Samuel DenHartog's Blog: The Road to 1,440 - Posts Tagged "publishing"

Two years ago, I shared a wild goal with you. I announced that I was going to write 1,440 books in 12 years, ten books a month, every month, for more than a decade. It was a huge, slightly ridiculous-sounding promise, but it felt like the truest way to match the size of the stories I wanted to tell and the worlds I wanted to build.

Now I get to share something even more fun. At this point, two years into the journey, my plan only required me to have 240 books finished. Instead, I have already completed and published 281 books (in English). That means I am not only on track, I am ahead of schedule, and that small margin feels like a deep breath after a long run. It tells me the daily work adds up and the crazy twelve year plan now has real pages and real covers attached to it.

If I kept going at this pace, I could probably finish the whole goal in about eight more years instead of ten. For now, though, I am not ready to officially speed it up. I like having a little buffer. It gives me room to experiment, to try new series, to adjust when life gets busy, and to make sure each book feels like its own world rather than just another tick on a scoreboard.

In the beginning, I honestly was not sure if I would have the energy to keep this up. The first few months left me a little worn out, and I wondered whether I had pushed myself into something that would grind me down rather than lift me up. Over time, though, the seven-day-a-week pace has settled into my life. Writing every day feels natural now, like brushing my teeth or drinking my morning Red Bull. It is no longer a question of “Can I do this?” but “What am I writing next?” and that shift has changed everything.

Along the way, I have started some projects that feel especially close to my heart. One of them is "Jataka Tale Rhymes," a series that retells early Buddhist stories about the Buddha’s past lives in clear, rhythmic verse for adult readers. These are tales of merchants and kings, talking animals, wise ascetics, and clever tricksters that first took shape in India and wandered across Asia, carrying lessons about discernment, compassion, and the cost of folly. I keep the core plots and settings, trim the heavy repetition, and aim for language that feels both faithful and fresh, so the poems can be enjoyed on a quiet evening alone or read aloud with family and friends.

Book 9 in that series is "The Mango Grove King," which begins with a small moment that changes everything. A single grey hair appears on a king’s head, and he chooses to hand his crown to his son and walk away from power into a mango grove where he can train his heart and mind instead. There, he learns to let loving kindness grow where pride once lived and to meet change with calm eyes instead of fear. While I am not going off to live in a mango grove, I recognize myself in that kind of decision. This long writing journey feels like its own form of learning, a steady practice of attention and reflection as each new book ripens, one after another, into something that teaches me as much as I hope it touches my readers.

One of the quiet joys of this whole experiment is how much I get to learn along the way. My fables series and fairy tale series both keep introducing me to stories I had never heard before, small regional variants, strange little motifs, and the way the same human hopes and fears dress up in different costumes from country to country. The mythology anthologies open doors into worlds of gods, heroes, and underworld journeys, and Little Lamb Rhymes invites me to sit with familiar Bible stories from angles that make them feel new again. Each book pulls me into research, reflection, and a kind of listening, and I come away knowing more about the worlds inside the stories and the world we share outside of them.

The same is true for my cozy mysteries, cryptid adventures, and all the other odd corners of my catalog. One day I am imagining the layout of a small seaside town so the clues in a mystery will feel real, the next I am exploring legends of hidden creatures or reading about cultural beliefs that shaped a folk tale. It is a constant flow of details, histories, and perspectives that would never have crossed my path if I were not writing these books. That steady discovery is a deep happiness for me. Each project is not just another title on a list, but a chance to be curious, to understand a little more, and to share that sense of wonder with anyone who decides to read along.

Initially, I also worried I might run out of ideas. How many stories can one person really tell before the well runs dry? The funny thing is that the opposite has happened. The more I write, the more ideas arrive. New series keep popping up in my mind, often while I am working on something entirely different, and when I step back and look at the outlines and plans, I can easily see paths that could carry me to 2,500 books or more. At this point, the only real question is not whether I will have enough stories, but how many years I will get to keep pouring them out onto the page.

Through all of this, I am deeply grateful for everyone who has chosen to walk alongside me. Whether you read every new release or simply peek in from time to time, your presence matters. I try to set each new book free on Kindle at least once after it comes out, so if you follow me on Facebook you can catch those windows, share them with friends, and be part of the journey even if you are not a big reader yourself. Knowing you are out there cheering, sharing, and checking in makes this grand experiment feel less like a solo marathon and more like a long, adventurous road trip with good company.

So here is to the original 1,440, the big crazy number that started this whole adventure, and to the quiet little thought that maybe, just maybe, 2,500 stories are waiting if life gives me the years. I plan to keep writing as long as I live, because I still wake up hungry for the next page and fall asleep thinking about the one after that. I love what I do, and at this point, I am happily addicted to the mix of writing, learning, and sharing the journey with you. As long as the words keep coming and you keep walking beside me, I will keep building new worlds and sending them out into yours.

Cheers,
Samuel DenHartog