The prolificness of indie authors like M.R. Forbes or Glynn Stewart

[farseer2]

In the "Reading in whatever month" threads I keep seeing mentions of these authors, but, looking at their bibliography... just how many books a year are these guys writing? It's good business, I assume, but can they possibly maintain a high quality writing that fast?

 

[Raf]

In the "Reading in whatever month" threads I keep seeing mentions of these authors, but, looking at their bibliography... just how many books a year are these guys writing? It's good business, I assume, but can they possibly maintain a high quality writing that fast?

I'm 12 books into a Forbes tale that included several trilogies and a 4 book quad. I've found the story engaging enough to continue. The author has the writing chops to tell a good story, but there is a bit of sameness from book to book. Not enough to stop though. I stumbled onto his work when I started reading a novel that was current. But all the references to past events and people made me stop and start over from the beginning.

Can't speak for Stewart. I've never read any of his stuff. I will say, however, that I'm not tired of Forbes after 12 books. I think that is because he keeps the story fresh by introducing new characters and villains. And he'll kill off a favorite character too and continue on. So you never quite know. I've DNF'd quite a few of these multi book KU series. So it still remains to be seen if Forbes can carry it off in this universe. There are 36 related novels in this universe. I'm on the 13th. So we'll see.

Chitman found the authors website. It has been a great help. https://www.mrforbes.com/forgottenuniverse

 

[suciul]

In the "Reading in whatever month" threads I keep seeing mentions of these authors, but, looking at their bibliography... just how many books a year are these guys writing? It's good business, I assume, but can they possibly maintain a high quality writing that fast?

Like Raf above, I tried and mostly put down a lot of KU multi book series, even some from Glynn Stewart for that matter whom I knew about a while ago but didn't really read until the Exodus Gambit of 2024, the first in House Adamant which intrigued me - the series has been rocking since and the 3rd installment The Valkyrie Stratagem is as of now the top sf of 2025 for me and 2nd overall, though of course the announced 3rd Miles Cameron Marca Nbarro installment may change that.

After that, I went back to his series and checked them out, but only the Scattered Stars 6+3 sequence excited me (the first 6 book sequence is mil-sf with a superb ending btw, the 3 book sequence is adventure sf with pirates and the like set in the same universe timeline but far away) and now Seekers of the Void (space opera recenlty published) which I hope will turn into a successful series - from his standalones I tried some but again I only liked Icebreaker, so imho it's a matter of style but also subject.

As writing goes, the books are edited well so do not have typos or obvious mistakes and are as good as the usual sff published by Tor, Orbit etc, just that the latter have been generally putting out more and more books away from my interests so KU has been taking more and more of my reading

This being said there are traditional production authors who put out lots of words anually - A Tchaikovsky or B Sanderson easily come to mind as was D Weber before age, illness and some bad luck with his office being in the path of a hurricane, slowed him down or LE Modesitt who despite being in his 80's has about 1500+ pages of books out in 2025

So for example Glynn Stewart may have 5-6 books out this year but they are in the 300 page range as the economics of KU probably make that optimal so say 1500-2000 pages and a 81 year old LE Modesitt has almost same in 2025 from Tor and wouldn't be surprised if Tchaikovsky and Sanderson have more

(as of now in KU it comes out to about 1.30$ compensation per 300 pages read for the author and more pages may not get more reader engagement while less may lead to reader dissatisfaction - before the behemoths of the 90's - see P Hamilton - that was the norm for sf btw, about 300 page novels)

 

[farseer2]

Fair enough. Still seems like a crazy amount, but I appreciate that in terms of pages there are traditionally published authors that are similar.

Full disclaimer, I have read a book by Glynn Stewart, the first Starship's Mage book, and it was fine, although I haven't continued reading the series.

I cannot help the feeling that these guys are writing too much, but I would say that in all fairness they need to be judged by the quality of the books, not by how prolific they are.

After all, I love Asimov, and the guy wrote a crazy amount, even if most of it was non fiction.

 

[suciul]

Full disclaimer, I have read a book by Glynn Stewart, the first Starship's Mage book, and it was fine, although I haven't continued reading the series.

I cannot help the feeling that these guys are writing too much, but I would say that in all fairness they need to be judged by the quality of the books, not by how prolific they are.

After all, I love Asimov, and the guy wrote a crazy amount, even if most of it was non fiction.

I read Starship's Mage too but never felt compelled to continue - the storyline didn't really excite me though the book was decent.

There are lots and lots of KU writers who want to make a living there and put out a crazy amount of books - once in a while I go through a bunch of such based usually on what Amazon says (you like that, you may like this) and I check anything mentioned here by other people - this is how I discovered Olan Thorensen who is still one of my big time favorite authors and others too

I also peruse NetGalley since some independent authors put some of their books there and it can be a useful place to check.