A Book-a-Year Author: Fast or Slow?

I’m a book-a-year author. The general public tells me my pace is commendable. My readers say: “I zipped through your book in a week…where’s the next one?” Best-selling authors opine: “You need to be writing two to four books a year.”

My very first novel, LAST RESORT, published by Wild Rose Press in 2011, took more than a year to release. Same with the next several novels they published for me. When I took over the publishing reins, I thought I’d be speedier. In December, 2020, despite being stymied by Covid, I released my eleventh novel When Oceans Rage along with a 40,000 word story Links to Evil. Call me steady Eddy at 1.2 novels a year.

We authors can’t help compare our output to other writers. Nora Robert’s is staggering. She’s around my age and she published years before I took up my third career as a writer, but she’s crafted more than 225 novels under four pen names, with millions of devoted fans across the continents. She’s 70 years old, and started writing when she was 29, a day she was snowbound with her two sons. Since 1982, one of the first Americans picked up by Harlequin, she’s written about six books a year. Amazing!

Another writer in my genre and a little older than I am, Janet Evanovich, like Roberts, began writing in her 30’s (another mom at home with the kids). She’s published more than 72 books in 33 years, a two and a half book-a-year pattern.

Lisa Gardner, known for her gritty procedurals, delivering 42 novels to her readers since the late 90’s, is on a two-book-a-year kick. But she’s ten years younger than I am, and her latest book shows me she is at the top of her game.

Today, I begin my 12th novel, a Sable Chisholm Mystery, title to come. Setting? A National Park, specifically the one on St. John Island, VI, which takes up two-thirds of the land/beach area of the Island. How long will I spend on the story before I release the book? I’ll let you know in 2021!

Happy New Year, my author and reader friends. Take 2021 at your own speed!

Rolynn