Author Journey (August 11, 2025)

I’ve been home in Ottawa for just over a week now, which means any levels of relaxation obtained on the vacation have now melted away. It’s almost like it didn’t even happen… Anyhow, that also means it’s back to work!

Author Journey (August 11, 2025)

What happened?

Our final week in England went by so quickly. We packed in loads of activities, so many that I am now struggling to remember exactly what we did when, but then, that’s part of the fun of it. We got home last Saturday and quickly slipped back into the regular day-to-day life. That, of course, meant the return of the Real Life Family Event. There had been a slight error with the summer camp bookings which left my eldest without a camp to attend, and since he wasn’t going, the youngest decided he was too tired to go too… So, instead of having a week to get on top of the vacation laundry and ease back into normal life, I spent the entire week entertaining the kids, which obviously isn’t a bad thing.

I have started to get back to working on my posts, which involved watching some anime and reading some manga. Happy days indeed! However, there was a random like on my Goals for 2025 post which made me re-read the post. That then got me thinking about just how far off my goals I am. I wanted to watch more anime and read more manga than in 2024. At the moment, it’s going to take a miracle to even catch up with the anime goal. In 2024, I watched 629 episodes of anime. So far, I’ve managed 37… As for manga, I read 159 volumes in 2024 and am currently sitting at 71 for 2025. That one still feels possible, but it’ll still be a real challenge to make it. Admittedly, this year has not gone quite to plan.

Slow and Steady or Rapid Release!

I’ve been a part of the indie author community since 2014. Admittedly, I’m more of a lurker since I sit back and absorb all of the information I can find. I’ve no idea how many articles or books on writing I’ve read over the years, but it’s a lot. However, my main source of information has been podcasts. I’ve pretty much been listening to them every day for over ten years. I listen in the car, I listen while walking my dog, and I listen while doing house work. I wish I could get the stats on how many hours of podcasts I’ve listened to because it would likely be insane.

Anyhow, since I’ve been absorbing information for over a decade, I figured it might be fun to talk about that. I find it a helpful way to process the information and maybe even come to a conclusion. However, like most things in the indie author world, conclusions are incredibly personal. What I decide will work for me probably won’t work for everyone else and vice-versa. The topic that’s concerning me right now is the publishing schedule.

Generally, there are two camps. The first is to take a much slower approach, releasing a book a year. This is much closer to the traditional publishing model, but as an indie, it can be more flexible as needed. The indie author’s ability to pivot and adapt to situations is one of their biggest strengths. The second camp is the home of the rapid release model. This usually involves writing an entire trilogy and then releasing them in quick succession. It could be monthly, but I’ve heard of authors doing them closer together at first and then spreading them out. So, which method should I use?

There are lots of pros and cons to each method. The slow and steady model is less likely to lead to burn out. If you release three books over three months, the reader could come to expect that and become disappointed when the author can’t keep up. Some can, but I’m hearing more and more about author’s burning out and slowly falling away from the industry.

However, when I consider blogging and how search engine algorithms decide what to display, there’s a lot that resonates with the rapid release. This is a massive oversimplification, but the search engine is more likely to suggest a website with multiple pages about the search topic than a website with one page. This works for books too. If a reader is searching for a fantasy series, the algorithm is going to push them towards a series with more books than a single book. Like I said, there is more to it such as how well each recommendation results in a sale, but when all things are equal, the book seller is going to make more money on a longer series.

I’m starting to realise that this is much larger topic that I can fit into one of these posts, so I’ll be sure to have a follow up at some point in the future. Other things to consider include where the book will be sold, as that will impact the readers you are targeting. There are big differences between readers on Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program and those who buy their books on the Apple store or through Kobo. Marketing will be an aspect to thing about too. It’s easier to advertise a longer series because of the potential for read through, which makes it possible to spend more on advertising book one.

At the moment, I’m leaning towards the slow and steady method, but that can change. I have tried the rapid release method before, and while that wasn’t when I experienced burnout, life did deliver a large interruption that I’ve struggled to return from.

What are you planning?

One thing that I had been thinking about before I looked at how I was doing against my goals for 2025 was that reviewing two episodes a week for an entire year will mean that I only watch eight regular length shows a year, which is roughly 96 episodes. Admittedly, I did have a crazy spell last year where I watched almost three hundred episodes in three months. That was when I breezed through the Winter and Spring seasons and was only completing a season review. I’m reluctant to do that again, because most of the shows I watched, I loved so much that I want to go back and do episode reviews too. I’ll just end up watching everything twice and that’s not what I want to do.

So, I need to work out exactly what I want to do and then how I’m going to achieve it. This year has been very hard and unlike any other year I’ve experienced since I’ve had this site going, and that includes 2020 during the global pandemic. I think the best approach right now is to just keep plodding along, while being ready to grab any extra time that comes my way. Before I went on vacation, I had a fairly good spell where I was finding ways to work around the Real Life Family Events, so that might happen again. the next four weeks will be particularly telling. Anyhow, thanks for reading.

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