Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
I read an article in Publishers Weekly recently that advised writers to publish a lot: “The more books you have out there, the easier the marketing game is….This principle applies to any creative pursuit. The more work you put out, the more people will discover you.”
I beg to differ.
But first, let me say that I do agree that the basis for this precept is true. It’s readily understandable in the grocery store’s cereal aisle. General Mills doesn’t offer you one kind of cereal or even one size box of that cereal. General Mills’s goal is to “own” the largest chunk of shelf space it can. The more options, the merrier.
That’s because the basis for this precept is the importance of attaining critical mass.
When it comes to books, my observation is that an author needs to have approximately 20 titles (or critical mass) available for readers before the writer’s career breaks out to the next level of sales. Before that, sales might grow slightly from title to title. But when critical mass kicks in, sales for each title released thereafter skyrocket. (NOTE: The number of titles will vary from author to author, depending on how consistently the author stuck to his or her brand, market conditions, timing of releases, etc.)
But the precept tatters when the author creates too much too fast. Then cannibalism occurs. The sales for one title “eat” the sales of another title because the consumer buys only so many books in a given time span. If we go back to the cereal aisle, we’ll see each company attempting to strike just the right balance between owning as much of the real estate as possible yet maintaining adequate sales for each permutation of cereal they produce to make that cereal type profitable. Offer too many oat cereal variations, and each oat cereal variation will sell less. Once you have critical mass, sales will increase when new offerings are shelved–until cannibalism occurs because critical mass was exceeded. Critical mass can even be exceeded if too many companies offer oat options. Sales will fall for every company.
The same is true for the number of new or re-released titles an author can offer to readers per year. Let me give you two case studies.
- Author #1 has established a stellar writing career, reaching the best-seller list with every new title. Her sales numbers are staggeringly high. But then a publisher she no longer is with decides to cash-in big-time on her success. They re-release 75 of her old titles in one year. Her readers don’t know what to do. Loyal as they are, their heads are spinning with options. Just think how many titles that would be per month! The author, of course, has an aggressive publishing schedule for new titles in that same year. The market would be awash in her books. Because each buyer will purchase a fairly set number of books per year (how ever many that person can read or aspires to read), every additional title popping onto the market cannibalizes the sales of all the other titles. The affects of that single, mammoth year would resonate for at least one additional year, if not more. The glut in the market has to dissipate before her career can return to normal, let alone have any hope of growing.
- Author #2 has self-published for a number of years but is facing an unexpected major decrease in her income this year. Her solution is to re-release 12 titles in one year and release one new title, all in the same genre. Will she cannibalize her own sales? She thinks readers will buy her all titles because they binge read.
Consumers’ binge behavior is fascinating to me. Most of us participate in it in some way:
- Discovering a new (for you) TV series and watching an entire year’s worth of it in one weekend.
- Being in the mood to read a specific genre (say, mysteries) and blasting through series after series.
- Finding a film producer whose work suits your taste perfectly and streaming movie after movie created by that person.
- Binge buying various teas or coffees or deciding a specific company makes the best ice cream and working your way through the entire menu of options.
Author #2 is certainly right that we indulge in binge behavior. But I’m not convinced that readers will work through every series one author has to offer, especially if the writer is prolific or the market is glutted with options by that author in a fairly short time span. Think about the cereal aisle. If one company creates too many oat cereals, that company has made a major miscalculation and will pay the price.
What examples can you think of that showcase critical mass or cannibalism?
Tell us about the ways you consume media in binges.
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This is an interesting aspect of publishing…but I may not be typical in that I often find mega-multi-published authors become rather bland, and I don’t binge.
* I think there is a “critical mass of voice” that can come rather early in a writer’s career, and that a large output can be damaging. Michener is a good example; “The Bridges At Toko-Ri” from the mid-50s is his finest work (and he agreed with this assessment); the epics that he ended up writing are masterpieces of research, but hardly engaging on a deep level. Wouk may also fit here; “The Caine Mutiny” is a masterpiece by any standard, but “The Winds Of War” diptych, which in many ways harks back to his WW2 experiences, is bloated and clunky; the voice that drew one into life on the mythical USS Caine is stilled.
