In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* One More Benefit of Being Prolific
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Reading was like a drug, a dope. The novels created moods in which I lived for days.” Richard Wright, Black Boy
I didn’t know books (and films) affected others like this.
I received an email this morning from a person who apparently “follows” me on Amazon. She wrote, “Amazon announced yet another book publication by Harvey Stanbrough. How is it possible that you say you are not writing, yet books keep shooting out?”
Well, that’s one more benefit of being prolific. Your name is always out there, especially if you use pre-publication scheduling.
Since November 2020, I’ve written 17 novels, including the entire Ark series, The Portals, Rider Jones, Wes Crowley: The Final Chapter (the last volume of the Wes Crowley saga), and the four Wes Crowley Gap Series novels.
I published the first novel of The Ark series on November 28 and the second on December 26 of last year. Then I went into a publishing slump through January and February. I was writing, but I wasn’t publishing. I finally published the third novel of that series on March 13, 2021.
But beginning with that March 13 release, I’ve released fifteen novels in a row. What’s more, I released one book every two weeks with only two exceptions. For some reason, in the first exception I released three novels in a two-week period (The Journey Home: Part 6 on May 15, Rider Jones on May 26, and The Journey Home: Part 7 on May 30). Probably I was in too big a rush to get Rider Jones out. In the second exception, there was no new release on July 15. I probably just missed it in my scheduling.
Finally, although I haven’t written a word of fiction for the past two months, the Wes Crowley Gap Novel 4: Return to the New Mexico Territory, will release on October 15. With any luck at all I’ll be writing again soon and I can continue my every-two-week publishing streak at least out to the end of the year.
So that’s one more up side to being a prolific fiction writer. The more your name is out there on new books, the more easily and readily readers will find you and hear of you and be reminded of your work, and of course that means your sales go up.
Come to think of it, I’m not sure there is a down side to being a prolific fiction writer. Not in this wonderful new world of publishing. Well, other than the confusion that can ensue when you try to remember what you’ve published and what you haven’t, etc. Dean talks a little about that in his post on his blog today.
Aside from the unlikely possibility of hitting a lightning-strike payday (at least mid-six figures), it’s difficult for me to imagine why anyone in this era would even try to be “accepted” by a traditional publisher and be limited to one novel per year.
And then of course there are those “hybrid” writers who take advantage of indie publishing yet for whatever reason limit themselves to one or two novels per year. They limit themselves with all the stuff we’ve talked about over the past few posts: outlining, planning and plotting, revision, rewriting, submission of their work to critique groups, etc, all in the relentless pursuit of perfection. Which of course, doesn’t exist.
To that kind of reasoning I can only shake my head. But I hasten to add, whatever they want to do is fine. I have enough to do just taking care of the fires in my own camp. So officially, I can only mimic what we so often hear around the internet in writer forums: Hey, whatever works for you.
Talk with you again later.
Of Interest
See “Having Fun With Collections” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/having-fun-with-collections/.
See “My 50-Cent Masters Degree in English Language” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/09/my-50-cent-masters-degree-in-english-language.html.
See “Could a machine have an unconscious?” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/could-a-machine-have-an-unconscious/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 660 words
Writing of WCGN 5: Tentative Title (novel)
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for October……… XXXX
Total fiction words for the year………… 623282
Total nonfiction words for October… 660
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 166620
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 789902
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 13
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.