I was a bit bored this evening, and tried to guess when book six will be out. I calculated the average days til release (not including Arrival, Netcast, etc) to be 104.42 days for the entire frontiers saga, and 104.5 for the second series alone. That puts the next likely release sometime around September 6th. If his average holds out, we will likely see the seventh book sometime around December 19th this year, making this year possibly the first year since 2013 that Ryk will release four books in the series. Not too shabby since we also got another Netcast (thanks for that surprise, Ryk!)
Other fun data:
Average words per book is estimated at 102,007.
Average pages per book (paperback) is 413.
Not accounting for days of editing, waiting on Amazon, outlining, weekends, etc... Ryk writes on average an estimated 1088 words per day.
The shortest wait for the next book was tied between The Rings of Haven and The Legend of Corinair at 46 days, followed closely by Rebellion at 54.
The longest wait for the next book was A Show of Force at 171 days. Totally worth the delay, in my opinion. 🙂
Despite my feeling that series two is "lighter" in size and content per book than series one, four out of the five books in series two so far contain more (estimated) words than the first five books in series one. Rebellion being the exception to that, coming in at an estimated 7000 words fewer than Freedom's Dawn. However, what is most interesting about that is Freedom's Dawn took 105 days to release after The Legend of Corinair, whereas Rebellion took only 54 days since Resurrection! Ryk must have had a whole lot of coffee, and not much time off early this year.
Good stuff.
I can't wait.
Kudos to you Justin - I'm in absolute awe of your numbers breakdowns - Awesome work! Can't wait till Sept. 6th to see if your prognostication is dead on. (I have a sneaky suspicion that you're guess is gonna be darned close)
Actually, I tend to procrastinate for weeks, sometimes months, without writing anything. First, I just take a week to breath. Go fly, spend time with my wife and daughter, play more hockey, etc... Then, I deal with all the little things that I ignored while writing the previous book. During all this, I'll write a few outlines, bat around some ideas, and write a few scenes here and there.
After about a month, I start actually trying to write. I'll get maybe a few chapters written over the course of a month, not really feeling where the book is going. I always have an idea of what I want to happen, but no clue on how to get there. It's like I'm wandering around a dark, unfamiliar building, and the light switches are not where you expect them to be. Eventually, I find a few switches, and I start getting a look at the layout and what I have to work with, and the story starts to come together.
But eventually, I get to the point where I have no choice, and have to buckle down and write like a mad man, writing the entire book in 2-3 weeks. EVERY SINGLE BOOK, I tell myself that I'm going to write 2,000 words per day, five days a week, and get the book done without all the stress of writing like a mad man. And EVERY SINGLE BOOK I fail to do so, and end up writing like a mad man. I'll force myself to write, even though I'm still not entirely sure how I'm going to make it all work. Then, usually around chapter 5 or 6, everything starts to fall into place, and the rest of the book just pours out of me. (My primary copy editor plans ahead for this, making sure she isn't going anywhere for a few weeks when I get into that mode.)
I've finally come to accept that that is simply how I work. I've always been at my best under incredible pressure. I really wish I could just write 1,000/day, as that would be a lot less stress, but after 6 years of writing, it has yet to happen.
Oh well, there's always the next book.
Ryk
Wait, so are you telling me you don’t slave 24x7 for us? How dare you! ;-P
How close do you think my estimate is for the next book?
Hopefully, a little late.
Sounds like how I used to write essays at university. Except the last 2 days rather than 2 weeks.
Also nice to hear about the writing process that goes into a book series.
My favourite book keeps changing, that is an incredible feat after so many books in the series. The last book was such a good read I savoured it.
Rick, I just turned 75 this year and have been reading sci-fi since I was about 9 years old. I've read all the great authors of sci-fi and consider you and the Frontiers Saga to be among the best. Great books are only possible if the characters are believable. I consider your characters to be people I would like to see exist in whatever we call real life. Right now, while waiting for the next chapter of the Frontiers Saga, I'm back to reading some of the great stories from John W. Campbell and Robert Heinlein.
Now I do have a limited time in this existence, so please skip any writing breaks (just kidding). I look forward to as many more books as you can write and keep your sanity.
Rich
It is good stuff too.
One of Murphy's lesser-known laws:
If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done.
Waiting more or less patiently for Ep 6, however long it takes.
I've read the whole series through twice now.... and i'm seriously considering starting it again, i have dreams of writing my own book/series, but i just cant seem to stop reading all these good authors out there now, and i never make time to get mine on paper, too excited to see what everyone else's latest adventure is...
hopefully the next book isnt far!
Damn! I was off by 6 days!
Thanks for the post Justin, I didn't see the facebook update! something to look forward to this week!!!
Justin,
Good data capture; pretty consistent with the upcoming release at the end of the month.
Ryk,
First and foremost, thanks for the phenomenal work. I for one am not a science fiction fan, but think these books are awesome. Though the stats collected show some consistancy, we all know that the creative mind will do what the creative mind is going to do. So, however you do to create these stories... Keep it up; doing an incredible job!