* It may be that the seminal work of both writers came from their own experiences, and that this gave “Toko-Ri” and “Caine” their peculiarly vivid urgency, but I suspect that the truth lies deeper. Perhaps it’s the difference between ‘passion for the story’ and ;passion for the career’.
* No one should begrudge a writer passion for his or her livelihood, but likewise the imprimatur of a successful career should not be a free pass to high regard. It’s earned with every word.
* On binging…I don’t. If I read two books in a row in the same genre, that’s a lot (bar research). Watching an entire year of, say, “Star Trek – The Next generation” (now you know!) in a weekend would ruin it for me. I need time to let a story soak, and not overlay it with either a similar voice or a similar plot.
* In closing (this comment has taken quite awhile to compose for several reasons), I’d put forward Nevil Shute as an example of “critical mass versus cannibalism”. His writing career spanned – roughly – thirty years, 1930-60, and he published a bit more than twenty novels. But his best years were bookended by (in my opinion) “Pastoral” and “Round The Bend”, published in 1944 and 1951, respectively. That which came before was prologue; that which followed was formulaic repetition.
* Lightning in a bottle is that to which we aspire, and it has a finite life.
Good to have you back in a longer-content form, Andrew. Your posts are binge-fodder for many of us. We really miss them when they aren’t here and are eager for the next to appear.
Well said, Carol! 🙂 About binge-reading Andrew’s comments, that is. 🙂
Andrew, I also aspire to “lightning in a bottle.” Teaching a Bible lesson or writing a book, my goal for the guy or gal on the other end is that life-changing flash of insight. Realistically, there’s a limit to the number a flashes a person can process.
* Personally, I read different books for different reasons: pleasure (think Lauraine Snelling featuring places from my childhood), information (current events and healthcare), spiritual development (classics and contemporary). My binges are limited to 2-3 books by the same author. 12 is overload, 75 is just crazy.
Shirlee, that’s a good point about how we binge in certain categories at different times. I’m with you; I can’t imagine reading more than 2-3 books by a single author in one year. I want to spread my attention to other topics/authors.
Hi Andrew,
It’s so good to hear from you! I agree binge-reading a specific author takes something away. No anticipation for the next book or getting used to the author’s voice just takes a little of the magic away.
Andrew, I think of what you call “critical mass of voice” as an author’s peak. Sometimes the heights are reached in the first book, which is really hard on the author and his/her readers since everyone wants the writer to get better with each book. Sometimes the heights are hit in mid-career, which is also hard on everyone. The most satisfying, but perhaps least likely to occur, is that the final work is the best of the best.
Welcome back. It’s good to have you writing a lengthier comment.
Thanks, Janet. It’s just good to be able to contribute. This is a vital lifeline for me.
I agree, Andrew. Years ago I enjoyed books by Pierce Anthony, but after a while they were all alike and BORING!
I have been known to binge on authors . . . but have noticed that if I read too many of their books, I get so tired of them that they go from must-read to don’t-bother because I do start noticing the similarities in their plots and characters.
On the other hand, the indie Christian bookstore owner in town told me he had readers who wouldn’t buy the first book in a series until the series was complete. Then they’d buy and read the whole series. However, I suspect he was talking about trilogies rather than dozens of books in The House of Winslow series.
Yes, I can see a problem with an author having 75 books released in a year, or even 12. But three or four? No problem, especially if three of them are a trilogy.
Lola, I agree with you. I can envision readers buying a three-book series and binge reading that series. But book after book by the same author would be rather like having beef for every meal for a year.
A fascinating post, Janet. If I read one in a series and particularly like it, I’m inclined to buy and read the rest of a trilogy. I haven’t run across any past a 3-part series that has fired my interest enough. If I like an author especially well, I will by some of the older books or watch for the next one. My millennial-age son likes fantasy adventure, where an author creates a different world and writes a series of books about a set of characters that overlap between books. He binges not only on a series, but on several favorite authors. He buys not only the newest series, but also older series by an author he’s just discovered. He can’t wait to get the next new book, and he wants to acquire and read all the previous books as quickly as possible. Fantasy-adventure might especially encourage binge because the reader loves the strange world of the stories. I suspect historical might have the same binge appeal. Do you think so?
