April Theme: Delayed Gratification (Stephanie Burgis)

I have to admit, when I sat down to write a post on this month's theme (delayed gratification), I almost started laughing. There was just too much to choose from - because honestly, what part of publishing is NOT about delayed gratification?

Here are just a few of the things that have popped up most recently:

• I just saw the beautiful American cover image for my third book, Stolen Magic - but I won't be able to share the image publicly for weeks, if not months, and the book won't be out until April 2013...



• I found out that (for really excellent reasons), the British edition of that book (called A Reckless Magick in the UK) is going to be published two months later than originally planned, in October instead of August this year...



• I'm working on a brand-new novel that neither my agent nor my editor has seen yet...which means that I won't even know for several months (at the earliest!) whether or not it will ever be published at all.

Given that all of these are pretty much everyday scenarios in publishing, you might well wonder: am I a naturally patient person who deals happily and calmly with delayed gratification?

Hahahahahaha.

Or in other words: NO. I hate even having to wait an extra day or two to read a new book from one of my favorite authors! Patience is anything but my middle name.

But guess what? There's a good reason that I've learned to deal with delayed gratification in publishing: because the results are SO worthwhile.

In August 2008, I finished the first draft of my second Kat Stephenson novel, Renegade Magic. Two weeks ago - almost four years after that initial draft was finished! - Renegade Magic was finally published in the US, on the same day that my first book, Kat, Incorrigible, came out in paperback.



When I looked at the first photos of those two books together on American bookshelves, did I think of how long I'd had to wait to see them there? No. All I thought about was how wonderful it was that the miracle had happened...

...and oh, yes: the wait was totally worth it.