May 19, 2006
Yesterday I interviewed author Barry Eisler for a review/profile I'm writing about him and his upcoming novel, THE LAST ASSASSIN. By the way, if you're into suspense, intrigue, espionage or thrillers, check out Barry's books starring half-Japanese/half-American professional assassin John Rain. Highly recommended.

Anyway, like Joe Konrath, Barry's a big promoter. I thought something he said would be worth thinking about here because he said it so succinctly and honestly, it was worth bringing to everybody's attention.

My question was: "What's your writing schedule like?"

Barry said: "I wish I had a writing schedule. I would love to have a schedule. What I have is a promotion schedule and I try to get as much writing done as I can when I'm not promoting. It's a sad statement in certain ways, but the thing is--I talk about this a lot at writers' conventions because I think everybody should go into things with their eyes open--it's a personal decision. There's no right answer. Everyone has to decide what is the best and right balance for them. When you're just writing your book, you're an artist and that's great. Once you decide to sell your book, then you're a businessman--you're in business. And you have to decide how much time to spend on it and that's going to have a significant impact on how much money you make from your business."

What I liked about this was it was so logical and that he suggests that, really, this balance is up to each individual, which, of course, it is.

Best,
Mark Terry