Today's Quandary: Writing While Promoting

We are halfway thru.  Halfway thru our three month publication period, halfway thru our limited edition of 100 copies, halfway thru our eight stop book tour.  Janus times three.  We, David and I, have learned many useful facts, techniques, and how to do's.  But one thing I definitely have not learned yet is how to flog a book and keep writing something new.  I'm working on two stories now for publication but I don't feel very creative at all.  My pilot light is almost off.

Normally, I am--after waking and sufficient doses of caffeine--ready to write: all chipper and eager to spew words.  I like writing in the a.m., for several reasons.  My brain is fresher, my body is more at ease, the world is quieter.  

But promoting and selling Ginger Snaps keeps my mind stopping and starting, at least one body part tense, and my world anything but quiet.  I'm don't like writing in bits and pieces, although I can do it.  I wrote and edited stories to and from work on mass transit.  I prefer chunks of time, knowing I can tippy type my way thru a few hours, which means a lot of words since I write quickly.  Write quickly, edit slowly: those are my modes.  And I'm pretty good at settling quickly back into The Flow.  When all I'm doing is writing....

But planning events is time consuming and execution nerve wracking.  I get wound up before and after, even though I was an actor for 10 years and have spoken or "performed" in front of people for 10 more.  But wait, there's more.  Getting a bookstore to take self-published copies is an act of seduction.  They don't really want you so you have to woo them--literarily, not literally.  Successful seduction takes focus.  And did I really remember everything to put in that box before I shipped it off to New York?

So, how to write while promoting your book?  I DON'T KNOW!  Maybe it's just not yet or maybe (horrors) that's the way it is.  And if you write with the intention/hope of publishing, you have to expect/hope promotion will come.  Like thunder after lightning, sturm after dram.   I am sure this is why I didn't write for publication before.  I just happily sat at my desk, scribbling (metaphorically speaking) away at Happy Ending stories, without a care in the world.  No one's going to read this stuff, I sez to myself.  I didn't care if they did, but I do now.  I'm thru the looking glass, baby, with no ticket back.  

I've been to lots of other writers' readings and several of my own by now.  No one ever asks "How do you write and promote at the same time?" in the q&a.  But next time I'm at another author's reading I will.  And so should you if you're serious about being A Published Author.  Or maybe it won't be a problem for you.  If so, then lucky, lucky, lucky you.

25 Amazon book gift card to the best answer to my question: 

How do you write and promote at the same time?

Check out our book at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3577527