diff --git a/cmd/topicctl/subcmd/tester.go b/cmd/topicctl/subcmd/tester.go
index 03bd18e..e6b9788 100644
--- a/cmd/topicctl/subcmd/tester.go
+++ b/cmd/topicctl/subcmd/tester.go
@@ -158,21 +158,23 @@ func runTestWriter(ctx context.Context) error {
 		return errors.New("Stopping because of user response")
 	}
 
+	batchSize := 5
+
 	writer := kafka.NewWriter(
 		kafka.WriterConfig{
-			Brokers:       []string{connector.Config.BrokerAddr},
-			Dialer:        connector.Dialer,
-			Topic:         testerConfig.topic,
-			Balancer:      &kafka.LeastBytes{},
-			Async:         true,
-			QueueCapacity: 5,
-			BatchSize:     5,
+			Brokers:      []string{connector.Config.BrokerAddr},
+			Dialer:       connector.Dialer,
+			Topic:        testerConfig.topic,
+			Balancer:     &kafka.LeastBytes{},
+			Async:        false,
+			BatchSize:    batchSize,
+			BatchTimeout: 1 * time.Nanosecond,
 		},
 	)
 	defer writer.Close()
 
 	index := 0
-	tickDuration := time.Duration(1000.0/float64(testerConfig.writeRate)) * time.Millisecond
+	tickDuration := time.Duration(1000.0/float64(testerConfig.writeRate/batchSize)) * time.Millisecond
 	sendTicker := time.NewTicker(tickDuration)
 	logTicker := time.NewTicker(5 * time.Second)
 
@@ -183,17 +185,22 @@ func runTestWriter(ctx context.Context) error {
 		case <-ctx.Done():
 			return nil
 		case <-sendTicker.C:
-			err := writer.WriteMessages(
-				ctx,
-				kafka.Message{
+			msgs := []kafka.Message{}
+
+			for i := 0; i < 5; i++ {
+				msgs = append(msgs, kafka.Message{
 					Key:   []byte(fmt.Sprintf("msg_%d", index)),
 					Value: []byte(fmt.Sprintf("Contents of test message %d", index)),
-				},
+				})
+				index++
+			}
+			err := writer.WriteMessages(
+				ctx,
+				msgs...,
 			)
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
-			index++
 		case <-logTicker.C:
 			log.Infof("%d messages sent", index)
 		}