another brief one

I know, I know, I owe the blogosphere a nice long ramble either about my book or about the publishing industry. And it'll happen. Sometime next week. I would like to say I promise, but I think that I would just be setting myself up for disaster, so instead I'll just say that I'll really try.
Today, I want to talk about the importance of deadlines, in two ways. First, deadlines you set for yourself, and second, deadlines your publishing house sets for you.
So, first. I believe that it's really important to give yourself deadlines. If you find you can't respect them, have someone else give you deadlines. Something easy, even. For example, every two weeks you give your critique partner five new pages. Something. Anything to keep you moving as a writer, and also so that you learn to work under a deadline. Because once you have a contract for your book, you will have lots of deadlines from your publisher.
Which leads me to my second deadline point. Please, please keep to whatever deadlines you're given. A couple of days here or there may not seem like a big deal. But a couple of days in a tight schedule can mean that your book gets bumped to a later pub date because something didn't happen quickly enough. And bumping is not good because the sales and marketing teams, and the bookstores, are expecting things on a certain date. It's not just a problem for them, either. Late materials can affect the editor, the art department, the text designer, the copyeditor, proofreader, etc. The typesetter. The printer! Because it snowballs. So if your editor sends you your copyedited manuscript for review and asks you to return it in two weeks, please do just that.
And now, I'm off to enjoy the beautiful weather. Have a nice weekend, everyone!