Ask the Author: Joey Paul
Answered Questions (8)
Joey Paul
I'm an indie author, and I have a similar process to traditionally published and other indie authors. This is going to be a long answer, so I'll try to condense it.
When I write a book, it takes me anywhere from a year to two years to finish it. I usually write two at the same time, as that works for me to keep the ideas fresh. Once the book is finished, it is filed away and not looked at again until about a year before publication. Usually, since I have more than a few books written and in 'stasis', it's about two to three years. That time is getting shorter, but for the basis of the question I'll leave it as two years. I do this because getting time away, focusing on a new story and letting it sit for a while helps with the editing process, or at least it helps me to get some distance from the story itself and look at it again with fresh eyes.
Once that two years pass, I start the editing process. I read through it, and make changes, rewrites, corrections and all of that before it's ever seen by anyone else. This usually involves a fourth or fifth draft before it goes to my editor. She then takes the book and does what any editor should do, and pulls it apart. If I plan to publish a book in the summer, as usually I do, this process starts in October of the previous year. It has to be with my editor by January and then we'll go back and forth until we get a final draft. That process takes until about April or May time.
In May, I'll then take the final, or at least "almost" final draft and send it off to my proofreader. My cover artist will have been working on a cover since the October time, and I'll start doing things like getting the paperback as ready as I can. By about June time, the book is locked in and final, having had both editing and proof reading done. I will then set a release date. Usually about July/August time.
Once I have the final draft, I set up getting it ready, formatted and all of that for Kindle and the paperback version. This means getting the proof done and sent to me for the paperback and setting up the pre-order function for Kindle. While doing this, I also release the previous year's release on all e-book sites, so that gets done along with it. When the book is locked in finally, that's when I let the paperback publish and let the Kindle version go out as well.
It's a long process, and it's pretty normal for most authors, indie or otherwise to go through a similar process. Now, I know a lot of authors who do more than one release a year, and I've been asked why I don't do so, the short answer is that I can't. My health issues make even sticking to this process hard. It is possible for me to have more than one book in the editing process, and it is possible for me to release all the books I've finished up until my current WIP, but I choose not to so that when, not if, but when my health causes a delay, I don't end up disappointing my readers. It's just the way I do things!
Thanks for the question!
When I write a book, it takes me anywhere from a year to two years to finish it. I usually write two at the same time, as that works for me to keep the ideas fresh. Once the book is finished, it is filed away and not looked at again until about a year before publication. Usually, since I have more than a few books written and in 'stasis', it's about two to three years. That time is getting shorter, but for the basis of the question I'll leave it as two years. I do this because getting time away, focusing on a new story and letting it sit for a while helps with the editing process, or at least it helps me to get some distance from the story itself and look at it again with fresh eyes.
Once that two years pass, I start the editing process. I read through it, and make changes, rewrites, corrections and all of that before it's ever seen by anyone else. This usually involves a fourth or fifth draft before it goes to my editor. She then takes the book and does what any editor should do, and pulls it apart. If I plan to publish a book in the summer, as usually I do, this process starts in October of the previous year. It has to be with my editor by January and then we'll go back and forth until we get a final draft. That process takes until about April or May time.
In May, I'll then take the final, or at least "almost" final draft and send it off to my proofreader. My cover artist will have been working on a cover since the October time, and I'll start doing things like getting the paperback as ready as I can. By about June time, the book is locked in and final, having had both editing and proof reading done. I will then set a release date. Usually about July/August time.
Once I have the final draft, I set up getting it ready, formatted and all of that for Kindle and the paperback version. This means getting the proof done and sent to me for the paperback and setting up the pre-order function for Kindle. While doing this, I also release the previous year's release on all e-book sites, so that gets done along with it. When the book is locked in finally, that's when I let the paperback publish and let the Kindle version go out as well.
It's a long process, and it's pretty normal for most authors, indie or otherwise to go through a similar process. Now, I know a lot of authors who do more than one release a year, and I've been asked why I don't do so, the short answer is that I can't. My health issues make even sticking to this process hard. It is possible for me to have more than one book in the editing process, and it is possible for me to release all the books I've finished up until my current WIP, but I choose not to so that when, not if, but when my health causes a delay, I don't end up disappointing my readers. It's just the way I do things!
Thanks for the question!
Joey Paul
I have been writing since I was 19 and had been retired from my job for medical reasons. For a long time, writing had been an escape for me during my school years and it became that even more so once I was faced with a lifetime of being sick, in pain and unable to hold down a more conventional office job. Life pretty much inspires me to keep writing. I always find more things I want to explore, more places I want to take my characters and more plots that need to be teased out of my mind and put on the page. I have people I look up to as writers - Sue Grafton, Harlan Coben, Kathy Reichs and Sophie Kinsella, to name a few - but I also have people in my every day life that inspire me to keep going. My best friend became my carer when I got sick and having now been friends for over 20 years, she is the closest person to me. She sees me through the ups and the downs, and she's the one who takes what I've written and makes the awesome front covers. She inspires me to keep going whether it's through making me a cup of tea, or helping me work through plot holes and writer's block. Her daughter, now eleven, also inspires me. She's always been someone who loves being creative whether that's drawing like her mum, or writing like me, and it's because of her that I keep doing what I do. I am very lucky to have the people in my life that I have, and I keep going for them, but also for myself. I love writing. I love every aspect of it to varying degrees, and I have so many stories to tell that I just can't imagine doing anything else.
Joey Paul
My advice is to read, and to keep writing. If you start a hundred book but never finish them, all you have is a hundred untold, incomplete stories. Reading is great as well because it will open your eyes to how the worlds of fiction can be manipulated to work with you and not against you. That's the best advice I could give!
Joey Paul
WAITING ON YOU was based on the fact that I had just started a long distance relationship with a guy I met online. I started writing it back in 2007 because I thought it would be a good way for people who have met and married through internet dating, or even just dabbled at it, to read, especially young people who may find that their parents impede their want to be with their new boyfriend or girlfriend. My relationship didn't work out, but I am now in another long distance relationship and that does seem to be going better!
Joey Paul
The short answer to that is that life inspires me. Now I don't go around killing people nor do I have supernatural powers to see the last moments of someone's life. However, there are parts of life that inspire me. Whether it's a particular story in the news or just an idea that pops into my head, I am inspired to continue on and get the story written.
Joey Paul
The best thing for me about being a writer is the ability to create from nothing, to turn the scenarios and scenes that I have in my head into a world, or a book. I love creating, either characters or plot lines. I love all of it, the best bit for me is both the beginning of a book (which I just got to do twice today!) and the ending (which I got to do once today!) I just love my job!
Joey Paul
I'm writing the last three chapters of my twelfth book, so I should (hopefully) be finished in the next week or so and then I can start my next two projects :D Really itching to get started! The twelfth book is book six in the Dying Thoughts series and it's a good one!
Joey Paul
I, like many other authors, have issues with writer's block at times. I try to write daily and while there are times when I can't write due to physical illness and other issues, I find that one of the best ways to get over writer's block is to keep going. It's better to write a page of nothing, than to have a page filled with nothing. The whole part of being a writer, is that to do your job, you have to write! I also realise that it is very very easy to say that and sometimes very hard to do, but I find that I need to work through my block rather than avoid it completely. It doesn't always work, but sometimes it's enough to just pick up a thread I was working on and go from there!
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