LOS ANGELES, June 23 - And then it was tomorrow.

My calendar has been inverted.  Or reversed.  Or flipped.  Or something.

Some readers have noticed that my usual new-release schedule looks a little different this year.  And it is.  For the past few years, in which I’ve had two books releasing each year, my new crime books have come out in the late summer/early fall, and my new Joe Pitt novels have come out in winter, generally in the week after Christmas. 

 Not so this year.

This year, the new Joe Pitt, EVERY LAST DROP, will release on September 30th, and my next crime novel, THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH, will come out on a TBA date in the winter months of early 2009. 

What the fuck?

Allow me to explain.

Some months ago, as much as a year ago in fact, if not longer, my publisher floated the idea of flipping my release schedule. 

(By the way, for the sake of clarification, my books are published by two imprints of Random House.  My crime books come out via Random House/Ballantine, and the Joe Pitt books via Del Rey.  All of my books are edited by Mark Tavani of RH/Ballantine.)

The rationale behind this change was explained to me thusly: The two big release seasons on the publishing calendar are spring and fall.  That’s when all the big books are put out, so as to capitalize on summer readers and holiday gift-buyers.  Because the big fish are in the pond, it is hard to draw attention to the little fish.

(I, by the by, am a little fish.  Wee and agile, perhaps, but neither mighty nor long of tooth.  Leeetle fishy.)

The rationale continued, and further explained, that a series at it’s mid-point, such as the Joe Pitt series, was not likely to increase in readership, neither was it likely to lose too many more readers.  Thus, without much to lose, why not drop it in with the big fish, where it could be found by those who desired it’s sweet and tender fillets? 

Well, it’s not the kind of thing you want to hear, but it’s reality.  Readership tends to decline over the run of a series.  Fact of life.  And, it’s also true that, after three books, you can’t expect too many new people at the party.  Fair enough.

And there was more rationale, the punchline as it were, which was basically that if Joe Pitt were moved from Winter, the crime books could take that spot.  In with the medium and small fishies.  Where it might be easier to get some of the fishing people, who did not know of the yumminess of these fish, to drop a line in the water and hook one of those buggers.

What you like about this kind of thinking if you are a writer, is that it indicates your publisher’s desire to sell your damn books.  Which, trust me, is far from always being the case.  With several books in the pond, none of them anything more than modestly successful in terms of sales, it would be far more typical if everyone had raised their hands, declared that the current sales were good enough, and simply stayed the course.  The fact that they continue to exert energy and try new things with my books is a concrete demonstration of their commitment.  What’s important to remember is that this is not a bottom-line calculation.  Commitment to a low-midlist writer, a willingness to continue to find new readers for the writer’s words, does not emerge from a spreadsheet that demonstrates there is more to be squeezed from said writer.  Yes, it may happen that way, but I think it unlikely.  A more likely scenario, and, in my case, the actual one, is that there are specific people who like the books, who believe in the books, and who believe that other people would like the books if they only knew that they existed.  In a case like mine it is not that the might of Random House swings to support me because I will shit gold nuggets in the future.  No, in a case like mine several people within Random House have time and again supported me and my work because they want to.  Because they want the books to do well.  Because, as I said, they believe. 

That’s some serious shit.

Being believed in is some serious shit.

You can get places on that.  You can get out of some deep dark personal places with that.  You cannot buy it, you cannot take it to the bank, but you can most certainly put it away for a rainy day.

Heartening.

So, the flipped calendar.

This is basically the result of people who care about my books making an effort to do something so that more people will get to read my books.

And that’s why I am so very fucking busy.

Flip the calendar.  Sounds easy enough.  Except, ahem, the book due in the winter is now due in the fall, and the book due in the fall is now due in the winter. 

Think about it.

So you stop everything, rearrange the calendar, finish your current projects, begin work on the book you’d not planned on starting on for another six months, delay the book that was in your on-deck circle, try to figure out what happened to the six months grace you’d always built into your deadlines by being always ahead of them, try to figure out what you’re going to do when you get into the second year of this cycle when your math tells you you’ll have about six months between finishing one book and the scheduled publication date for the next book you’re supposed to write, and you inhale-exhale and say it’s all for the best in the long-run and you go to work and your wife gets pregnant.

Pop!

That’s the sound of my brain collapsing into itself.  It was a tiny sound.  Because I have a tiny brain.

So, that’s the story of the new release schedule. 

I’m about halfway through the process of writing all the books that needed to be rescheduled.  My baby is awesome.  My brain has yet to be seen.

If I seem a little distracted at times…well, my brain is MIA.

Not sure of the date,

-c