Measure Your Life By What You Create. 50 At 50

I'm 50. It's a big number!

I've had a sign on my wall for years now: “Create a body of work I'm proud of. 50 books by 50!” Did I make it? My calculations are below.

To put this in context, I've been writing seriously for publication since 2007, so this is the result of almost 18 years of consistent work.

I also have another sign on my wall that I made in a letterpress workshop: “Measure your life by what you create.”

This idea sits behind everything do and stems from my old job as an IT consultant implementing systems and processes into different companies in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Although I was ‘successful' in many ways and making a good living, I felt like everything I did back then was wasted energy. That everything I worked on would be blown away with the next software release. Time ate up everything I did and I hated that feeling.

Writing books and stories is almost the opposite way to spend my time. Time compounds everything I do, and as each year passes, and I keep writing and publishing, my pile of intellectual property assets grows.

I absolutely can measure my life by what I create these days.

Did I manage 50 books by 50 as Joanna Penn and J.F. Penn?

People often ask, ‘how many books have you written?'

But does that include multiple editions under the same title, which often are complete rewrites? Does that include short stories and novellas? What about co-written books? You can see the difficulty!

So, I've decided to calculate this with points. A full-length book or novella, even if co-written = 1 point. A short story or subsequent editions of a book = 0.5 points.

[TL;DR — Yes, I made it according to my points criteria! Breakdown below.]

You can find my books on the usual online stores in all the usual formats, and I narrate many of the audiobooks. You can also find my books for writers as well as workbooks and bundles as Joanna Penn at CreativePennBooks.com and my fiction and memoir at JFPennBooks.com.

Joanna Penn — Writing Craft Books

How to Write a Novel — 1

Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words — 1

How to Write Non-Fiction, Second Edition — 1.5

Sub-total: 3.5

Joanna Penn — Healthy writer books

The Successful Author Mindset — 1

The Healthy Writer, with Dr. Euan Lawson — 1

The Relaxed Author, with Mark Leslie Lefebvre — 1

Sub-total: 3

Joanna Penn — Writing Business Books

Author Blueprint — multiple editions over years, Ebook for free at TheCreativePenn.com/blueprint — 2

How to Make a Living With Your Writing, Third Edition — 2

How to Market a Book, Third Edition — 2

Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives, and Other Introverts, Second edition — 1.5

Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur — 1

Co-Writing a Book, with J. Thorn, Second edition — 1.5

Productivity for Authors — 1

Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting, and Voice Technologies — 1

Your Author Business Plan — 1

Sub-total: 14

Others and unpublished

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Virtual Worlds: The Impact of Converging Technologies on Authors and the Publishing Industry — 1

How to Enjoy Your Job or Find a New One – Rewritten and re-published as Career Change — 1.5

Successful Self-Publishing, 4 editions, but it's short! — 2

From Idea to Book (unpublished) — 1

From Book to Market (unpublished) — 1

Sub-total: 6.5

J.F. Penn — ARKANE Action Adventure Thrillers

Stone of Fire #1, 3 editions — 2

Crypt of Bone #2, 2 editions — 1.5

Ark of Blood #3, 2 editions — 1.5

One Day in Budapest #4 — 1

Day of the Vikings #5 — Ebook for free at JFPenn.com/free — 1

Gates of Hell #6 — 1

One Day in New York #7 — 1

Destroyer of Worlds #8 — 1

End of Days #9 — 1

Valley of Dry Bones #10 — 1

Tree of Life #11 — 1

Tomb of Relics #12 — 1

Soldiers of God, A Short Story — 0.5

Spear of Destiny #13 — 1

Sub-total: 15.5

J.F. Penn — Brooke & Daniel Crime Thrillers

Desecration #1 — 1

Delirium #2 — 1

Deviance #3 — 1

Sub-total: 3

J.F. Penn — Mapwalker Dark Fantasy Trilogy

Map of Shadows #1 — 1

Map of Plagues #2 — 1

Map of the Impossible #3 — 1

Sub-total: 3

J.F. Penn — Travel memoir and stand-alone books

Pilgrimage: Lessons Learned from Solo Walking Three Ancient Ways — 1

Catacomb — 1

Blood Vintage, currently on submission — 1

Death Valley, finished and launching on Kickstarter here — 1

Risen Gods with J. Thorn — 1

American Demon Hunters: Sacrifice with J. Thorn, Lindsay Buroker, Zach Bohannon — 0.5

Sub-total: 5.5

Short stories

A Thousand Fiendish Angels (3 short stories in a themed collection) — 1

Blood, Sweat, and Flame — 0.5

The Dark Queen — 0.5

Beneath the Zoo — 0.5

A Midwinter Sacrifice — 0.5

Blood, Sweat and Flame — 0.5

With a Demon's Eye — 0.5

De-Extinction of the Nephilim — 0.5

Seahenge — 0.5

Sub-total: 5

Total points: 59

This is made up of 12 full-length non-fiction books, 8 short non-fiction books, 18 full-length novels, 6 novellas, 12 short stories, and a memoir.

I'm going to take this as a win, and say yes, I did manage 50 by 50!

What's next?

Well, I'm not setting any further specific number goals, but I still have a lot of books in me waiting to come out. Most of them are under J.F. Penn these days — either fiction or non-fiction related to that side of me.

Who knows whether I will make it to 100, but I will certainly keep writing until the words stop flowing — hopefully for many more years to come!

Thanks for being here, and let me know your thoughts in the comments.