Why am I working so hard? Going for 400 books, perhaps, but who's really counting?
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've always been a pretty hard worker. That's how I've written over a hundred books.
Making books is hard work. Some books are, of course, more demanding than others.
I myself don't know what makes my books work. I enter a bookstore and I'm frankly overwhelmed by the number of books in most of them, and I know people are buying mine.
I'm not a great shopper but I do buy a lot of books. I'm the publishers' friend - I buy a hundred books a year and read four.
I only did about one novel a year while I was working full time, but since 1993, I've averaged two and a half books a year.
When I'm working on historical books, I'm much more organized. I usually read about 100 books to get the depth of knowledge I need.
I don't read books regularly, because I'm always writing them. I've written 30 books, thousands of pages.
I have to have three or four books going simultaneously. If I'm not impressed in the first 20 pages, I don't bother reading the rest, especially with novels. I'm not a book-club style reader. I'm not looking for life lessons or wanting people to think I'm smart because I'm reading a certain book.
I've written something like 17 novels, which isn't bad, I suppose, but my father wrote 120 books, my mother 40. In comparison, I'm lazy.
And each book has to receive your best effort every single time. No slacking.