SERIES: Rapid Release Theory

Why I Chose Rapid Release

When I launched The Apex Society Trilogy, my 'debut' as it were, I wasn't actually a debut-ing author. In fact, I'd been writing for more than a decade.

Rhone Atleshen, however—the pen name, the platform, the author brand—was new.

I had recently survived something very life-or-death that forced me to reconsider my career trajectory. That story deserves its own post, but the short version is this: I was new…and so was my writing. My writing was grittier, more raw, and, frankly, needed a new identity. But if I was going to start over, I wasn’t particularly interested in following every rule about how an author was supposed to begin—including the one that said authors should write in only one genre and never deviate.

So I decided to break that rule -- and several others. ;-)

I launched a new pen name, built an author platform from scratch, and released my debut series simultaneously.

• Gaslight arrived in October.

• Matchstrike followed in November.

• Burn completed the trilogy in December.

Three books. Three consecutive months. Every release landing on the first Tuesday.

It was ambitious. It was exhausting. It was also deliberate.

As an indie author with no established readership and no backlist working on my behalf, I wanted to capitalize on one of the few advantages entirely within my control: rapid release.

My hope was that three closely spaced launches would create repeated signals of activity and give Amazon’s organic search algorithms more opportunities to show the books to readers. Each release had the potential to generate fresh visibility while directing readers toward the rest of the trilogy. One book would not have to carry the entire weight of launching an unknown author and in that hopes I would get a nice little ripple effect down the line as I released each new book.

But the algorithm was only half of the decision. The readers mattered more.

I knew I had written a page-turning trilogy. Each book followed a different couple, but the larger threat escalated across all three. The endings were designed to make readers want the next piece of the story—and not six months later, after they had forgotten the details, but immediately. In fact, series that have YEARS between releases is a personal pet-peeve so it felt right on many levels to avoid this. If a reader took a chance on an author they'd had never heard of, I wanted to reward that chance. I wanted them to finish Gaslight, reach for Matchstrike, and know Burn would be waiting almost immediately.

I didn’t choose rapid release because it was easier. I chose it because obscurity was a bigger threat than exhaustion—and because if readers entered the Apex Society, I wanted them to be able to binge their way out.

Did it work...well that's also for another blog. ;-). So check the links below and stay-turned. ⭐ Craft the story.

Face the consequences.

NEVER STOP READING!

— Rhone

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