As Phase One continues, I’ve gotten a pretty good idea of the state of online publishing. There are common practices, typical price points, and varying probabilities of success. Leave it to me to defy numerous bullet points, some of which I’ve previously described. Hey, at least I’m not expecting a best seller.
It is fairly common for Kindle authors to publish their ebooks within a month or so of their last release. This is considered building up steam. Book one of the series is released, and then the next one will come out in only a matter of weeks. Some even hold off publishing their first book until their second is written. There is a certain logic to this, and it’s become a sort of conventional wisdom online. You develop a following quicker. Marketing benefits more than one book at a time. I can see why this is done. However, if you haven’t guessed, this is not what I’ll be doing.
It takes me a long time to write one novel. About a year. There are a variety of reasons for this, some I might have even posted on. There’s limited time, exhaustion, having a day job, etc. This all leads to a lengthy development. So I can’t write a multi-book series in a matter of months. It’s a multi-year project for me. And that means there’s going to be a long wait between sequels.
Why not write the whole series and then release online? Or even finish book two and then release the first two? Well, I could operate based on the former, but that might keep me from self-publishing for another four years. Who knows what the state of online publishing will be by then? Heck, who knows what the state of the world will be? I admit, I am a bit anxious to put it out there as well. I want to see the reactions to it, or even if there will be any reactions to it. The latter option presents an entirely different issue. It’s reasonable, but if I release books one and two a few months apart, and then don’t release book three for another year, that seems misleading. Books one and two might as well be one book at that point. So no, not going to do that.
My release schedule is old school. Once a year, for the next five years, for this series. Of course, that also means a multi-year marketing strategy, which I’m still devising. And it is strange to be thinking in terms of years. But that’s how it’s gonna be.
D. N. Meinster 