Publish or Perish

Publish or perish.

When you work in the academic world, thou shalt publish paper after paper to prove that thou art worthy of thine position. It’s not just the academic world, though.

When I was younger, I thought Stephen King was slightly insane. Most people I read, like Robert Jordan, produced maybe a novel a year. But then here comes Stephen King with how many books a year? Who can live at that pace?

Well, it looks like a lot of indie writers do. Not every single one, mind you. Every author needs to move at their own pace. But here’s a simple truth: Readers normally read far faster than writers can write. If you can write more than a novel a year, well, do it. Keep writing! Your fans will read what you produce and enjoy it!

And that’s what I’ve been learning. Over the last few years, I grasped a simple truth: Once you have a story out on submission somewhere, don’t wait to hear back about that story. Get working on the next one! If you’re rejected, fine, just send it out again quickly. Soon you’ll have a bunch of stories out at once, increasing your chances of getting published somewhere.

And now I’ve learned that it’s not just true of short stories. Why complete one novel and then wait for a publisher to bite? Why not get to work on the next one right away?

Oh, and maybe… why even wait for a publisher?

Ah, but that’s probably a story for another day, though hopefully soon.

Instead, I just wanted to walk through what I’ve got coming up, just to show… yeah. Keep moving. Keep working.

• I currently have fifteen short stories out at various markets for consideration.
• I have five short stories not out for consideration, as I haven’t seen a market that seems to fit them.
• I have one novel not out for consideration, as I keep an eye open for a market it seems to fit.
• I have four short stories accepted at various markets that will be published within a year.
• I have a novel that will be published December 1 from Dark Owl Publishing. More on that soon!
• I have five more novels in various forms of drafting I’m hoping will see the light of day in 2022.
• I have detailed outlines for four more novels I’m hoping to draft no later than the first half of 2022.
• Oh, and I have two Vella novels available, plus one more I started with a friend that he’s running on his own now. (One of those is brand new this week!) I’m also working on at least one more Vella novel, if not two.
• Plus there’s that Published Works tab for you to see all the stuff that’s currently out, including my debut novel, The Keeper of Tales.

Why am I listing all this?

Basically, I could easily stop and say, “Look at that. I’ve done so much! I should just get this stuff published and not worry about producing more.

Except… why? Why stop and wait? Why not get more out there in as many different places as possible? If someone wants to read my stuff, I want to provide it!

And in the end, by producing a bunch of content, my hope is that I have a number of ways of making income. One book a year wouldn’t be enough to support my family unless I was at the level of Stephen King. But if I have, say, twenty novels out there? Let’s say I can publish six quality novels a year. That’s much more reasonable to say, “Well, I sold two hundred copies of this book… but because I have these other books selling just as much, I can support my family.”

So yeah. Publish or perish.

So I’m doing allthewriting.

And I plan to keep going!