by Dame Jenna

I turned in the second book of my young adult series right after Thanksgiving. With no deadline breathing down my neck, I decided it was time to indulge in a writer’s idea of “play.” Which meant I came up with an idea for a new urban fantasy series, and then proceeded to write a proposal (synopsis and sample chapters) for it. I did this partly because it was fun (hey, a new shiny idea!), and partly because I’m trying to plan for my future. But career planning as a writer is about as reliable as reading entrails, because there is such a huge time delay between when you write a book, when that book hits the shelves, and when you know how well that book has sold.

Next year, my young adult fantasy series will debut. So far, I have three books under contract, the third of which is due on September 1, 2010. This is a brand new genre for me (although very closely related to the genres in which I’ve published before), so it’s hard to know how well the series will do. Obviously, if the series takes off, I’ll want to write more than three books–and my publisher will want me to write more than three books. But there’s no way to know for sure, which means after September 1, I will have no books under contract. Now, if I wait until September rolls around to start planning something else, and the YA series doesn’t do as well as I hope, I’ll be in a bad spot. It would take me at the very least a couple of months to come up with a new proposal and sell it, then a couple more months to finish the book, then about a year before the book hit the shelves. That’s way too long a break between releases. Which means I have to start making contingency plans now, just in case.

So, this explains why I’ve developed this new urban fantasy series proposal. After The Devil’s Playground, which comes out on March 23, I have no more Morgan Kingsley books under contract, so starting a new series in the same genre seems like a logical step. So far, everything seems pretty logical and manageable, and the planning isn’t all that difficult despite not knowing how the YA series will do. However . . .

When I turned in the new proposal to Dame Agent, I still had more time on my hands without a deadline breathing down my neck. So I went ahead and came up with a paranormal romance proposal, too. I was really excited about the UF proposal when I turned it in, very hopeful that my agent would like it, and sell it, so that I would get to write the whole book. But when I started working on the PNR proposal, I was struck once again with New, Shiny Syndrome. I loved the new idea, and found myself completing the sample chapters in record time.

So, everything’s great, right? I’ve got three books in a new YA series under contract–a series that I love and am very excited about–and I’ve got two more proposals for stories I’d love to write. Which is fabulous . . . until I start playing the “what if” game. What if the universe smiles on me, and I sell both the UF and the PNR series, and then the YA series sells like hotcakes? I’m a prolific writer, but managing three series at once could turn out to be quite a challenge. I have no doubt that I could write at a speed to support doing three series–I’m just not sure whether I want to, because it would be hard, hard work. But the alternative would be to choose one of the new series over the other, and I love them both!

If I knew for sure that there would only be three books in the young adult series, then I would have no qualms at all about trying to sell both new proposals at the same time. I’ve proved that I can handle two series at once without missing deadlines or burning myself out, so having these two new series waiting in the wings would be ideal. But if the YA series really takes off, then it would be foolish of me not to at least seriously consider writing more of them. The problem is, I have to make the decision about what to do with these two proposals now, not after I know how the YA series goes. (You see where the time delay between finishing a book and ultimately knowing how that book is received makes planning for the future insanely difficult?)

At this point, I’m leaning toward going for broke and trying to sell both new series. After all, there’s no guarantee that they’ll both sell, and there’s no guarantee the YA series will take off. I’d rather plan for the worst and be pleasantly surprised–even if that pleasant surprise turns into a whole lot of work–than plan for the best and be unpleasantly surprised. But I’ll tell you, my life would be a lot easier if I could just take a peek into a crystal ball and find out what’s going to happen with the YA series!