*From your observation, how close together should an author release a series of novels with related characters (related by historical time, location, and/or family connections)? What release rate is fast enough for the reader to still be excited about the new title but not so fast it cannibalizes sales? Are the numbers the same for hardcopy and electronic releases?
Carol, I think fantasy lends itself to binge reading as do mysteries and maybe suspense. Historical fiction can as well, especially is the series is a saga in which we’re watching generations of a family. If Michener hadn’t started each of his books with the formation of the earth, but instead in a more interesting point (to me), his singe novels would have worked well broken into a historical series.
In terms of what release rate makes sense, lots of variables go into that decision, but with self-publishing, in general, I would say 2-3 months. I wouldn’t differentiate between hardcopy and digital.
I would differentiate between self-publishing and traditional publishing. Traditional publish is more complex and involves turning a much larger wheel to produce a book (involvement of marketing, publicity, and the sales staff in particular). For traditional, 6 months between releases is as fast as can a publisher can move all the necessary pieces. (But, in traditional publishing, it is possible to control the release dates by having the author write, say, all three novels in a series and potentially release them closer together.
Does Disney do this right … re-releasing an oldie but goodie every so often? Just enough to make you want to grab it while you can.
That’s a great example!
Shelli, I agree. Disney ‘opens the vault’ for a short time and parents rush to get the movie.
Disney does it right if you have a huge marketing budget. I wonder if it would work as well for books with minimal marketing except by “personal platform.” The Disney cycle is 7 years, but isn’t that the length of time you have to wait before having a missing person declared dead?
Funny that you mention Disney…
But, their marketing strategy to release an oldie for a certain amount of time cranks up the sales, simply because of supply and demand.
Lol … It’s on my mind! !
Jennifer, I agree with you. Disney cranks up its marketing division, and it becomes difficult NOT to be aware of an oldie releasing. We’re familiar with all the films, so we’re like a fish waiting for the baited hook.
Releasing every seven years also gives families time to create a new generation that’s never seen the movie. Brilliant!
I hadn’t thought about these aspects of critical mass and cannibalization when it comes to an author’s production. I’m a slow reader, mostly because I don’t have a ton of time for reading at this stage in my life. So, if a favorite author came out with a bunch of titles in a short period of time, I’d just have to accept the fact that I would miss many of them due to time constraints.
*As for critical mass, in a slightly different angle, I think we an see it on social media. People who post things about their books on occasion, peppered among more personal/outreach posts, are much more likely have click throughs. If someone is always posting about their new book or a “Buy my book!” post, they’re going to be considered annoying and be ignored.
*As for binge-ing, I do that slowly too. 🙂 I rarely watch television, I slow-read through favorite authors’ books, and when it comes to food, I’m pretty restricted, so binge-ing on foods can be harmful for me. Sigh. It’s one way to develop self-discipling I suppose. 😉
Every summer when my son came home from college we’d pick a TV show we’d not watched but heard was good and binge watch it over the summer. Some were good and some we quit. But it was fun.
That’s a fun way to binge view programs, Jackie.
Jeane, you make a good point about how many times we tolerate hearing from the same author that his or her books are available to us. After awhile, I just shut out a person’s social media posts. I don’t want to be blasted with “buy my book!”
Questions for the clan here: If you find an author you really enjoy, how soon do you want to read their next book? Is that different if the novel is part of a series with some continuing characters? Do you think being an author makes a difference in what you do?
*For my fantasy-adventure son, he’d buy the next one in the series as soon as he can get to B&N or Hastings. (He strongly prefers brick-and-mortar shopping to online.) For me, if it’s a series, I want the next one immediately. If it’s just an author I enjoy but unrelated stories, I don’t have a particular urge to get the next one right away or maybe even get it at all unless I happen to notice when it comes out or it pops up as a suggestion on Amazon.
