As An Author, You Need To Learn To Double Dip Your Career

One of the questions authors always get (myself included) is where do we find the time to work on things? Not just the writing (though that's obviously part of it), but also the time to do the research we need for our projects, the time to market things, or the time for... well, anything else, really. How are our lives not just sleep and work, with minimal time given to sleep?

Well, first of all, they're not. Most of us just work all the time, every day, trying to keep our heads above water. However, one of the most important skills that I've found as an author is that I have to be able to double dip everything I do. Or, put another way, I need to make sure that whatever I do as an author has multiple applications to either justify my expenses in time, money, and energy, or to make sure that I'm getting double the results whenever possible.

If that sounds confusing, stick with me, I'll give you some examples.

It's simpler than it sounds, I promise!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more! And, of course, check me out on Blue Sky, since that's what we're talking about today!

Double Dipping Your Work (For Fun and Profit!)

Perhaps the clearest, recent example I have of what I'm talking about can be seen in some of my work writing tabletop RPG supplements. Now, for quite some time, I've been wanting to run a game of Hunter: The Vigil (a roleplaying game where players take on the roles of normal people hunting monsters in the dark shadows of the modern day), but I wanted to set it during Prohibition. Now, I knew relatively little about that particular era except what you see in movies. However, I wanted to run a game that felt authentic to the time period, rather than a parody of it, so I knew I was going to have to do a lot of reading and research.

But I couldn't justify just spending hours upon hours at my desk reading and learning history just for this thing I'm doing in my free time. I'm already spending 9-12 hours a day working on things, and I have no blocks of personal time or energy that I could dedicate to reading about organized crime in Chicago, and the social changes sweeping America in the 1920s. So if I was going to dedicate time to this, I needed to find some way to put this knowledge to use in a professional capacity in order to justify the energy I was going to expend.

As such I took the notes I'd made on the time period, and I wrote several unrelated RPG supplements meant to be used with the game Call of Cthulhu (a roleplaying game set in the Cthulhu mythos created by horror author H.P. Lovecraft). These include 100 Gangsters, Gun Molls, and Goons, as well as 100 Books To Find In The Miskatonic Library (That AREN'T In The Restricted Section) and 100 Whispers and Rumors To Hear Around Arkham. Not only that, but because these supplements have short vignettes in them of an ongoing investigation, I also made an audio drama or two to try to get readers hooked into what's going on.

This series appears on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, in case you want to check it out. If so, give us a like and a subscribe while you're there!

So, this is a series of double dips. First, I want to do something in my free time that would take a lot of research for me to do well. So I did that research but I found projects that I could then use that research on other than my own, private game. Not only that, but once those initial projects were done, I used them as a springboard to make an audio drama, which takes a lot less time and energy due to the fact that the "script" is already written, and I just have to read and record. This allows the videos to draw in people who enjoy audio dramas, both making money in ad revenue, but also funneling people to the supplements, which they might buy.

And at the end of the day I still have all this period research I've done for the game I want to run for my friends, and I still used that knowledge to make something to pay my bills.

Is this exhausting? It absolutely is. However, double dipping as an author is a habit that you need to build over time. Like exercising, or portion control. It's a way of looking at things, and finding those helpful little loopholes that make prices lower, or which justify time spent doing one thing instead of something else.

The system runs smoothly, once you understand how it works.

As another example, do I want people to buy copies of my private detective cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats? I absolutely do! However, I also leave Amazon affiliate links to those books when I mention them on my blog because that chance to earn some extra money (getting paid my royalties by my publisher, and my affiliate commission from Amazon for selling something through their platform) might be the difference between paying my bills, and needing to dip into savings when the end of the month comes. I love going to conventions, but if I just go as an attendee then I'm out time and money for the experience that goes into a black hole. If I volunteer for panels at the convention, or if I run my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic in the gaming room, then suddenly the gas mileage, food expenses, hotel bill, badge, and any other things I paid for are all tax deductible for me when it's time to settle up with the IRS. I may even get my badge for free, or extra swag from the convention, depending on the event in question.

Hell, even just going out to dinner with someone I'm trying to have on as a guest on my show, or who is working with me on a podcast, counts as a business expense. Which again means that Uncle Sam lets me count those costs against my earnings for the year.

