The question that springs from the three weeks fact (!) is author burnout. I think most people would burn out very quickly if they wrote at that rate all the time. What Amanda Hocking doesn’t say in the interview is how long of a rest she takes before starting on the next book. At this point, I can only try and compare myself and my efforts to Ms Hocking’s. Despite the years of planning and mulling, once I set the writing of a novel in action I consider myself a fairly fast writer. The moon needs to be full, and stars aligned just so, the kids well-behaved and my mood needs to right, and then I can write 50-60,000 words in a month. I know this. I have done it several times over the years. But, I can only do this two or three times a year, max.
By the end of the article, I felt humbled. I think I write good books. People say (well, most of them, anyway) I write good books. I grumble about luck and being in the right place at the right time, but really the facts are quite plain. Amanda Hocking came along out of nowhere and filled a space where no one was. She did it with many books, and yes, I think that is a big part of her success, but she did it with books readable and enjoyable enough that readers came back again and again.
Congratulations to Amanda Hocking. You are an inspiration.
Read the entire article in The Guardian.