Hi Carol,
If I really like the characters, I’ll buy it pretty soon. But there are times when I buy a book and save to read for vacation because I know I’m going to love it so much I’ll want to savor it. I’ve even bought books for my husband to take on vacation. This may sound weird, but if I can’t find time to read on vacation, it’s not really a vacation.
Doesn’t sound weird to me. I sometimes do exactly the same thing. I normally like longer novels (100+K word range), but I get novella collections for vacations so I can read a story in one sitting.
I read novels digitally, and I think that affects my buying habits. If a favorite author is creating a series, I’ll probably buy each book as soon as it becomes available. Then I’ll save up the entire series and read one after the other.
As for binge buying behavior, I can see binge buying tea and trying them. As for binge media, I will watch a day or a weekend of the same shows mostly on HGTV and sometimes E, Bravo, or BBC America. However as for books, I will buy many books on CDs by a particular author and listen to one right after the other. But to sit down and do that as a reader, no I prefer not to do that.
Thanks for sharing your binge behavior with us. I suspect we each have individual binge behavior. But it’s interesting to hear that consuming books on CD causes you to binge but reading physical books doesn’t.
Janet, excellent food for thought. You’ve come down on the side opposite the preaching of a number of self-published authors whose mantra seems to be that volume is the answer. It will be interesting to see what readers think of this, and how they respond.
In the pharmaceutical world, in which I consulted for many years (always careful that any perks didn’t sway my prescribing habits, by the way), the term “cannibalism” often came up, specifically when a company was going to bring out a new drug that would take the place of one they already had. In this case, though, doctors weren’t going to prescribe both drugs–they’d make a choice. In the case of books, the consumer makes the decision, and they may or may not choose to purchase several books.
Thanks for stimulating discussion on the issue.
Richard, I’m very aware that I’m flying in the face of the advice of self-publishing gurus. When readers didn’t have the plethora a choices they do today, rapid-fire self-publishing seems to have made sense.
But I come back to the importance of balancing critical mass (which offers enough of your books to generate a loyal following) and cannibalism (which robs one title of a sale that goes to another of your titles). I don’t rabidly follow self-publishing blogs, etc., but I haven’t seen anyone addressing the issue of over-publishing. Everything I see advises publishing nonstop. I think that’s wrong-headed and flies in the face of how each of us (avid readers all) buy and read books.
Richard, you bring up opportunity cost. My reading resources–time and money–are limited. Every book I buy and read excludes others. Too much of the same narrows my horizons.
My thought exactly, Shirlee.
I hope I may be excused for offering a general ‘thank you’ for all of those who kept me in their prayers, and who welcomed my return to the fold. I’m simply not up to individual messages; I’m sorry, but today is shaping poorly. “Beating my head against a wall to stop the pain” is not merely a literary device.
* On Disney…their cynicism in marketing oldies for a short time, to keep demand and prices up makes me wish them ill, and helps me see these ‘beloved’ oldies as nothing more than a commodity. That practice has ruined the memory of that which I once thought I loved. It’s a product. Nothing more.
* On a positive note (and somewhat off topic, sorry), a quote that I think might be useful to all writers, from pastor Steven Furtick (heard at 0342 this morning…long night)…
* “Consider your failures to be fertilizedrfor the fields in which success will grow.”
Andrew, thanks for more of an update on you. I’m so sorry that today is a bad one. Know I’ll be praying for you.
Regarding the pastor’s quote, I must say some of us are better at producing fertilizer than success, but hopefully that field will eventually yield beautiful produce.
Hi Janet,
Great points. As a writer, I feel the pressure to produce faster. However, as a reader, I am more than happy to wait as long as needed for Francine River’s next release.
Quality is more important than quick.
And even with high quality, each release needs its time to shine.
Thanks for the post!
Jenny Snow
Jenny, I so agree with you. If Francine whipped off a novel every six months, some of us wouldn’t have time to read the first one before we had a second to add to our stack. If the reader can’t keep up, he or she becomes weary of feeling behind and just recognizes some of Francine’s novels aren’t going to be read–or at least any time in the foreseeable future.
