Occasionally, but sometimes up to two or three times a day—so not occasionally—I get asked why the next book in a series isn’t out, or why there aren’t audiobooks for the later books in a series.
Here are the answers to those questions. Spoiler alert: they involve decisions based on the needs of my business/someone else’s business and books are never held from release or anything like that out of spite or writer’s block, which I don’t believe in.
We’ll start with books.
I have several series I’ll never finish. If it has been more than two year between the last release, this means I have likely moved on. I earn a living by writing, and as much as I want to please you (the fan, the reader!), I am an independent writer who writes genre fiction. What I write directly correlates to food I put on my table.
If a book isn’t popular during the launch, it is very hard for me to continue the series because of financial reasons. I average one hundred thousand words a month. Those are the “hours” I put in, and if I am putting those hours into something that isn’t reaching a wider audience, I’m directly hurting my own future income because of the time and money it costs to produce a book, then get a cover made, pay editors, pay for advertising, the overhead costs.
It’s not ideal, but this is the truth.
If a food company made a really delicious cookie that sold like crack, they’d make more. If they made one that was very genuine and definitely had a unique flavor yet never reached the numbers they needed to sustain their business, they’d stop producing said cookie.
No, I’m not hungry for cookies. Let’s try toys.
If a toy company launched a new toy, let’s call it Tickle-Me-Harmon, and it was really popular even after it was discovered that the toy was secretly taking over people’s bluetooth networks to brainwash them into radical flat earth theories through subliminal messaging, the toy company would theoretically produce more.
If the toy company launched a similar toy called writer’s block which was a wooden block with question marks carved onto each surface that people found clever but no one ever bought, they’d stop producing the writer’s block toy.
You get my point.
This is why independent authors such as myself put so much into a launch and trying to garner reviews. Those are our literal life blood. Take a look at the next two books you plan to purchase on Amazon. One has five hundred generally positive reviews. The other has seventeen. Or think about it like this: you want a toaster oven. Once has five hundred reviews, the other has seventeen.
Which one do you buy? Which one do most people buy?
So this is why it is so crucial to review books you like, and likely why so many authors (myself included) beg so hard for reviews. We are in a new system where stars often matter over content. I need stars like I need oxygen during a launch. Aside from the dopaminergic effects, it literally is what allows me to continue doing what I love to do.
It’s odd, really, the dopamine plus the fear that the bottom could fall out all hitting at the same time. I’ve launched over fifty books now (some very successfully!), so I’ve gotten used to it. But it still has the power to knock me on my ass if I’ve botched the launch somehow or the book isn’t connect, and it also can make me breathe a sigh of relief that ripples through my entire body and changes my mood for days upon a successful launch.
By now, any indie writer reading this knows that I haven’t mentioned the elephant in the room, and that elephant is named ALGORITHM. I, and all indie writers, are a slave to the algorithms. I won’t get into that now, but it’s safe to say that the algorithms on any web store (ahem, Amazon) cater to what is most desired to the customer. A product with a lot of traction and reviews is easier to sell than one without. It really isn’t rocket science, even if the algorithm itself is something every indie has a theory about.
But what about the art, Harmon. THE ART.
Of course, there are the purists or those who would read this and say that someone who thinks this way isn’t doing it for the art (or whatever) and they’d be wrong. Authors like me work the way we do precisely to be able to continue to create art. I’ve been writing novels now for close to fifteen years. I first self-published in 2011 and failed miserably. I tried again in 2014 through an endeavor in Asia and figured a few tricks out. Finally I decided to try one more in 2015. It’s my dream, it’s my livelihood, and to say that it’s my passion would be an understatement.
I’m thirty-seven as of this writing and creating worlds and publishing books is all I want to do, and all I plan to do for the rest of my life. Yes, I will have a hundred books written at some point, and yes, that will grow to two hundred+, each a piece of my life with some memory tucked away within. But for me to do this the rest of my life, the time I spend, and what I put my focus in now matters. The more readers and well-received books I can garner, the easier it is for my little choo-choo train of fuckery to chug along so I can continue doing this until Lucian comes to get me (readers of my series Death’s Mantle will understand this reference).
In other words: for me to continue to make it my dream, and for my own creativity to provide for my family of two (hopefully three once we get a pet), I have to write what people want to read, and generally, what people want to read is what sells, which translates to reviews, which translates to more sales, which translates to more books, and here we go again this ride WILL NOT STOP!
So to recap: if it seems I have dropped a series, I probably have, but it’s not because I hate you or that I’m taking a Rothfuss-like break. It’s likely because I write for a living and I had to take a harsh look at the business and say, “it’s time to try something else.” Further, if you like a work of mine when you read it, or any author for that matter, review the book. If you’re part of a reader’s group on Facebook or some other forum, tell someone. It really helps.
Audiobooks
I get questions on audiobooks a lot, and can say that the answer to where is an audiobook (that should have been out a year ago) basically falls into the same explanation I gave above about unfinished series. Audiobooks cost a lot to make and take a lot of time to cut/put together/make spiffy. Audiobook producers are businesses as well, and they have to make decisions based on what’s good for their business.
Do they produce a book by an author who has sold 10 copies of the first audiobook in the series? Or the author who has sold 10,000 of the first audiobook? Most people I’ve met thus far in this business are out to please the reader/listener, and framing it like that gives you your answer as to what book they’ll likely produce next (hint: the latter).
I think that pretty much covers it.