One of the reasons I chose to publish my own work instead of seek a traditional publisher has a lot to do with deadlines and working under them. I don’t usually do my best work under pressure. It makes me feel stressed and rushed. I never really liked the idea of having to work on a set book release schedule, like a book a year (which is about the general schedule you’re expected once you get to the point of a multi-book contract, in order to keep up the momentum.)

You would think with a deadline it would cause me to get more done, but it really doesn’t. I’ve somehow gotten myself hooked into a self-imposed deadline now for the first print release of something like October 31st. This date sounds good to me cause it’s Halloween and I love Halloween. It’s also a really appropriate date to release a paranormal romance on. It also is in time for the holiday shopping season.

It would be “ideal” IMO to release then. And while having that deadline looming “should” make me work more consistently and harder every day to meet it, I find that the opposite happens. I freeze up, it’s too overwhelming, it’s too much to do etc. I feel like I’ll rush to meet the deadline and release a subpar book, which is the last thing I want.

I’ve recently been inspired by people who don’t release things on a deadline. They release them when they are ready to be released. And I think maybe as part of the freedom of publishing my own work I need to get out of my own way and work until something is ready, not work to meet a self-imposed deadline. Because then the date by when things should be done becomes more important than the quality of the work.

I remember when I was working on KEPT and trying to get the layout done. I had wanted to have the final edits and layout done by the end of last October, and instead KEPT ended up being released at the end of November. But it wasn’t until I released the idea of the deadline that I was able to get productive work done and make the forward momentum I needed.

Once I realized I couldn’t make the deadline and my choice was deadline or quality, I chose to let go of the deadline and just focus on the work. It would be done when it was done and then it would be released.

This is what I will have to do again. I have to let go of the notion of a “perfect release date.” There is no such thing. And especially as an indie, there is no pressure to have a certain number of sales or certain number of readers by a certain date. It just happens organically as it happens and that’s fine.

While I would like to release a book a year and think that’s a reasonable goal, I also have to remember that the best way to fail at that is to set that as a deadline/goal. If instead I just work at my own pace and release when things are ready it seems to work out better. One thing that worries me is what if I didn’t release exactly once a year? What if it was once every year and a half or two years? This is a concern because it’s considered unwise in the publishing business to have releases more than a year apart because you don’t want to lose momentum.

But I wonder how true that really is. Is this just a “theory” in the publishing world? So little is actually tested with market research I’m not sure exactly how they would know this as some kind of undisputed fact. So little market research and demographics is compiled in this industry. Even a year is a long time in our fast food world.

The value of fairly frequent releases I would think wouldn’t be so much that I would “keep momentum built” but that I would more quickly build a backlist. Because it’s when you have several books out and people want to check out your other stuff, that I think you’ve got momentum. I’m not really sold on this “one book a year” equals momentum theory.

So as of today I’m discarding this, because it’s not helpful to me. I’ve gotten back into a blank period where I haven’t gotten any work done, even though with a “looming deadline” I should be more disciplined. I just can’t work it up because the self-imposed pressure makes that creative side shut down and causes me to procrastinate further.

I can’t do creative things under stress/pressure. That’s not how creativity works for me.

I’ve got some new inspiration though. I’m going to drop the deadlines so I can just work and release work at my own pace, when that work is ready.