Again, authors are working with paper-thin margins of error, and a lot of the time we cannot justify the expense of something in terms of time, energy, or money if we hold up that thing in a vacuum. So learn to double dip what you do, because it will make a lot of things you thought were impossible quite doable... or at least less painful in the long run.

Just remember to keep your receipts, and don't bite off more than you can chew.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.

Write Fiction, Not Exposition (Get To The Meat of The Story)

Have you ever been reading a book, and for some reason the author insists on giving you the recipe blog treatment? You know, you came here for a story about international intrigue and spies, but for some reason the author insists on going on about historical events from twenty years ago? Or when you wanted a blood-pumping high fantasy adventure, but you're five pages in and all you've gotten is a complicated history of the royal family which involves a lot of "begetting," but you have no idea who your protagonist is, and what they're actually trying to do?

This is something all of us fall prey to sometimes... but generally speaking, we should focus on writing fiction, not on filling our pages with endless exposition.

We don't need this much backstory... trust me.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

People Are Here For The Story

I've said this before in a variety of ways throughout this blog, but for those who've never heard this before, the story is what draws the audience. Your audience might enjoy your worldbuilding, or your evocative language, or the intricacies of the time period your story is set in... but first and foremost people are here for the characters, and the story. Most of us, on some level, know this.

But a lot of the time we get stuck trying to give context to the point that it eclipses everything else.

The tower was a marble-floored monstrosity. The marble had been shipped from Gandahar over 1,000 years ago, and it was the result of the Treaty of Ardun, signed by...

This is, in some ways, a result of our desire as creators to tell our readers the entire context for the thing we're creating. Because yes, there's the surface-level appearance of things, but there's almost always deeper context for our worlds, our characters, and the things our audience is seeing. But the question we always have to ask ourselves is, "Do the readers need this?" Because if they don't need it, then as much as it might hurt us to do, we shouldn't put it in the text. That space can be better utilized for something else.

However, there are going to be times where that exposition is necessary for the audience to understand the story. But there are a few, simple things you should keep in mind as a creator when it comes to including it.

- Save it for the quieter scenes between the harder, more emotional beats of the story.

- Work it into the flow of the fiction, instead of giving your audience a Shakesperian aside.

The first tip is specifically aimed at the urge we have to do a long-form lead-in for readers. We've all heard that we need to hook the reader as quickly as possible, and if someone feels like they're reading a history textbook, or the opening lines of a physics experiment, that isn't going to drag them into immersion. If anything, it's going to do the opposite. Focus on your fiction, your characters, and what they're actually doing, because you want your reader dragged along in their wake, curious to see more about who these people are, and the adventure they're going on. Exposition can wait until later.

Secondly, make sure that you chop up the exposition, and figure out ways to work it into the natural flow of the story. Whether it comes up in conversation between your hero and their guide who is trying to give them a tour of the city, or it's mentioned as part of a political declaration and ceremony, or it comes up when someone overhears a bit of gossip, it's typically better to work the information your audience needs into dialogue, or scene-setting description. Asides, on the whole, are a terrible idea (with the exception of comedy and parodies, because it's then drawing attention to this tendency that can slam on the brakes of reader interest).

Remember, people who are coming to your book haven't spent months to years living in this world, and they haven't fallen in love with it yet. This is your first impression, and you want your reader to be taken with it, and immediately agree to one of those dates that lasts practically until sunrise. Don't blow your shot by launching into the origin of the sandstone found in the ancient ruins of the lost tomb... focus on the fact there's an angry mummy rushing out of the darkness to tear apart the intruders who disturbed its slumber!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Most Authors Aren't Making Money Writing... But Some Make It Gatekeeping Marketing Knowledge

I've said it before on this blog, and I'm probably going to say it again; most authors do not make a living writing books. While there are a handful of Big Names who cash fat royalty checks, and a few Smaller Names who cobble together enough for a decent living, most of us who do this are rolling the dice and hoping for the best. However, there is a... let's call it a strategy among a lot of authors for making those ends meet.

In short, they're selling courses teaching others how to succeed as an author. And while I'm all for structured education and paying people what they're worth, a lot of the time these things feel like they aren't worth the cost... especially when there are ways you can get the information free-of-charge from authors who don't want to put a paywall on what you want to know.

