and can I ask the more experienced, or published writers... Do your readers surprise you by liking one of your books more than one you thought was better?
I can only answer the first question with no. I always think it could all be better. The one exception being the cheese farmer story I wrote in third grade. He got tired of being a cheese farmer so one day he walked into his field and never came back. "And I mean never." 9 year old me was fairly assertive. It may sound like I'm joking, but I'm not. To me that's my best because I had to start somewhere, and for the rest of my life, I will always want to be as assertive as I was back in the day.
Can answer the former; generally yes. There is one piece I wrote years ago which I still consider my best.
I write in different voices, so sometimes it's hard to compare. Though I'm very proud of my last two. With them I had sort of an epiphany with what publishers want, and when I put it to the test, it worked.
No book is going to be perfect. And I think I have improved as a writer over time and books written. I am not surprised when readers like one book more than another, but I write in a variety of genres/subgenres. So, often readers prefer some of my books over the others based on their reading tastes. A good number, for example, who enjoy my fantasy don't read my SF novels. And some who read my Action/Adventure fantasy, don't read the LitRPG fantasy, and visa versa. Those that read my adventure novel written with David Wood hardly ever venture over to my other books--at least not that I can tell. Another thing is that with reviews, like on Amazon, readers tend to do reviews more for the first book in a series, and less for others that follow, even if they read the subsequent books. Or at least readers for my works.
Yeah. I think one of my best performing books for sale is also one of the worst written. Then, I have a novella that is one of the best written ones and has under-performed most the other stuff. In my case, it was all about what was trendy and popular. The poorly written story I did a lot of research on what readers of the niche currently wanted and then tried to stuff it all in one book. The well written book was more about what I wanted. As far as reviews though, I'd say they've been appropriate for the level of writing. Also, no my most recent books to me don't always feel like the best. I've been trying out some stuff this year and it's resulted me me not always writing what interests me most. I never find those stories to be my best work even if I put in the effort.
Not so far, but i only have two books on the shelves. i have been looking at the work that I thought was the best thing I ever wrote, and it’s pretty good! but i’ve grown more skilled since then.
Right now my third and most recent book, Gravity, is overwhelmingly better performing than the others - it accounts for about 68% of all my sales so far on Kindle and KU. It's hard for me to say objectively if Gravity is better written than my first book, Under the Knife. It won me a 2nd place award for Best Debut Book in a small but genre-relevant competition, and that's well...let's just say it was one of the most affirming things that's ever happened to me as an author. But I also can't ignore the fact that I was a much better and more experienced writer going into Gravity, and I really pushed myself in a way that baby Laurin wouldn't have been capable of back in 2013/2014 when I wrote UTK. My 2nd book, From Blood to Roses, is a novella and while I think it's fairly solid, I can objectively say that it's nowhere near as well written as the other two books. While I love to read Romantic Suspense, it's not really in my wheelhouse. I'm glad it's out there for people to read, but it's absolutely my weakest published work.
I honestly don't worry about it. While every book is likely to be better than the last because you have more experience, that doesn't really matter. So long as people like it and it sells, I'm happy with it. I can go back and read books that I wrote years ago and still enjoy them. That's all that really matters.
I always (briefly) think the latest thing I wrote is the best. It's not always true, but it's just the feeling I get when I finish something. Writing is hard and it's easy to get down on yourself. I sort of need that rush of satisfaction to help me keep going. However, when it comes to what sells and what doesn't I'm sometimes or often surprised. I've never self published so I don't have stats that some others do. But I can say that I've been nominated for some awards from publishers and, again, been surprised by this and their picks. It doesn't matter that I didn't win anything. I just finished a new story, and it's my best.
I'm of the mind that everything that I write is garbage fodder. I've had articles published, short stories published, but it just leaves with a lingering "The editor must be having a mental breakdown". I've never once been happy with anything that I've written, and I'll probably never be happy or content with anything that I've written. I could write a book and it be in the best seller's list for a whole year, it winning many awards, the Pulizser, Nobel, etc. And i'd still have the urge to loathe it with every single fibre of my being. I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad thing, on the contrary, if you're able to manage it properly, it can propel you to improve and grow, etc.
Do you always think your latest work is your best? On a writing level, yes, without a doubt. My best work, as in my favourite? No. So far, always. I still haven't found my audience because our tastes (mine and the people reading) definitely don't match. And maybe they never will. I gave up worrying about it a long time ago.
Nope. I have some good ideas I execute badly, some bad ideas I execute well and plenty of stuff I never edit enough or solve problems on. It's total chaos and I struggle to ever really care enough to produce actual decent work. The stuff that came together well I often try to look back at my life at those times and figure out how it happened...was I happy? was I depressed? did something big happen in my life? You know, I sat down I did some work and sometimes an idea just comes right and then I'm patient enough to edit it and improve on it. Writing isn't always a linear thing where each story is successively better, from my experience. You inch a little further forward then go flailing back then repeat.