Janet, this is fascinating. I’ve not considered this part of publishing before. As a consumer, I do binge read/watch from time to time. Depending on saturation, I’m sometimes left wanting more and the desired effect is achieved. Most often, however, I burn out before having the chance to finish. I tend to be an all-or-nothing personality, anyway. So, that certainly has something to do with my perspective. I’m admittedly overwhelmed, as an author, at the thought of having to change my pace of writing to meet the projected demands you mention. However, the blessing of being in the position to begin with would certainly outweigh that sentiment. 🙂
Teresa, traditional publisher can no more keep up than you could as an author. And each author learns just how many manuscripts he or she can create in a given year. “To thine own self be true.”
That’s a relief! 🙂
When that song “Thank you” came out, I liked it.
But, by the next day?
All I heard was the treacle and sugar and EMOTION and yeah.
Noooooo. Please. No more!
It had reached critical mass by about Day One and it still makes me cringe.
I actually cannot listen to anything by that singer in the same key as that song. Different key? Maybe.
But that song was played to death and UGH.
Classic example of cannibalism.
But? I could listen to my favourite songs all day. 😉
As for binge behaviour?
I recently went on a Carol Moncado binge and it was a blast. 5 books in 3 days. I had to stop because I ran out of money on my Amazon gift card, and my credit card had been cancelled due to a minor theft. So, I was between books. It was rough. But I survived.
And yes, an author can over publish. Nobody wants to eat chocolate 24/7, or they begin to hate the stuff. At least, I think so. Hmmm, someone needs to experiment on that.
I agree about favorite songs, although I do like at least 20 minutes between plays. I disagree on the chocolate part. I’ve done the experiment, mostly with chocolate chips and sometimes with dark chocolate M&Ms. Good, rich dark chocolate popped into your mouth to melt slowly away while you work on a computer… even 24/7…YES!
Okay, Carol, I guess Jennifer can’t volunteer herself for the chocolate experiment…unless she wants to add to data bank. Jennifer?
Every experiment should be repeated multiple times to be sure you have representative data and smaller error bars. The more of us who perform the test, the better.
Ohhh, you too are as subtle as a toddler with a squeaky toy.
As for the data bank, good one. Because as we all know, I have easy access to Dairy Milk products.
BUT?
No See’s!!!!
Don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this…but it seems to me that ‘series’ authors can create characters whose interaction becomes an archetype, used by other writers.
* When I was a kid I had a few of the “Rick Brant Electronic Adventure” books. They were well-written, and I enjoyed them.
* What stayed in my mind was the cast of characters…the serious ‘father figure’, the jovial and large American scientist, the small and intense ‘foreign’ scientist, the fun-loving and wise-beyond-his years sidekick…
* And I ran into those people again in the early 80s, when I read Arthur Clarke’s “2010 – Odyssey Two”. Specifics were changed, but the interactions were right out of that beloved childrens’ series from the 50s.
* One can probably trace the development of ensemble character-groupings back to The Bard, but locking the academics back into the closet…I wonder if the really well-received series have a lasting effect on the paradigms of writing, far beyond their initial ‘splash’?
That’s an interesting concept about ensemble characters influencing future work. I think we see that effect with To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the challenges of every YA writer is to create characters that don’t sound too much Scout, Atticus, Jem, etc.
People can’t buy cereal that isn’t on the shelf. Author #2 is going to make a ton of money.
I hope you’re right, Jim. But do note the comments of others to this blog post–these avid readers would not be making a lot of money for said author.
An assumption here is that the prolific indie must count on binge reading. Not so. In the indie world every work is both an active asset and a discoverability portal. That’s why there is no such thing as “cannibalism” in indie (we’re herbivores plucking all that low-hanging fruit). Cannibalism is a relic of the traditional system because bookstore distribution and shelf space are limited. There is no such limitation for the indie.
