It's Summertime in Publishing World
What does that mean for writers?
When I embarked on my published author career in 2006, publishing was still an old-school business in many ways. There were a lot of phone calls; so much overnighting of paper manuscripts, proofs, and contracts; and summers felt completely dead.
Technology has changed those first two things quite a bit (for better and worse), but summers can still be very quiet.
Yes, people are still working. Deals are still getting done. One of my contacts says, “It’s a year-round business now in a way that it wasn’t before. Seasons mean less; big books are published all year.”
However, there’s no denying that things slow down in the summer months. And in the COVID era, people are also taking more time off and really being off during that time. As a culture in general, we’re starting to see behind the curtain of hustle and that there’s really no reward for being the kind of person who is always available, even while on vacation. So people in publishing, as in other places, are using their PTO more and seeking better balance. As it should be! It’s either that or get burnt out to an absolute crisp.
What does that all mean for writers?
Whether you’re a working author already in the publishing machinery, like me, or someone in the phase of researching and submitting, I think it’s a good time to quiet down.
If you’ve got stuff out on submission or are waiting to hear back from the various people who have the power to say yes or no or maybe to your work, July probably isn’t the time to obsessively check your email or be overly aggressive in following up.
Instead, keep working on the next thing, tinker with a new idea, go out into the world and remember or reassess what you care about. Or, if it’s fun for you, use the time to learn a new aspect of the business: how marketing works, where to publish short or longform works, who is publishing your kind of book and what’s selling in that category.
As someone in the machine with a few books in various stages of the process, but nothing brand new to promote at the moment (and no new student work coming via my MFA pipeline until August), this month I’m giving myself completely to the actual writing part of being a writer.
My twitter and instagram look like this right now, because as I mentioned in the last edition, it’s important for me to make it as difficult as possible for me to doom and anxiety and hate scroll:
So, it’s 100 degrees and all hustle has ceased. I come to my WIP not with aggressive word count goals and a can-do hard pants, but with an iced coffee and might-do bike shorts. I’m planning a big road trip and getting my van in order. I’m putting off new consulting clients until August, doing some long-range planning, and dealing with recent life changes. [Obligatory aside regarding the State of the World.]
If you’ve got kids that are home during summer days when you’re used to them being gone, you already know all about seasonally adjusting your expectations and approach.
Whatever your situation, drop a comment about how your routine or writing practice changes in the summer!
For my summer entertainment, I’ve started a full re-watch of the original Beverly Hills 90210. The series started two years after I graduated from high school, and you can really see the 1980s turning into the 1990s before your very eyes. Right now it’s a comfort watch and hate watch and bad-good and good-bad all at once. Also: consider the effect that one person, Aaron Spelling, has had. One person’s vision shouldn’t have such a major role in shaping culture. Imagine all the different timelines we could be on if his vision hadn’t dominated TV for so long, and I’d posit he also had a huge influence on what came out of YA for awhile. Now we’re more in the Marvel era, which I think is similarly too influential. It’s always worth thinking about what influences what we write, and if we really want to let it.
I want to explore this podcast.
Anyone who was long ago disqualified from being eligible for anything like 5 Under 35, or even under 45, take heart from the Julia Child documentary recently released on various platforms for rent (or included in HBO). Not the fictional series of the same name, mind you. If these two actors could play high school students well into their thirties, you can start a new career after 50, like Julia.
This Creative Life is a book, a newsletter, and a podcast from me, Sara Zarr, about reading between the lines of a writing life. The newsletter and podcast are free; buying the book helps support them and me. You can also make one-time contributions if you like. Check out the options under Support at thiscreative.life or jump right to ko-fi. Sharing the newsletter is also a great way to keep it going!
