REGULARITY

Successful authors have many qualities that can be learned, but there is one that isn’t a question of learning. It’s a question of discipline.

If you publish a book every two years, readers come to expect a new book from you every two years. Your publisher is counting on that too. It creates a level sense of expectation. You deliver on time and you’re not letting anyone down.

Some authors fail to understand this. They think they can write a new book any old time, which offsets the regularity and becomes confusing. This is especially true when a book is too late to be published when it was scheduled and it has to be moved. That upsets the production team at the publisher, it disappoints the booksellers, and it creates a senses that the author is not reliable. If you get on a roll and then take time off and start again, only to stop again and then start again, you are creating a roller coaster that drives everyone else crazy.

If the readers don’t get the book they expect, they are not going to hang around and wait. They will find other authors to read and may or may not get to your book when it finally appears, but the apple cart is now unsteady. You will unquesti0nably lose some readers, because you weren’t there when they were expecting you.

Let’s look further. You sign a contract with a publisher and they schedule the book. This schedule is shared with the entire company, so that each stage of production can proceed accordingly. When the book is late, it throws everything off.

But the worst part is when it’s so late that it has to be moved. Not only does it upset the production, but now they must find another book to put in its place. And where are they going to put your book? Since most months are scheduled a year in advance and already taken, they may need to bump someone else’s book to accommodate yours. It’s like a house of cards and someone just tapped the first card. All the other cards fall down.

Life happens. Sometimes you need more time or you have a disaster or the economy changes in such a way that schedules change. None of these things may be your fault, but they nevertheless have an effect.

So the moral of this story is to be on time. A deadline is a normal part of business and of life. Take it seriously. I promise that if you take it seriously, your publisher will take you more seriously. You need to be able to trust them and they need to be able to trust you.