Just push... the door is open.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more! And, of course, check me out on Blue Sky, since that's what we're talking about today!

Too Many Authors Are Aping Capitalism's Playbook

All right, at the risk of the Soviet national anthem playing while I write this, the strategy used by capitalists and corporations (there's barely a functional difference, but I list them both for completion's sake) to make money is RARELY to invent new things, improve new services, or to actually be competitive. Instead, these monied interests find something that is either a public necessity (water, land, healthcare, food, housing, etc.) and they take control of it. They then force you to pay for access to it, while keeping control and ownership of it so they can make you pay them as much money as possible until you die.

If you've been on the Internet for any length of time, then you watched this happen with paywalls. Once upon a time you could just read the news, play games, and consume content all across the Internet... but then more and more sites started putting up paywalls so that only people who forked over a membership fee could actually access the services, or information. Hell, it's also happening with "free" websites like YouTube, and several social media sites where you can pay a fee for a kind of VIP package.

So what does this have to do with writers? Well, it seems that a LOT of us aren't actually trying to make a living selling copies of our books... instead, we're trying to make a living selling people who aren't writers the tools to publish and market their own books. And we're doing it in the form of online courses that can run for hundreds of dollars.

And holy crap is this becoming an issue.

Now, the idea of this is fairly simple. An author will put together a series of videos that act as a kind of digital lecture, which will be hosted somewhere that the prospective students can then pay money to access. The idea is that you are getting the inside scoop on publishing and writing from people who have been in the trenches, and who can tell you how you can become a writer just like they did. While this isn't new (there are countless books that claim to be able to make you a bestseller, a business tycoon, etc.), it has become something of an issue for a few reasons.

I'd argue that the first reason is because this information is often (though not always) presented as some kind of secret knowledge that will put one on the fast track to becoming a successful author. That it's marketing using the glitz of a get-rich-quick scheme, which is something that has become all too pervasive in the writing world. What makes you successful is rarely the knowledge, but a network of connections and a proven track record; and those aren't what you're paying for.

Secondly, though, is that the information being paywalled isn't secret. It is all over the Internet, and there are authors out there who are literally giving away the techniques to get published, find an agent, market your book, and even down to the nitty gritty where they'll walk you through building an Amazon ad campaign that will actually get noticed (something that's pretty damn valuable). Hell, I make a show that does this on the Azukail Games YouTube channel titled Tabletop Mercenary, and author Alice Liddell has an entire YouTube channel stuffed with topics titled Alice The Author. If you go watch our videos, you'll save yourself a cool C-note... and you can leave questions in the comments if we don't answer everything you need to know!

This whole trend first came to my attention over a year ago when I was talking with PatZi, the host of the YouTube channel (and former radio show) Joy On Paper (which you should go follow if you haven't yet). At the time I figured that every author with any kind of name recognition putting together a course for prospective writers was just another part of the cycle... but it hasn't gone away.

Now, I'm not here to yuck anyone's yum. If you feel that this is a fair deal, and that you want to hear what a particular writer has to say, that's your decision to make. However, I've been doing this for a pretty long time now, and I've met a lot of folks doing it longer than I have. The information being paywalled is absolutely out there for free, and you could probably find it in less than 20 minutes of searching. I am of the opinion that people who want to write better books, or who want to learn how to actually sell their books once they've released them, will be far better served by using the resources they already have at their fingertips. Also, join communities of writers. Social media platforms are jammed with them, and we are all more than happy to share our experienced and tips with folks.

Most of us actually want to sell copies of our books. Information, though, that we generally give out free of charge because we understand that creating community means you help others out where you can.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.

Consistency Trumps Talent Every Time

We've all heard the story of the tortoise and the hare. The two of them set up to race one day, and the hare bounds off, taking an early lead. The hare decides there's no rush, and pisses about, having a snack, taking a nap, etc. When all is said and done, even if the hare had all the natural gifts in the world, he didn't apply them properly to the task at-hand. Thus the tortoise, who was here to win the damn race, crossed the finish line first.

This is something you see a lot of when it comes to writing. Because there are plenty of people out there who have a lot of talent... but the person who shows up and writes every day is going to be the one who finishes their projects, and crosses that goal line. Not just once, but over, and over, and over again.

You'll get there... eventually...

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

Discipline, