Book 2 in the Inheritance of Magic series is 50% done. At least, that’s my best guess – my books usually come to around 90,000 words and this one’s now sitting at 43,000 and a bit. Still not sure if I’ll manage to hit my June 15th deadline, but I’ll do my best!
As usual, the massive lead times in traditional publishing mean that I’m a long way ahead of my readers. An Inheritance of Magic is coming out six months from now, in October 2023, but by the time it’s published I’ll have finished and edited Inheritance of Magic 2 and I’ll be in the middle of planning out Inheritance of Magic 3. (No, those aren’t their actual titles.)
It’d be nice if the lead times were slightly shorter, but if it’s any consolation, in the long run it doesn’t actually make much difference – if it takes me 1 year to write a book, then after 10 years the difference between a 12-month turnaround time and a 0-month turnaround time is 9 books as opposed to 10. The real bottleneck is my writing speed, not the publishing speed. And the books do benefit from that turnaround time – An Inheritance of Magic is a very, very different book right now to the first draft that I finished back at the beginning of last year, and a much better one. If I’d been self-publishing I could have had it out ages ago, but it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good (and wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good a foundation for a series, either).
Oh, and if it helps, you always know when reading one of my books that there’s going to be a sequel, since by the time it comes out said sequel’s been written already. So at least you know it’s guaranteed to exist!
I agree that at that pace, the publishing time is essentially just added to the first novel. I do want to point out (okay put pressure on you) that some of your readers are older. Like me. A 10 book series should allow me to finish it. I am much more concerned about other series (I have long given up on seeing GRRM finish his work). I have calculated that at the current pace, I will be about 80 when the Dresden Files finishes and that assumes that Jim takes no more long breaks. No pressure or anything. 🙂
Come on, man, he writes as fast as humanly possible, and drives himself to meet his deadlines. – while maintaining this website and posting weekly blog updates, for our benefit.