The Four Stages of Writing Three Books a Year by Matt Cost

 

I'm delighted to welcome Matt Cost to the blog. In addition to being a fine multi-genre writer, he keeps up a schedule that...well, I'll let him tell it. Take it away, Matt.

I have found the rhythm of writing three books a year to be a very good fit for me. This has, believe it or not, a variety that I find very appealing. On every single day, I have four different pieces of the writing process to be working on. They are writing, editing, marketing, and promoting. Sure, there are other things in writing books like inspiration and research, but these are the four stages that occupy me seven days a week.

As I just had a new book published, Pirate Trap, on March 27^th, I am going to take these stages in reverse order. I am currently promoting this latest release, the fifth book in my Clay Wolfe/Port Essex Trap series. This entails doing speaking engagements and book signings at a variety of libraries, bookstores, conferences, author brunches, and panel discussions. I have eleven such engagements in April and a like number in May. These continue forward, but will tail off in June and July, before picking up with a new book in August. These events are mainly in Maine, with a few exceptions in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

These promotions were set up through the third stage of writing three books a year, and that is marketing. I have currently begun my campaign of reaching out to speaking and signing sites for my upcoming book, City Gone Askew, which is pubbing on July 31^st. Not yet having reached the stature of Michael Connelly, Harlan Coban, or Paul Doiron, this means approaching close to two-hundred places to create thirty engagements for this second book in my Brooklyn 8 Ballo series. The second main part of my marketing campaign is reaching out to reviewers, which is similar in scope, in that I need to query almost ten to get one, but that number builds with every book written.

 This brings us to stage two, the editing process. I might be editing several different books at once as there are my own edits when completing a book, the edits recommended by the professional editor I hire, and the edits of my publisher. For the sake of simplicity, we will focus on the edits from my publisher, Cynthia Brackett-Vincent at Encircle Publications, for the edits of my November release of Mainely Mayhem. This sixth book in the Mainely Mystery series has gone through seven edits before it gets to my publisher, where it will face two more as well as an edit from my wife, who can find fault with me where nobody else can.

 Writing. Stage one. I am currently writing 1955, a Raleigh, North Carolina, PI mystery set in that year. I started writing 1955 on January 1^st of this year and have only missed four days of writing since I began. I write every morning, seven days a week, and then if I have time, some in the afternoon as well. The book will be reaching a thrilling conclusion very soon, and I will move forward through the stages. Write something new. Edit something new. Market something new. Promote something new. Write on.

Matt Cost is the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of the Mainely Mystery series. The first book, Mainely Power, was selected as the Maine Humanities Council Read ME Fiction Book of 2020. This was followed by Mainely Fear, Mainely Money, Mainely Angst, and Mainely Wicked.

 His Clay Wolfe/Port Essex Mysteries include Wolfe Trap, Mind Trap, Mouse Trap, and Cosmic Trap, and now, Pirate Trap.

 I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution was his first traditionally published novel. He had another historical released in August of 2021, Love in a Time of Hate, and in August 2022, Encircle re-released his originally self-published novel, At Every Hazard: Joshua Chamberlain and the Civil War.

Cost's love of histories and mysteries is combined in the novel, Velma Gone Awry, book one in his new series featuring private eye, 8 Ballo, set in 1920's Brooklyn. The second book, City Gone Askew, will publish in August of 2024.

Cost lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.