One school of thought in indie publishing says that the path to profitability is to write as many books as you can, as fast as possible. Once you write 20 books, you can make $50,000 a year, or so the argument goes. Indeed, that strategy can work for some indie authors, particularly romance writers. But strategies that work for a few authors may be disastrous for most authors. In a previous episode, we discussed the risky strategy of rapid release. It works for a handful of authors, and they proclaim their success loudly. Their volume and insistence give others the impression that rapid release is the only path to success. But we haven’t discussed another downside to rapid release: Rapid release changes the way readers read books. For every author who successfully writes 20 books for rapid release, many more burn out. Burned-out authors rarely finish their series, which leaves their readers feeling frustrated and betrayed. Burnout is particularly bad in the fantasy and sci-fi genres, where even traditionally published authors, like Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin, not only fail to stick the landing but fail to even attempt the landing. Author burnout has created a phenomenon that some call “battered reader syndrome.” This “syndrome” takes root when a reader has been burned by so many unfinished series that they put off reading the first book until the entire series is completed. This reader hesitancy can undermine profitability, particularly for beginning authors. A reader’s hesitation to even begin your series is a problem for you and everyone writing in your genre. “Battered reader syndrome” is particularly prevalent in fantasy and sci-fi because those genres tend to save the satisfying ending for the final book. The Tortoise and the Hare An ancient fable describes a race between a tortoise and a hare. The hare gets a big head start but loses steam and eventually loses the race to the tortoise, whose slow and steady pace prevails. In this article, I’ll outline an alternative to rapid release. Think of it as an antidote for author burnout related to rapid release. I call it the Tortoise Release Method. If you adopt the Tortoise Release Method, you’ll publish more books, reach more readers, and make more money. Rapid release can work for authors with the following credentials: * They write genre fiction. * They can write quickly. * They’ve already built a readership that eagerly anticipates their upcoming books. Some authors fake rapid release. They’ll write all the books in their series and then release one every few months. After they’ve released all the books they’ve written, they stop releasing books for several years as they recover from the intense sprint out of the starting block. During that burnout gap, they lose readers and potentially undermine their whole genre. The standard rapid-release pace is to release a book every three months. In the first month, you draft the book. During the second month, you revise and edit. You produce, publish, and launch the book in the third month. Some rapid-release authors can release a book ev...