How Many Books Do You Publish Per Year?

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Lhowling

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I ask because I have tried to produced x amount of short stories per month in the past and that was a big mess. As I plan out my production and release schedule for the year (totally tentative but helpful), I saw myself doing it again, where I'm trying to publish as many books as possible with the intent of pooping them out in 2015 (EEK!) In my experience, with that sort of mentality quality becomes compromised! So I come to you and ask how many books do you publish per year, whether it be novels, novellas, or short stories. Personally, I'm working on a novel and plan to release more... I've read that 3-4 novels per year is reasonable and works for readers if you don't release them all too quickly. I feel like that's a good number for me since it gives me enough reasonable time to write, edit, and market the books well without feeling rushed or overworked What do you guys think?

Also, out of curiosity, do you find that there are better times during the year to publish? I was going to release two books during the spring (one standalone and book one of a series), perhaps another novella in the summer for marketing purposes (I hear summer is a slump season so I'm not sure) and then publish books two and three of the series in fall and winter respectively. Have you noticed any cyclical patterns or does it not matter?

I'm guessing it doesn't matter but don't want to be too presumptuous!

Thank you :evil
 

RedWombat

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Two books a year is the most I can imagine doing self-pub. YMMV.

ETA: September and February are death for me in terms of sales. September's obvious because back-to-school takes out a chunk, February is when the Christmas bills have landed but the gift card money is gone.
 
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WriterBN

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It really varies for each author. My average so far is less than one a year, but I've had some major life upheavals in the past 18 months.

I know romance authors who publish one book a month. I know others who've done a book in five years. Whatever works for you may or may not work for anyone else :)

As far as time of year goes, I don't think it makes a huge difference unless you already have a legion of fans waiting for your next book. Then again, I don't have a lot of data points of my own to go by, but I've had this discussion in other groups of authors and that's the general consensus.
 

Polenth

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So far, two books of any length. It was a novel-length collection and a novelette the first year. This year was a novel and there will be a collection of my blog essays. Next year, I'm aiming for two novels. But that's a little different, as one won't need a whole lot of research and one is a sequel (which speeds things up a bit, as I have notes for it already).

When you're starting out, I think it's wise to give yourself space to work at your own speed rather than setting firm targets. You won't know how long it'll take until you've done it.
 

jmichaelfavreau

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Did one this year, hoping for another next year. We shall see what life has in store for me though...
 

Lhowling

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Thanks everyone for sharing! I will definitely take it slow and get into a groove with writing and releasing my stories. I also don't feel bad knowing that not all authors publish dozens a book per year, which is okay! I just was unsure of writing and releasing a lot of books per year equates to more sales and exposure, whereas producing fewer books can have similar results.
 

RedWombat

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Most likely you'll see a sales bump in old books when you release a new book, which is always neat, but it's probably better to put out fewer regularly than do a bunch and then burn out and not do any for five years or something. Books too fast on top of each other run a risk of cannibalizing each other's sales (or at least, that's the wisdom--dunno how true it is!)
 

Lhowling

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Books too fast on top of each other run a risk of cannibalizing each other's sales (or at least, that's the wisdom--dunno how true it is!)

That's interesting... what do you mean by cannibalizing each other's sales?
 

RedWombat

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That's interesting... what do you mean by cannibalizing each other's sales?

Well, you gotta figure that not every reader has an unlimited budget, time, and unlimited interest in one particular author. A lot do, fortunately! You get binge-buying of a series from those people, and they are awesome! We love them!

However, if I put out Book A today, and all my fans go out and buy it, and then I put out Book B next week, that's not a lot of time between releases. People who haven't heard about Book A may get confused by them both being out--which do they buy first? Are they related? Are they the same book? They may buy B thinking they've got everything currently out. Or they may know the difference, but they can only afford Book A right now, or they will say "Dude, I haven't had time to read A yet!" and not buy B right off the bat. (Heck, I get that even with a couple months between releases!)

Or--and this varies wildly--"I just read a book by RedWombat, I want to go read a technothriller instead." This is probably less likely to happen with a series, where you get people wanting to know What Happens Next, but if you put out loosely related stand-alones, as I do, I don't want to step on myself, ya know?

Now, this is all a concern in trade, (again, I am told--I've only had paperbacks cannibalize hardcovers, personally) but I don't know how large a problem it is with self-pub comparatively. Trade often hinges on fairly narrow windows of buying time to make certain numbers, while self-pub is not so limited. My inclination would be to leave at least a couple of months between releases, but there are very smart people who may tell you differently, and neither of us would necessarily be entirely wrong.
 

Lhowling

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Well, you gotta figure that not every reader has an unlimited budget, time, and unlimited interest in one particular author. A lot do, fortunately! You get binge-buying of a series from those people, and they are awesome! We love them!

However, if I put out Book A today, and all my fans go out and buy it, and then I put out Book B next week, that's not a lot of time between releases. People who haven't heard about Book A may get confused by them both being out--which do they buy first? Are they related? Are they the same book? They may buy B thinking they've got everything currently out. Or they may know the difference, but they can only afford Book A right now, or they will say "Dude, I haven't had time to read A yet!" and not buy B right off the bat. (Heck, I get that even with a couple months between releases!)

Or--and this varies wildly--"I just read a book by RedWombat, I want to go read a technothriller instead." This is probably less likely to happen with a series, where you get people wanting to know What Happens Next, but if you put out loosely related stand-alones, as I do, I don't want to step on myself, ya know?

Now, this is all a concern in trade, (again, I am told--I've only had paperbacks cannibalize hardcovers, personally) but I don't know how large a problem it is with self-pub comparatively. Trade often hinges on fairly narrow windows of buying time to make certain numbers, while self-pub is not so limited. My inclination would be to leave at least a couple of months between releases, but there are very smart people who may tell you differently, and neither of us would necessarily be entirely wrong.

Now I get it! Yes, I completely understand what you mean.

I've decided to try and release between 3-5 books... most likely 3 or 4. The first three books I was going to release in Spring 2015 was a dark fantasy novel (my loose standalone), a reimagined fairy tale novella with an occult/supernatural motif, and a contemporary occult noir novel. I was thinking about publishing them each within a month of each other. Then I'd release a sequel for the occult noir novel in fall 2015 and a sequel (or maybe spin off) for the dark fantasy Spring 2016.

My tactic was to showcase three different kinds of stories. They'd each hit different categories and, thus, attract different readers who are fans of the dark and devilish! Of course, if I'm missing something let me know. I want to make sure I cover my bases! :evil
 
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