Rapid Release & 20 Books Goal

When I started taking my writing more seriously, in 2016, I wrote a lot.

I finished:

• 3 Leslie Kim Serial novellas
• 1 YA Fantasy
• 1 horror / romance with an unreliable narrator novella
• 3 middle grade fantasy novels
• Half of one contemporary women’s fiction / romance involving an elderly woman and a ghost.

So, basically 8.5 books. When I dove headfirst into editing all of them, I walked away with 1 usable manuscript.

Before I sat down to edit them, I had planned to edit and rapid release all of them within the next year. I figured I could really jump start my career if I just got them all out there and kept releasing so that readers wouldn’t forget about me.

At the time, I was listening to the Self Publishing Podcast guys who had this attitude that was kind of “it’ll never be perfect, so just release it!”

But I really started to doubt this idea when I released my works to beta readers. Some readers loved them; others really, really hated them. I was so thankful for the beta reader’s opinions during that time because they truly saved me from some embarrassing mistakes.

I knew that some of the manuscripts had such large, core issues that if I tried to send them to a copy editor in that state, I’d end up wasting a lot of many on back and forth edits. As a self-published author, it’s much better to send in an almost-perfect manuscript because it’s on your dime.

So, I started the agonizingly slow process of pulling apart the manuscripts and asking, “why doesn’t this work?” “what’s her motivation here?” “wasn’t that character mute? Why is he talking?”

It took me almost a full year to edit the first novella. This obviously was not going to be a rapid release situation.

And honestly, I’m thankful for that.

I’m not an author that plans to make a quick buck and get out fast (and I hope you’re not either because it’s very unlikely). I want to have a lifelong career because I can’t imagine a world where I stop writing. Ever since I read a blurb in the back of a middle grade book as a kid that said she wrote the book while her children were at school, I realized that sounded pretty awesome. I always wanted kids and I’ve always been a writer. Maybe I could make those two things happen!

So, while I’m not hitting immediate blockbuster success with any of my releases (yet!), I’m hoping to build a career on books that I can feel proud of.

I do plan to release at least 20 books in the near future, but if it ends up being one book per year while my kids are still small, I’m okay with it.