Make Self-Imposted Deadlines

  

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As a writer, you can stand out from other writers with a simple action: meet or exceed your deadlines. From my work as a magazine editor and now a book editor, I’ve watched the results with many types of authors. The majority of them are notorious late. Book authors agree to the deadline when they sign the contract. As an editor, I’ve heard almost every possible excuse from the authors why they can’t meet their deadline. Some editors build fudge room into their schedule planning

editors and others count on that deadline to launch product in the market. 

Recently at Morgan James Publishing, the leadership changed the point in production process when they were setting the launch date for the book. They were setting the date at a point when the author had not delivered the final manuscript. The authors were missing that deadline, then the launch release date had to be changed internally. In the chain of a book release, the sales team, the retailers and many others depend on the accuracy of this release date. When the date gets moved it causes issues with these various groups. The author is oblivious to this chaos from simply delivering a late manuscript. Now the team including the author will set the launch date at a point where the manuscript is finished and in place so this deadline will not need to be moved. 

When I worked at David C. Cook as an acqusitions editor, one day the managing editor came to my desk with an assignment saying, “Get this author to turn in his book manuscript.” I agreed to get in touch with this author, who I knew and several years earlier I had ghostwritten one of his books. 

Before I reached out to the author about the book, I gathered more details about the book. It turned out to be years late. Cook had paid a sizeable advance for this book and nothing would be recovered for that payment until we got the manuscript and sold it into the bookstores. I asked my editor for the author’s phone number but she didn’t have it nor was it in our internal records--and I found this missing detail fascinating. I had a number but it was old and didn't connect with the author.

As a representative of the publisher, I decided to call this author’s office. I spoke with his assistant. She refused to give me the number, saying she had no idea if I worked for the publisher (during the days before caller ID). I persisted and read the number that I had including the area code. She told me I had the right phone number but felt comfortable to tell me that the area code had been changed. Now with the number, I called this author’s home and immediately was in touch with his wife about the very late manuscript. Later I spoke with the author about this manuscript and I made sure my colleagues at Cook had his home phone number in their records.

When you (or your agent) negotiates a book contract, you will have a deadline (which you can change and extend before you sign). Once you agree to this deadline, then you have to figure out how to commit the time and make or exceed your deadline.

As a young journalist, I learned the importance of deadlines. At the newspaper, we would have story meetings at 7 am where we got our writing assignments. Our deadline for delivering that story was 11 am then the story was edited, typeset and in the afternoon paper which came out at 3 pm. In those days we did not have a computer but used a manual typewriter and learned the importance of meeting deadlines.

I’ve worked at newspapers, magazines and book publishers. The quickest deadlines are with newspapers, then magazines have a longer deadline. Books have the longest deadline but are also more words than a magazine article. 

For every deadline, the writer has to figure out how many words they need to write in a certain time period to meet the deadline. Also you need to build in some time to review your writing, make revisions then submit your final version. In the old days, we mailed our computer disk or our manuscript. Now with the speed of internet, you have to meet your deadline.

As a writer, you have to understand how many hours will you have to be at your computer and how many words can you write during that time period so you will achieve your deadline. No one writes a 50,000 or 100,000 word book in a single day. Instead the story is written in chunks of time and persistent work to complete and successfully send the work. This process is the same whether it is your first book or you have written many books. 

Are you committed to hitting your deadlines? Have you understood the chaos you produce for others when you miss a deadline? What self-imposed steps do you take with your writing to meet your deadlines? I look forward to your answers in the comments.

Tweetable:

Every writer has to make self-imposed deadlines according to this prolific author and editor. Also he explains some of the unforeseen events when a writer misses the deadline. Get the details here.  (ClickToTweet)

I’m currently working for my third publisher as an acquisitions editor. Without exaggeration, I’ve spoken with hundreds of authors about their books and plans. Over and over, I find many authors have an unrealistic expectation for what will happen when their book gets published. I know much of the publishing process is outside of anything that an author can control. I wrote 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS, which is a practical easy reading book to help you. Get my decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses.

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