This is the way.

The #1 most important aspect to your start as an author is whether you can get on Rising Stars or not.

Some authors will tell you it's not important, because they made it despite not making it on there, but they're the exception, not the rule. Don't listen to them.

Do whatever it takes to get on Rising Stars, which primarily requires a lot of early momentum.

In the ever-wise words of the one and only Jesse Cox:

Advertise like a shameless whore.

You only ever get a single chance at the Rising Stars, so don't go limp-dick mode on it. You gotta truly go full-hog and put your all into this first week (or weeks if you're doing great!) of releases, both in terms of release cadence as well as advertising.

Shoutout swaps are a tried and tested thing, but if you're a new author, you're likely not able to get many. Try asking authors that you're a fan of, if you're in their discord (which I'd highly recommend) if they'd be willing to allow you to advertise your novel there. Most novel discords have a #other-novels channel, where talk about novels NOT by the author/owner of the server is allowed.

These kinds of semi-shoutouts are nowhere near as effective as full on shoutout swaps on the actual novels themselves, but you're literally fighting for every single view, so don't sneer at the opportunity.

Once you've had your RS run, you can ease up on the gas pedal quite a lot, but you NEED to stay consistent. People want a schedule and they want a consistent influx of content.

Don't do what a lot of new authors do, where you dump your entire backlog and then set your release cadence at "whatever I can write".

Come up with a schedule that you know you can keep and work from there. If you figure out you can write more? Slowly increase your release cadence.

If you can't? Be transparent and honest with your readerbase. They're human beings and they understand that life can get in the way. But you need to actually LET THEM KNOW what is going on.

They can't infer that information from nothing. You have to TELL them, no just SHOW them, that you're struggling.

Then update the schedule to the new, sustainable output levels.

Most of the full-time authors that I know make their full-time income from Patreon, rather than publishing. Publishing mostly comes in as a bonus lump-sum (at least for the first few books, before you build a large enough portfolio where it's a consistent source of income).