Jim, while the cereal analogy involves shelf space, the actual limitations that every seller of any type of product faces are the consumer’s time and the consumer’s wallet (as well as the consumer’s needs and desires). Adding to an author’s inventory of titles does nothing to add time or money for the buyer.
I love the term “discoverability portal.” Since I’m writing romantic historicals with parallel plots of major spiritual transformation, that term makes me think as much about the possibility that someone reading one of my novels would discover a desire for a closer walk with Jesus as it does about someone “discovering” me as an author they enjoy.
Carol, that is a great phrase, isn’t it?
The binge TV-watching fascinates me because I could never sit for that long. When I discovered Castle, my husband and I caught up eventually, watching one most evenings. For us, even that was a lot. I don’t really binge on books either because I need time when I’m done to absorb and savor them. That said, if a reader wants to binge on books, I’d be happy to oblige. 🙂 Like Iola said, three or four each year seems like an amount to keep readers happy without glutting the market. How many books each year do you think is a good balance, Janet?
Meghan, I would say three books tops, if the author wants to maintain strong sales on each title. Maybe, if the goal is simply to make money and not be concerned about how much each title is making, I’d say four or five.
But we need to keep in mind that the market keeps morphing, as self-publishing and digital books continue to affect the market.
I’m not seeing lots of enthusiasm from this blog’s commenters for lots of titles per year even from authors whose books are beloved.
Janet, thank you for sharing this fascinating information. As far as binge habits, if the first book of the series grips me, I will go straight to book two. I always take it on a book-by-book basis, though. If book two doesn’t live up to the first, I usually don’t go for book three.
That’s an important point to make, Melinda. I’m the same way with TV series. For awhile I watched “Limitless,” but by the third episode, I was so done with it. Actually, I was done at episode two, but I thought, since the protagonist is taking a pill that enables him to access all his brain power, that the complications could get more interesting as he experiences the pluses and minuses of the medication. Not so. I was totally done after episode three.
I’ve been known to buy up every book I can find of a series if I like it, and I hate having to wait for the next book in line. However, I do get confused when an author releases multiple books in multiple series all at the same time. I think the best balance is to release books at a steady rate, never releasing more than one title at a time but having many titles in print.
That release schedule would certainly suit your reading habits, and I think that has real merit. That’s how traditional publishing works–only with fairly long stretches between books. That’s why some people like to wait until an entire series is available so they can read at their own pace.
Of course, if an author has other books you could check out while you waited for the next in a series, might you buy those?
Janet, I’ve sampled authors’ other series while waiting for new titles, but only rarely. I like to finish one series per author before moving on. Often when I’m looking for authors new to me, I’ll pick one who has a completed series available. I do like stand-alone books though, and sometimes get trapped in a series when that “stand-alone” turns into the first of a series!
Elissa, the life of a reader can be challenging, can’t it!? I would agree that, once you’re into a series, it’s hard to be tempted to read something else by that author as you wait for the next series book to release.
James Scott Bell’s comment above raises some questions. Is the recipe for success different for traditional and indie authors? It does seem for indie that it is important to get books out in quick succession and keep all the past work still in the market. If reader interest flags, you might never get it back. The opportunity for bundling new and old to stimulate interest in earlier books again could generate many sales. With such limited numbers of traditional releases, it seems the sales multiplying tools would be very important but might not be the same. Or are they? Does a traditional publisher work all the angles like I’ve been learning in marketing webinars for multiplying sales with bundling, promotions, etc.? Or can the author do it if the publisher doesn’t want to? How does a traditional publisher try to rejuvenate sales of earlier works? Or do they?
Carol, I can’t speak for self-publishing authors, but I suspect their goals are slightly different from traditionally-published authors. In self-publishing, it doesn’t matter how many copies of Title A sell; the goal is to make as much money total off of all your titles. In traditional publishing, if Title A doesn’t sell, your publisher might not contract you for another book.
So, if we go back to the cereal analogy, if the company creating cereals doesn’t care how many boxes of oat cereal or wheat cereal they sell but rather how many cereals in total sold, then owning a larger amount of the shelf real estate becomes of higher value. And it enables you to offer one type of cereal for free or a drastically reduced price if the buyer will purchase a second box for the regular price.
