The Difference A Year Can Make

 Fun story, I was supposed to publish my book tomorrow. It's a weird feeling knowing you are passing a deadline and you didn't make it in time.

Truth be told, I've known for a few months I wouldn't make it. Life has been a bit chaotic for me, hasn't it?

Which kind of makes it all the more surreal. 

Tomorrow is Ernestine's birthday. I wanted my book to be published on her birthday as a kind of gift to her. So I couldn't just delay the book by a few months. No, it has to be a full year for the publication date.

But I can already tell how much better this book is going to be as a result. 

It's nice to focus on quality for a change instead of simply trying to churn out books. 

I recently read about a woman who has a world record for the number of books written in a year. It's 23 if you were wondering. 

A book almost every two weeks. Over the span of her life, she wrote 723 romance novels. 

I went to my local library and asked about finding a book of hers and if they were even any good. I was promptly told they were quite terrible and not to waste money trying to find one. 

At first glance, we say, "Wow, that's amazing that she was able to accomplish so much!" However, upon closer inspection, we watch this woman's name fade from history. 

Crazily enough, she isn't even the record holder for most books written. 

But if you were to look at articles written with the 50 best authors, she isn't there. We find names like Jane Austen, who wrote a total of 7 books, or Agatha Christie who wrote around 75 novels or Ernest Hemingway wrote published just 15. 

My point is, the number of books isn't important. The quality is. 

Even if you are looking to grow rich and/or famous, it's more about the quality of the book.

J.K. Rowling is the first author to become a billionaire and is incredibly well known. That happened almost entirely because of the Harry Potter series (a total of 7 books) that because they were so good were expanded into several movies, a theme park and several more books as a spin off. As of this writing, she has a total of 24 books written. 

I currently have 4 published works. I love my little books and am quite proud of them. But the quality of them isn't near what Madamn will be. Madamn has taken longer than these 4 books combined already. 

Then again, my first 4 books were a learning experience for me. I am proud of them, but I don't promote or sell them like I should. 

They were leading me to where I am now. 

Madamn is the kind of book that is going to shake the world. It's going to do incredibly well, I can FEEL it. 

I don't dare compare myself to writers like Harper Lee, who only published one novel during her lifetime, with a second published after her death. I don't know that Madamn will be quite as influential as To Kill a Mockingbird. 

But I do know that by giving myself and extra year, I'm giving it my all and giving it my best. This novel is 3 years in the making. 

We'll just have to see where it goes from there.