime’s presence at BoucherCon (two authors, and I’ll be lurking behind a few pillars too) to the Baltimore area newspapers; preparation for a workshop I’m running at a book festival the week we get back; three visits to the theatre – did I mention I moonlight as a reviewer for my own local paper?; prepare publicity material for six promotion events which are happening within a month of our return; and a modicum of laundry and packing for three weeks in the USA. All this and keeping abreast of whatever arises day by day. Oh, and my weekly Dead Guy slot…

I think I have my work cut out for the next few weeks.