All the Other Kinds of Writing by Dianne K. Salerni

I think all aspiring writers imagine what it’s like when you finally publish a book:

Digging back into research
for a book I wrote 7 years ago.

deadlines for your editor, biting nails over your reviews, book signings, and etc. But I for one never realized just how much writing I’d have to do that wasn’t manuscript writing.

A lot of us have our own blogs, of course. Personally, I post twice a week at my own blog and once a month here at Project Mayhem. Occasionally I post for my agent’s blog.

Then there’s blog tours around the release of your book. Some authors create one release promo and send it out to everybody participating in the tour – or offer a choice of three. In my opinion, it’s a bit of a cheat to the bloggers and the blog readers when the exact same thing appears on 30 blogs. I’ve stopped accepting those on my personal blog, and I’m definitely not going to take that approach for my own blog tour. Anyone who's kind enough to host me is going to get an original post.

Interviews are easy. You answer the questions. Guest posts are trickier, especially if you’ve just publicly declared (ahem!) that you plan to make each one unique.

But that’s not all. My publicist pitched me and my book to Huffington Post, and they said they’d consider accepting an article on X topic. So, there’s an assigned article for me to write – and hope they like – and hope they post. It’s not guaranteed.

My agent recently asked for a 1 page synopsis on two different books, to be used in pitching for film and foreign rights. So don’t think you’re done with the dreaded synopsis after your querying days are over. I also didn’t realize I’d be the one to write sales announcements. They are harder than they look!

Last week, I wrote an 8-page synopsis of the second EIGHTH DAY book and a 5-page plan for the series story arc.  This weekend, my To-Do list includes: the proposed Huffington Post article, 2 posts for my own blog, this post for Project Mayhem, and two guest posts for THE CAGED GRAVES tour -- one on the inspiration for the story and one on mortsafes.

Then, on Friday night, the producer of the short film based on WE HEAR THE DEAD called me. The producer and director are working on a “series bible” – a proposal for a television series based on the film and the book. The producer wanted to know if I could compile a list of events in the Fox sisters’ lives that didn’t make it into my book, as well as every séance trick I can think of. So exciting! But since I wrote that novel in 2006, this is going to require digging back into my original research. 

I've been writing like a maniac all week and never touched any of my manuscripts. Who knew?