Feeling Accomplished: On Releasing of My Twentieth Novel

The journey to twenty published novels in less than two years has been an interesting, crazy, and sometimes exhausting adventure. 

The completion of The Tale of Bryant Adams rounds off my numbers with:

-Six Series
-Four Completed Series
-Six Audio Books
-Two New Complete Collections to be Ready Before Christmas
-One New Series Starting in January
-Two Feline Office Assistants
-Unknown Amount of Coffee Consumed
-One World's Best Husband Who Makes the Coffee and Keeps Me (semi)Sane.

Cheers to the next twenty books...though I may need a nap first.

Get your copy of Five Simple Steps here: https://books2read.com/fivelaws
Get your copy of Ena of Ilbrea: The Four Book Saga here: https://books2read.com/enaofilbrea/

Transcript

Megan: [00:00:02] I did stuff. Look at me doing stuff. I guess I've accomplished something with my life. I don't know, like it, it feels weird to feel accomplished.

Announcement: [00:00:16] Welcome to A Book and a Dream with Megan O'Russell: an author's adventure in writing, reading, and being an epic fangirl.

Megan: [00:00:27] Hello, my name is Megan O'Russell and welcome to episode fifty-one of A Book and a Dream. And no, I'm not changing the normal day of A Book and a Dream back to Thursday, but I wanted to save the episode this week for today because it is release day for Five Spellbinding Laws for International Larceny, which is the fourth and final book in The Tale of Bryant Adams series. Yay!

Megan: [00:00:50] I am super excited to have this fourth and final installment out in the world. It's been a crazy ride trying to get everything done in time with, you know, the world being what it is. But I'm really happy with the final book in the series, and it's kind of crazy because there's something super bittersweet about ending any series. This one is more on the sweet side than the bitter side. There are some series where you end them and you're like, I hope people don't hate me, but this is how the story goes. And then there are some series like Bryant where you're like, oh, I'm going to miss playing with him.

Megan: [00:01:26] He's my friend. But yay, here's these last little laughs with him that I get to put out in the world.

Megan: [00:01:31] I mean, it's very much one of those, but I'm going to miss working on Bryant because there...there's something super fun about the way that his series is structured and working in his world because Bryant is a first person. A little bit tongue in cheek, not really snarky, but very modern, very humorous, does not take everything that's happening super seriously even when there are life and death consequences. So, you know, very much like me.

Megan: [00:02:02] And so there's not a lot of series where I have the flexibility to do things like make musical theater references or Dungeons and Dragons references or have random demon cats and Jello prisons. Like, you can't do that in every series. It's just not going to work. But because of the world building and the way that Bryant's series has evolved, I did have the ability to sort of do whatever I wanted. There weren't a lot of rules I couldn't break other than no on-page naughty time and keep the cursing to a minimum. Like that...those were the rules I set for myself. Everything else was fair game.

Megan: [00:02:39] So, yeah, I'm going to miss having that freedom and that ability to...to bleed into the modern world. But I'm so happy to have his last book out there. It's also crazy because the release of Five Spellbinding Laws is also marking my 20th book release as an indie author. And that's...that's pretty huge. That's kind of monumental. Umm, for the authors out there, there's that whole, like 20 books to 50k thing where you're like, as soon as I hit 20, I'm going to be big and important, and I don't feel big and important. I think I could have 100 books out. I'm fairly certain I could have a theme park based after one of my books, and I still wouldn't feel big and important. I don't think I'm capable of it, but it is kind of cool to know that I, I have 20 books out there now. Eventually I'm going to have to like take a picture of me with all my 20 books. Probably not this week, but I'm going to do it. It's going to happen.

Megan: [00:03:38] Umm, yeah. It also is my fourth full series now because I have The Tethering series, which is complete, the Girl of Glass series, which is complete, the Ena of Ilbrea series is complete, and now The Tale of Bryant Adams is complete. So that's crazy. And other exciting things that are happening right now is Ena of Ilbrea is getting a complete collection, or a four book saga. Nice little one-volume set. So that's super exciting. I'll make sure that there are links with the video and the podcast to go with that. So that's kind of another crazy, huge deal. Which, funny story about that. Did you know that if you're an indie author and you print with Amazon, they have a very specific page count, and if you write a series as long as Ena of Ilbrea, getting that to fit under Amazon guidelines is pretty tough.

Megan: [00:04:35] So there is something super gratifying about trying to get a project put into one volume, and Amazon's like, I don't think it can fit. So that's really cool. That's another like little author accomplishment. I wrote so many words Amazon's like, are you sure about that? So, go me that's a lot of words.

