I’ve been too busy to talk to my (fictional) boyfriend, George Clooney, lately, so imagine how happy I was when I got an (imaginary) call from him a while ago.
GC: Hey, you.
Me: Hey yourself.
GC: So now I have to hear about publication dates by reading your blog? I have to say…I’m not feeling very important.
Me: I’m sorry. It’s been pretty crazy trying to finish the book.
GC: So what exactly does take so long about finishing books?
Me: George, don’t you remember when I blogged about this? I thought I’d explained everything then but I guess you forgot.
GC: Yeah, I guess you have covered this before.
Me: Yes, I have.
GC: But why is it taking so much longer for GG3 than for other books?
Me: Actually, the hardback of LYKY came out a year and a half before the hardback of CMH. That’s approximately how long it will take for GG3.
And most authors don’t do more than a book a year. Sure, there are exceptions (Meg Cabot makes us all look like slackers), but a lot of really amazing authors do a book every two years, so I happen to think that a year and a half isn’t too lazy of me.
Plus, let’s not forget that I had a non-writing full-time job up until November.
And Cross My Heart was a really, really painful/stressful/terrible experience and I needed to take some time off to decide if I even WANTED to keep writing books.
GC: But some of the commentors said that it didn’t even take that long for the Harry Potter books to come out.
Me: Well the commentors were…how do I put this gently? Wrong. Or mistaken. Let’s go with mistaken. (Note: the dates on that link represent when the books were published in the United States. The early books were released in the U.K. first so that’s why the early books came out more quickly here–they’d already been written and published elsewhere.)
GC: But can’t you do something to make it come out faster?
Me: Me? You’re the big-time movie star, can’t YOU do something? I’m just the person staying up all hours of the night trying to finish the darn thing.
GC: Ally, do you need a nap?
Me: Yes. Yes, I do.
-Ally
