Fast Writer? Slow Writer? Somewhere In Between?

Ahh...he's cute!

In a world where authors publish new titles at the same rate in which hamsters produce babies, how does someone like me, a slow writer, fit in?

As authors, we've been told to build our catalogs as quickly and rapidly as we can, because often times (more like 99% of the time) it takes several books under our belts before we can really see the fruit of our labors. True, there are a few chosen ones (lucky ducks) who've experienced a great deal of success with their very first published book, but these people are considered anomalies. Yes, they are. We can hope this would happen to us (we're allowed to dream, now aren't we?), but we definitely shouldn't count on it (please don't count on it).

In fact, we should busy ourselves writing our second and third books and so on to create a larger fan base and to create a greater success for ourselves verses becoming frustrated and depressed when that first book doesn't sell into the millions as we'd planned. This is the best writing advice I have ever received--keep writing and don't worry about what that first book is doing.

But does that mean we should plan on producing a full-fledged novel every month as the publishing industry seems to deem necessary? Have our attention spans become so depleted that if we don't produce a new novel every month or at least every quarter, we stand to lose our growing fan base? Oh, the stress I feel! Do you feel it?

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