Megan: [00:04:58] Umm, I also just proved the the audio for the Son of Sun audiobook, so that means I'm going to have a complete collection of audio for Girl of Glass. So that's wrapping up a big project, too. So it's it's sort of been a crazy few weeks of like putting little bows on all these things like hmm, Bryant Adams series, doop, shove that under the Christmas tree. Ena of Ilbrea of the Four Book Saga, boop. Look at that pretty cover art. Girl of Glass finishing that audio off big old checkmark, shove her under the Christmas tree. It's just been kind of crazy and, as like a business woman, I'm like, look at me checking off all these boxes and as a human, I'm like.

Megan: [00:05:41] I did stuff. Look at me doing stuff.

Megan: [00:05:45] I guess I've accomplished something with my life, I don't know, like it...it feels weird to feel accomplished, but I think what I'm supposed to be feeling at this point is accomplished.

Megan: [00:05:57] And next week, I'll do a really great podcast that I'll have like bulleted points about. Here are the top seven lessons I learned in publishing my first 20 indie books because preorder's going up on the first book in a new series like tomorrow.

Megan: [00:06:14] So we're not done with 20.

Megan: [00:06:16] Like I said, it's been kind of a crazy week. I don't sleep anymore. I just believe in coffee and wine. That's all I have. And cats, that helps. But it's insane that there are so many books.

Megan: [00:06:33] And I think...I think maybe this...maybe this emotion is shell shock, maybe I feel shell shocked, like looking at the actual tally of what I've done. But I'm going to formulate a lot of super useful information like why Vellum saved my marriage, and lessons I've learned from working with a cover artist for 20 different projects and, you know, tropes that are going to get you panned by reviewers every time.

Megan: [00:07:02] And how to answer angry Facebook messages for people who are really pissed you killed off that character. But right now, I think the only thing that I can offer is that writing 20 books seems like a really absurd thing from halfway through book one. But from this side of it, it sort of feels like...but was it really that special that I accomplished it? So it is totally doable. And it takes a lot of work, and you're probably going to cry a few times. And you may get an ulcer from drinking so much coffee, but like, whatever, there's medicine for that. But it's totally doable. The...the community, the author community, especially on Facebook, probably also has an ulc...an ulcer from drinking too much coffee, so when you're like, I can't do this anymore and I there are too many words and I will never be able to edit them, I am lost in the words, and there is no way out there...there are other authors that will be like, aha, you're in the editing soup. Don't worry, here's a lifeline. I'll pull you out. Do you have any wine on hand? So there are people there to help you.

Megan: [00:08:17] And it is an adventure and I think if you start looking at writing as purely a formula and I'm going to get to 20 books and then I'm going to feel fancy, it's going to be harder to do it, but if you take it into one book, one storyline, finishing one character arc at a time, it is easier to get there. So if you are at the beginning of your journey, just look at it as one little rainbow of a character arc. Get over that next arc, finish that next story. And it is very much an accomplishment.

Megan: [00:08:56] I guess I don't feel accomplished, but I'm going to tell you you're accomplished when you do it. And if you are a reader who's like, wow, people write books, that's fancy, take a moment and leave an author a review on Amazon or Goodreads or comment on their Instagram or their Twitter because, even 20 books in, it still feels like maybe I'm lying and I haven't even written a book. I know it's weird, it's weird, so like console your favorite author or congratulate, one or the other, and be like, hey, I read your book and I'm a human and good job on you for staring at words for long periods of time while creating characters. Look at you go. Because there are a lot of us who get a little lost in oh, yeah, 20 books is a lot, so, you know, tell 'em good job, because that's helpful.

Megan: [00:09:58] Yeah, so, yeah, check out Five Spellbinding Laws of International Larceny, check out the link that has the gorgeous cover for the Ena of Ilbrega...the Ena of Ilbrea. I wrote the series. I know how to say the title clearly, Four Book...Four Book Saga.... Twenty books is so much. And yeah, Son of Sun audio will be posted soon, and then there will be like a Girl of Glass audio complete collection. So that's a lot of pressure.

Megan: [00:10:27] But, yeah, reach out to an author, tell them that you've read their words and that writing words is good and important. And if you're an author, hang in there and remember, eat, like, some bread with your coffee. Nutritionism is important. Nutrition? Nutrition.

Chris (At Recording Booth): [00:10:45] Nutritishishish.

Megan: [00:10:48] I don't know anymore, man. Nutrition is important. I did it.

Chris (At Recording Booth): [00:10:59] Is that how we're ending it?

Megan: [00:11:04] Sure...(laughter) I have nothing left in my brain.