Saturday 1 August 2015

How many books a year?

I don't know about you, but I like to plan ahead. I've already got my schedule for 2016 mapped out and this is what I plan to publish;
Two more of the six book series called, "The Duke's Alliance".(I'm writing the first one now and it will be released in January.'
Two shorter Regency titles.
A Christmas Regency
Two back list Regencies.
Also if the agent, who has the first book in my three book Victorian saga, fails to sell it to a major publisher then I shall publish that myself. I shall also write the second book sometime next year, but this won't be published until 2017.
There will also be three new Regency Quintet editions as well as three new box sets with my titles.
I know a lot of people throw up their hands in horror when I say how many books I write the year but three 50K books and three long books is not as much as it sounds.
I write a minimum of a thousand words every day – sometimes a lot more – which gives me plenty of spare days to go out and spend with family and friends. It only takes a couple of hours – sometimes a lot less – to write that much so it's hardly an arduous schedule.
I also spend a couple of hours on social media because I enjoy it rather than because it raises my write a profile or sells any more of my books.
I have a friend, Wendy Soliman, who also writes Regency as well as in three other genres, and she writes ten books a year. I know that Nora Roberts writes ten books a year and when I first heard that I thought she must have other people writing her books, but it's perfectly possible to write even more than that without too much trouble.
How many books do you write?
I also read about fifty books a year – mostly historical fiction and thrillers, but also some contemporary romance, some fantasy and a dozen or so reference books. I'm a very fast reader and if a book grabs my attention I read it in two evenings. I probably start, but abandon, another thirty books during the year. I don't spend time on books that I don't enjoy however popular they might be with other people. I didn't get more than a quarter of the way into Wolf Hall, and abandoned the latest CJ Samson – although when I get it back from my neighbour I might give it another go. It started with burning three people alive and that was just too much for me to stomach.
My favourite authors are Christian Cameron, Bernard Cornwall, P J Chisholm, Lee Child and Michael Connelly. I also love Jane Fullerton's books and Alison Morton's – especially her latest, which I think is the best, Aurelia.

 How many books do you read a year?

Fenella J Miller

No comments:

Post a Comment