Welcome to the Pub Dates newsletter! Weāre so glad youāre here.
This newsletter is released as a companion to each podcast episode, and we use it to share the visual elements of our discussion ā from mood boards to design sketches, from photos to secret giveaways just for subscribers.
For the last few episodes youāve been hearing our callout for listener questions, and in episode eleven, we answered them! Well, some of them. There were a lot. We promised weād answer a couple of extra questions in the newsletter, so read on to find those!
First, though, you heard us talking in the intro about how excited we were to see Six the Musical. Well, we did, and it was even better than these two superfans imagined it could be. Here we are at the end, brimming with feminism and glitter, having just spent 75 minutes clapping and cheering.
Seriously, these women. So wildly talented. If you get the chance to go along, we canāt recommend it more highly, and if you canāt go, listen to it wherever you can! If you want to learn more about the Tudor queens, you can also check out Kateās current season of The Exploress podcast.
Now, we did say weād answer a couple of extra questions, so here we goā¦
From Brooke: Kate, how are you now a full time author when you donāt have a book out yet?
Kate: Hi Brooke!
Iām able to be a full-time author because of the glory that is the advance. When you make a deal with a publisher, you tend to get paid in two forms: advances and royalties. Royalties are a percentage of your bookās sales, so authors donāt see those until months after their bookās publication (and sometimes they donāt see them at all, but thatās a whole other topic). An advance is an up-front amount that your publisher pays you, and itās roughly based on how well they think your book will do.
Historically, the advance was paidā¦well...in advance of a bookās publication, and it was meant to help a writer pay their bills and keep on writing. Itās not exactly a salary, but it is a set amount of money that the publisher promises to pay their author, no matter how a book does when it finally comes out. These days, advances are usually paid out in chunks - sometimes three, or even four or five - over the course of the publication process. I got my first one upon signing my contract and will get my last one a year after Nightbirds comes out.
Very few authors get an advance thatās enough for them to live on: I know plenty of debuts who are still working full or part-time jobs. I feel very fortunate for this opportunity to devote myself fully to writing. And, of course, to making Pub Dates!
From Megan W: How long are deadlines on contract? I'm constantly terrified that I won't write fast enough for a publisher. Thanks in advance for the read!
Amie: Iāll take this one! Hi Megan!
The answer to this ā as with many things in publishing (and life) is āit depends.ā It depends on the author, on the publisherās timelines, on the particular project, all kinds of things.
If a project is time sensitive, it could happen on a very short deadlineāthis is sometimes called ācrashingā a book, and it means that not just the author, but everyone at the publisher works to much quicker deadlines than usual, to hustle the book through. Thatās rare, though.
More usually, Iād say that on average, the time from a book being acquired to the book being published is roughly two years. Many publishers want (or need) the text of a book locked as far out as a year before publication, to allow for everything from the distribution of advance reader copies, to printing and shipping in this age of supply chain issues. So that means you and your editor have about a year to pass the book back and forth and get your edits and copy edits done.
This is really a situation where your mileage may vary, though ā I sold Isles to my publisher three years out from publication, because I wanted to have a long time to get other projects put to bed, and get my draft to where I wanted to be. I also had a small child, and knew I would be slow. Other friends who write slowly have negotiated long deadlines upfront to accommodate this. In this respect, itās really the same as in any other job ā you communicate up front, and then you keep communicating about what will be done, and when.
From Neve: LOOOOOOVE the podcast! It's really interesting for me as I'm only a teenager, but I know I want to be an author as an adult, so it's cool to see behind the scenes of publishing. I actually listen to both of your podcasts separately, so when I heard about this one, I was like, OH MY GOODNESS I HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS!!! And the icebreakers are awesome by the way (I would travel back in time to 1915 Australia so I don't have to do any research for my history assignment š). Question: how long did it take you to write your first drafts? It takes me sooooo loooooong just to finish the first couple of chapters, honestly.
Amie: Hi Neve! This is actually a complicated one for me. Usually Iād say I spend a month or two outlining, and then draft a book over the course of about four months. So itās maybe six months all up ā though that has varied wildly from book to book.
For this book, though? Totally different. The characters and the opening came to me in a blinding flash in 2013. I was so excited that I was writing snatches of it when I was literally with other people, completely antisocial. I knew I had something special, and I was sure Iād have the whole thing soon enough.
Exceptā¦ I didnāt. I couldnāt make the middle work, and slowly I began to realise that Iād had an idea bigger than my own skill level. I had to put Isles aside and get better, before I was ready to write the story. I kept thinking about it over the years, pulling out that first chapter or two and gazing at them, and then putting it back in the drawer.
Finally, a few years ago, I was ready. By then Iād been working with my editor, Melanie Nolan (youāll meet her in a future episode) for two series and six books, so I was able to sell Isles to her before it was written. We talk about that in our episode titled āA Modest Proposal.ā Once that was done, funnily enough, the drafting tookā¦ about six months.
Kate, you didnāt write Nightbirds under contract ā how long did you take?
Kate: Hi Neve!
The first thing that came to mind in trying to answer your question was āwell, how longās a piece of string?ā Drafting usually takes me quite a while, if I'm honest, but itās hard to put a concrete number on it because most of the novels Iāve ever written were written in fits and starts. My first novel took me perhaps six months to draft; one of my later novels took me something like 1.5 years.
I started Nightbirds in 2018, wrote about 10,000 or 20,000 words, and then stopped so I could sit down and really think through the story and the world building, because I knew I didnāt have a firm enough handle on it yet to keep going. I didnāt finish drafting it until 2020, but it didnāt REALLY take me all that time to do the actual writing. I took long breaks in there, because other projects demanded my attention, and also because sometimes I need to stop and let a story marinate before I can move forward with confidence.
But Iāll tell you a secret: sometimes I draft slowly because Iām a bit of a perfectionist. This means my first drafts tend to be fairly polished, but it also means I sometimes get bogged down in things that might not matter later. Iām trying to change my ways as I write Nightbirdsā sequel, though! Iām writing on contract, after all, and Iām now writing full time. Plus, I think thereās a lot to be said for drafting swiftly and boldly: donāt let your inner critic get in the way. Write the story as you see it, skip parts you arenāt sure about yet, take chances. And it terms of first chapters, donāt sweat it if it feels like they take you a long time. Youāre still getting to know the story and the characters and their world. I think of starting a new draft as trying to get an old fashioned train out of a station: itās slow, at first, because the engine isnāt warmed up yet, but once the train gets moving things tend to move faster.
Thatās it for this episode ā weāll see you next time! And if this episode inspired you to ask a question of your own, you can leave it in the comments, and weāll add it to the list for our end-of-year Q&A episode.
Thanks for answering my questions! It was such a fun episode! And I have to admit I freaked out when Amie started talking about how she views the alphabet because Iām the same way and everyone looks at me funny when I tell them about it. To me each letter has a color and mood and thatās usually what I gravitate to when trying to name a character.
Such a great episode and really appreciate your thoughtful answer to my question. Also "a little"š relieved that Amie shares my habit of qualifying unnecessarily because my CP is always pulling me up on that one! š