Author Burnout

For the past couple of months I've been super excited over the publication of Scripted, and pumped up to finish the quadrilogy I've been working on since I was a teenager. Since about the beginning of this year, I've been trying to edit the second book in that series to fix some continuity errors that happened because I changed a lot about some characters over the years, along with my writing style. I finally got about halfway through that second book and then...

I got burned out. I am tired of working on this book. I know exactly what needs to happen, I know the changes that need to be made, but I don't want to go through the process of making those changes. I just want it to magically be done.

Maybe part of my burnout is from working on the same story for so long. But I think part of it is also because Scripted has hit a dead-end as well. I didn't exactly do anything that you're supposed to do when you self-publish. I didn't get reviews before publication, I didn't do much promotion, I haven't paid for any marketing. There is a reason for this: I know that until I have my quadrilogy ready, I'm probably not going to get a lot of attention. Series are one of the best ways to hook new readers. And without any other books under my belt, Scripted alone probably won't get me noticed as an author.

So I've been waiting on promoting myself as an author until my quadrilogy is close to being done. The problem is that puts a lot of pressure on me to get it done. Scripted is sitting there like an orphaned book, and I want to get more readers and sales, but I also don't want to bother until I have more novels available for purchase... but then that brings back the pressure thing. It leaves me feeling a little hopeless.

Normally, I advise authors to write at least a little bit every day, even if it's just a few sentences. So I'm writing this blog, because I don't know if I have it in me to write my quadrilogy today. I don't want to take too big a step back from this project, because the point is to fix continuity problems; if I wait too long, I might forget what I've done, and just create more problems.

Maybe now is the time to have a beta reader help me out. If someone else can find discrepancies in my writing for me while I take a break, maybe I can come back at it refreshed and ready to work.

Anyone want to help me out?