How I published Four Books in Two Years

For several years I wrote novels that didn’t get published. I wrote them, sent them to my mother or a friend to read, and then put them away. They weren’t strong enough; that’s what I told myself. And in retrospect, I was probably right about those early books. Two of them are collecting dust in my closet despite my mother’s entreaties to dust them off. But I learned a lot from writing them.

Then three years ago, I started writing Up at Butternut Lake, which would become my first published novel. After sending the original manuscript to an agent and then cutting a daunting 20,000 words on her recommendation, she found me an editor at William Morrow and a three book contract for a trilogy set on Butternut Lake! I couldn’t believe it. After I popped the champagne, I thought, you’d better get to work!

Up at Butternut Lake was published in April 2014. The second book in the series, Butternut Summer, was release August 2014 and the third book, Moonlight on Butternut Lake, was published on May 12 of this year. I also wrote a Butternut Lake ebook novella that was published in December 2014.

Four books in thirteen months! That’s writing, editing, and promoting non-stop for the last two years! And it won’t stop because last fall I signed another contract with Harper Collins for two more books to add to the Butternut Lake series. I’m working on the fourth book now about two sisters who spend the summer together on Butternut Lake.

If you’re wondering what happened, how did I get from no works published to four in less than two years, I’m still asking myself that question. But what I can say is that I worked really really really hard! That I love what I do and care deeply about the characters and stories I’ve brought to fruition. I have an amazing agent and editor. And I listened to advice, followed it when it seemed sensible, but held my ground when it was important to me.

Beyond that, I have a handful of thoughts that helped me to get to this point, handle an intense workload, and complete several deadlines.

Write and don’t get discouraged: Try to write every day, even if it’s only for thirty minutes or an hour. Those minutes will eventually add up to a book. I know it sounds crazy, but if you strive to write 500 words a day (less than one page single spaced), five days a week, you will have a full-length book in eight months. At the very least you will have a first draft.

Find a place to write: Virginia Woolf once said that a woman should have a room of her own in order to write. Unfortunately, we don’t all have the luxury of having a quiet room we can call our own. I’ve never had an actual office. I write in my living room or dining room when it is quiet, at a local donut shop when there is an available table, and at a stall in the nearby library when I need silence. But any number of places can work. You need to figure out what works for you.

Structure your book: This crazy schedule of writing, editing and promoting, forced me to be very organized and to structure the books I was writing in a very detailed and meticulous way. I had to plan out each book by section or scene, not chapter. By doing this I could plan where the character development and plot turns would take place.

A writing teacher once told me to be sure that every scene and event either tells the reader something they need to know about the characters or it moves the plot forward. So I wrote out an outline delineating each scene in the book. Sometimes two or three scenes will be in the same chapter, but by breaking it down this way you can see whether your character is developing and where the shifts in the plot take place.

Think about your characters: Who are they? And how do they change over the course of the book? Do they grow and realize things that will resonate with the reader. And do you have some peripheral characters? You don’t want too many peripheral characters, but you do want some that come into contact with your main characters. These peripheral characters do not need to change or grow or develop in the same way your main characters do. But they fill in the narrative and populate the world your main characters live in.

Promote your book with a clear and concise message. Use radio, essays, articles, book readings, blog posts, and social media. Have a clear message about your book. Why you wrote it and what it is about. You can describe your book without giving the whole plot away. The important thing is to convey why it was important for you to write.

Finally, find people who support and encourage you. Writing is hard and sometimes lonely, but it’s also one of my favorite things in the world to do. I wish you all the best! Mary

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MARY MCNEAR, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lake series, writes her novels in a local donut shop where she sips Diet Pepsi, observes the hubbub of neighborhood life, and tries to resist the constant temptation of freshly made donuts. Mary bases her novels on a lifetime of summers spent in a small town on a lake in the northern Midwest. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, two teenage children, and a high-strung, minuscule white dog named Macaroon.

Follow her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaryMcNearAuthor

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7127299.Mary_McNear

Buy the trilogy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Moonlight-Butternut-Lake-Novel-Trilogy/dp/0062283189

Tags: featured, publishing, trilogy

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips