I got started with short stories and later moved on to novellas, then novels. Now I write a mix of novellas (25000-ish words) and novels (up to 120000 words). I started publishing only on Amazon (in their Kindle Unlimited program, which pays you per page read) and later moved to wide (no longer liked the idea of Amazon exclusivity).
I picked a genre (science fiction romance) and stick within it, but am still not "narrowed down" enough from a business perspective. This takes longer to build traction. There are so many different niches in this genre, that if I could stick to just one of them I'd get momentum faster. But the reason I started doing this was only partly profits - mostly I just wanted to write cool stories - so I don't mind it taking longer.
Perfectionism can be tough to overcome, but I think of it like this: If I don't put out more books and see how they perform, I will never get as close to perfect as I could be. That feedback loop (reviews, profits, rank, whatever measure you care about) is a driver of improved quality and presentation. I always put real effort into my stories of course, but now I look back at the first thing I published and cringe. But if I didn't publish it and learn from it for the next thing, I'd still be writing at that level.
I picked a genre (science fiction romance) and stick within it, but am still not "narrowed down" enough from a business perspective. This takes longer to build traction. There are so many different niches in this genre, that if I could stick to just one of them I'd get momentum faster. But the reason I started doing this was only partly profits - mostly I just wanted to write cool stories - so I don't mind it taking longer.
Perfectionism can be tough to overcome, but I think of it like this: If I don't put out more books and see how they perform, I will never get as close to perfect as I could be. That feedback loop (reviews, profits, rank, whatever measure you care about) is a driver of improved quality and presentation. I always put real effort into my stories of course, but now I look back at the first thing I published and cringe. But if I didn't publish it and learn from it for the next thing, I'd still be writing at that level.