It's been a while since I've posted anything noteworthy about my writing, so I figured now's a good time for an update.
As with so much in life, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that I'm pretty close to being done with the next book, which is the second Fringe Worlds novel. After that, I'll probably go to the next Warden book and then Kid Sensation #6 (working title: Replication). Believe it or not, I've actually got the bulk of the story for those two already worked out in my head. The problem (and this is the bad news), is that I've been having difficulty finding time to write.
Oddly enough (and I may have mentioned this before), I'm actually a pretty fast writer. If I ever reach a point where I'm doing this full time, I'll probably be cranking out a book every month. At present, however, without even taking the day job into consideration, the other aspects of the writing business are taking up gobs of time.
Take audiobooks, for instance. The audio market has been very good to me since I started releasing audiobooks a year ago. However, there's a time component involved: for instance, I received almost 70 auditions from narrators for the audio version of Amped (which will hopefully be released in the next week or so), and I listened to every one of them - some more than once. And, at the very least, you have to listen to the finished product after it's done, and in the case of some of my books that's close to 10 hours.
Then there's also book promotion. I was blessed to have achieved a fair amount of success as an author without doing much promotion early on. That said, to maintain longevity in this business you have to remain flexible and openminded, so I've been putting additional effort into marketing. I've also gotten creative in terms of my offerings. For example, just this week I created a boxed set that's sort of a "sampler," containing the first book in the Fringe Worlds, Warden, and Kid Sensation series:
I'm calling it Worlds of Wonder: Three Novels of Science Fiction and Fantasy (mostly because I think the name sounds cool).
Of course, authors box their series all the time, but I haven't seen many that have taken this approach. I don't know how fruitful it will be, but again, you have to stay nimble and think a little outside the box.
But back to the subject at hand: my writing. Frankly speaking, I'm probably at the point where I really need to hire an assistant to do some of the non-writing tasks: booking promotions, listening to the final versions of audibook files, etc. That would free me up to focus on writing books. In fact, that would increase my writing output significantly even without making writing my full-time gig. (And to be honest, I actually like the day job.) Of course, I haven't even touched on the things outside of writing that also affect my time, such as being under the weather (I was out of commission for two weeks earlier this year), auto breakdowns (anybody feel like installing a new transmission?), family/social obligations...
As to the books currently on deck, if I can just get in some solid writing time, I believe I can finish the second Fringe Worlds book in short order. Depending on how fast my editor can get to it, I would be hoping for an early- to mid-June release. Then release Warden #4 by the end of July, and Kid Sensation #6 by the end of August.
Anyway, that's a rough estimate of my timetable. After these next three books are released, I may go ahead and finish one of the other novels that I've started (like my zombie apocalypse story, which is currently trying to claw its way out of my brain).
Of course, authors box their series all the time, but I haven't seen many that have taken this approach. I don't know how fruitful it will be, but again, you have to stay nimble and think a little outside the box.
But back to the subject at hand: my writing. Frankly speaking, I'm probably at the point where I really need to hire an assistant to do some of the non-writing tasks: booking promotions, listening to the final versions of audibook files, etc. That would free me up to focus on writing books. In fact, that would increase my writing output significantly even without making writing my full-time gig. (And to be honest, I actually like the day job.) Of course, I haven't even touched on the things outside of writing that also affect my time, such as being under the weather (I was out of commission for two weeks earlier this year), auto breakdowns (anybody feel like installing a new transmission?), family/social obligations...
As to the books currently on deck, if I can just get in some solid writing time, I believe I can finish the second Fringe Worlds book in short order. Depending on how fast my editor can get to it, I would be hoping for an early- to mid-June release. Then release Warden #4 by the end of July, and Kid Sensation #6 by the end of August.
Anyway, that's a rough estimate of my timetable. After these next three books are released, I may go ahead and finish one of the other novels that I've started (like my zombie apocalypse story, which is currently trying to claw its way out of my brain).
***If you are interested in receiving information about my audiobooks - including new releases and free copies - please subscribe to my Audibook Newsletter. (And if you do not have an Audible account, you can get a 30-day free trial and a copy of the audiobook of Sensation by signing up here.)
