Why One Book A Year Won't Work

I have always loved watching the expression on new author's faces when they hear how many books successful writers produce each year. On average you will find that these authors are producing easily 3-4 books a year. To add to this, they are also probably working full time jobs as well. 

Are you kidding me? That's a lot!

Yes it is, but their success as authors comes from their ability to produce books.

I want you to think about something. When you are out to buy books, what draws your attention. The odds are, you go to the authors who you already know. You have your "go-to" favorites. You know their names and when you see a post that their latest book is coming out, you immediately dive after a pre-sale of the book. You don't ever bother to check to see if the plot is going to work for you. You just buy it. 

And that purchase counts as a sale.

That that sale is counted by the publishers.

And the more sales you make, regardless of whether or not someone liked your book is tracked by those publishers and that is what they use to determine if they will keep offering you contracts.

You see this business is about name recognition, and more importantly, digital buying. There are far too many authors out there and for you to be discovered online is going to be extremely difficult. In the old days we used to go to books stores and wander around looking on the bookshelves. We hovered over the "new arrivals" table and discovered new authors. 

Now, when we dive onto Amazon, we get who "they" recommended. We might click on our favorite genre, but we are still hit with 1000's of authors. And again, who do you buy? The names you see.

For this reason, publishers like to keep their authors' names out there in front of everyone. They like to release books in back to back months so you are ready to dive into the next book when it comes out. If you have a book that comes out in October, and another one doesn't show up until a year later, the readers will have forgotten you.