Wendy S. Marcus: The End

I'm thrilled to have a guest author today.  Please welcome, the talented, Wendy S. Marcus!

Hi Lacey! Thank you for hosting me on the 31st and final stop on my blog tour to promote my debut Harlequin Mills and Boon Medical Romance, When One Night Isn’t Enough.

Today I’ve chosen to write about ‘The End’ or more specifically, getting to ‘The End.’

The anticipation of starting to write a new book, a new series of books, or even a thirty-one stop blog tour is an exciting time chock-full of possibilities. You have an unending supply of wonderful ideas! Boundless energy! It’s going to be great!

Then comes the tough part. Execution. Meeting the commitments you’ve made and achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself without letting exhaustion and self-doubt take over. Actually writing a book from start to finish. Then writing the second and third books in the series. Planning a blog tour to promote your first book while you’re writing your second, and creating thirty-one unique blog posts and visiting each blog on your hectic schedule while you’re writing your third.

If last year at this time someone would have told me, “In one year you’ll sell your first book to Mills and Boon (and get a contract for four more), complete and have accepted for publication a three-book series, and complete a thirty-one stop blog tour to promote yourself and the Medical Romance line, (among dozens of other writerly things) I wouldn’t have believed them.

Yet here I am, one year later, in this fourth week of August, writing ‘The End’ on my third book, my first series, and my first blog tour.

And I’m here to tell you, next year or the year after, this can be you! If…

1) You are committed to writing and write for a set amount of time. Every. Single. Day.

2) You work hard and ignore anyone who tells you you can’t do it – including that niggling voice in your head.

3) You read articles and attend workshops to learn and improve your craft.

4) You set goals for yourself and don’t stop working until you achieve them.

5) You push through plot problems and uncooperative characters that try to stall your progress.

6) You plow forward on your manuscript despite every obstacle life throws at you.

7) You find critique partners who will give their honest opinion of your work.

8) You take every opportunity available to get your manuscript in front of agents and editors.

9) You make your own luck by putting yourself in the right place at the right time.

10) You are flexible in which publishers you target.

11) You are willing to revise your manuscript…and possibly transform it into something you hadn’t originally considered.

12) You are determined to do whatever you have to do to get published.

My suggestions:

1) Set small, reasonable and achievable short-term goals to start.

a. Daily: Write a certain number of words or blog posts per day. After you meet that goal, spend a pre-determined amount of time visiting a certain number of agent/editor/publisher blogs and websites to learn from their suggestions and find out about any upcoming submission opportunities. And last, after you’ve done everything else, spend some time on social networking to interact with your peers and future fans.

b. Weekly: Send a certain number of pages to your critique partner each week. Visit and actively participate in writers’ groups/loops for ongoing support and encouragement. Share your goals with others or post them somewhere people can see them so you’re more likely to hold yourself accountable.

c. Monthly: Enter a certain number of writing contests per month. Send out a certain number of submissions per month – each individualized and unique.

2) Cut yourself some slack. If you don’t meet a goal, don’t give up. Double up the next day/week. (Anyone who follows my posts knows I am easily distracted and a notorious procrastinator. If I can meet my goals, you can, too!)

3) Take one day, one goal, one project, one task at a time. Try making lists. Crossing items off a list gives me a wonderful sense of accomplishment!

4) Do. Not. Ever. Give. Up. Keep working, keep improving and keep doing all of the above until you have achieved your ultimate goal – getting published.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check out the end result of all my hard work by reading an excerpt from my debut Harlequin Medical Romance, When One Night Isn’t Enough, at: http://wendysmarcus.com/books/. Or by visiting my website to learn more about me and the other books I have coming soon. If you’d like to purchase a copy of When One Night Isn’t Enough, they are available in stores in the UK and Aus/NZ. Links for online purchase are available on my website Books page.

If you’re a writer, I hope you’ll set a goal to finish and polish up a first chapter of one of your stories for entry in Mills and Boon’s New Voices competition, coming in September. You can find more information here.

Now that I’ve achieved my goal of publication, my new goals are:
1) To purchase a book I wrote in a store in the U.S.
2) To make a bestseller list somewhere.

So come September it is back to work for me!

But before you go, please share some of the goals you’ve set for yourself for today, this week, this month, and for 2011 as a whole. One lucky commenter will win a copy of the UK 2in1 edition of my book, which includes a complete novel by author Janice Lynn.

And, when you comment, please be sure to congratulate Ju Dimello, the winner of the $50.00 (U.S. currency) Amazon gift card for visiting me at the most stops on my blog tour. Ju visited me at 25 stops! Thank you for your dedication to my blog tour, Ju! It has been great getting to know you, and everyone else who has visited me so many times. I hope you all will continue to visit me at my personal blog: http://wendysmarcus.com/blog/

And/Or:
Visit me on Facebook

Visit me on Twitter
Visit me on Goodreads


Wendy S. Marcus lives in the beautiful Hudson Valley region of New York with her husband, two of their three children, and a much loved Bichon Frise named Buddy. A nurse by trade, Wendy has her master’s degree in health care administration. After years of working in the medical profession, Wendy has taken a radical turn to writing hot contemporary romance with strong heroes, feisty heroines, and lots of laughs. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family and blogging/e-mailing/tweeting with her online friends. To learn more about Wendy visit her website, http://www.WendySMarcus.com.

Thanks so much for joining me today, Wendy!

Happy writing!