But I think that analogy does break down if the cereal company releases 12 new types of cereal in quick succession. True, some people will become loyal to a new cereal, but that doesn’t mean they will try even one of the other cereals you produce.
I keep coming back to the limited number of cereals/books each of us buys per year.
In terms of traditional publishers, some are very good at keeping sales going for backlist titles. Other publishers have orphaned their backlist and basically use digital sales of those titles to drive readers to frontlist titles. The effectiveness of how publishers deal with backlist and frontlist varies tremendously.
So maybe in a contract it might be important to include some provision for direct author efforts to keep backlist still active in the market, if possible?
I can’t envision a traditional publisher agreeing to an author making decisions on price points for a backlist title. That would get really messy fast. And the publisher wouldn’t be able to keep up with all the changes each author was making, which would mean the publisher couldn’t support price variations with marketing, rendering any effect only to sales the author could drive.
Oh. My. Words of wisdom from a pro! Another reason authors NEED agents, knowledgeable, experienced ones. Thanks for this interesting perspective. I hope one day to have such a problem to manage.
Mary Kay, you are not alone in the desire to have the need to manage multiple titles.
I don’t binge read or watch, and I can’t imagine writing many good books in one year. I have read pretty much all the books written by certain authors–John LeCarre, P.D. James, Len Deighton, Ruth Rendell. But even there, I think some of their books are much better than others. For instance, LeCarre’s early books are a lot better than the later ones, in my view. For many writers, even one book a year may be too much.
Margaret, I am with you on this. Some authors are prolific writers, but their books drop in quality (characterization, plot, etc) when they try to push themselves.
Margaret, all authors are limited in how many good books they can produce in a year. And it’s important to know one’s limits and not exceed them. Of course, the case studies I cited in this post have the elements of two authors with significant backlist. When you have many of your old titles to juggle in addition to your new work, a complicated situation gets lots more complex.
Wow! Too many comments to read. 🙂 But I’m with Andrew. I don’t binge on anything. I also won’t have to worry about releasing 75 titles at one time. 😉 Also, re-releasing 12 titles in one year seems overdoing it to me. I think what I’ve heard in the Indie pool is that–as a new author–you should release as many as you can as quickly as you can (if they are well written) because if a reader likes your first book, they will be searching for another. That person could be a binger or just a normal reader glad that they found another author to like.
Linda, yes, a new indie author does need to reach critical mass as soon as possible. But the trick is balancing critical mass and flooding the market.
How many constitutes the necessary critical mass for an indie author to open their web site for selling books (nonfiction and fiction)?
Carol, I think you can start to sell your books immediately. Just know that it will take you until you hit about 20 titles in one category to gain strong traction.
Thanks for the reality check. Twenty books at three a year means almost 7 years. No wonder almost every author needs a day job or a pension..
Yes, it takes a long time to accumulate that many titles. Some authors hit it big on the first book, but for most, it’s slogging through a lot of writing.
On the other hand, there have been many times when I’ve really liked a book, went to find the author’s next book, and there was none – not even a pre-order option or a tentative release date.
Then I forget about them before their next book comes out because something else has come along and grabbed my attention.
I’m assuming, Peter, that the author had only one book for you to purchase. Which means the author is about 19 books away from critical mass. It’s tough to get momentum going when you’re first starting out.
I tend to binge on blogs. For months I read everything I can get my hands on by one author/company and then I’m finished. I either move on to another one or I just take a break from all of them.
I do have to say though, many of the thoughts expressed through this particular one are a bit depressing. If it’s true that you need to have “20 titles (or critical mass) available for readers before the writer’s career breaks out to the next level of sales.” I’ll never get there. I’m a bit like the proverbial turtle.
I am afraid that I have only binged on three different authors and found, as has been mentioned by my friend, Janet Collins, that after the first few books of a series they all begin to sound the same. I know we’re supposed to expect a certain type of writing from a particular author, but at times, even the best of authors need a fresh change of pace in their books.
Just my opinion.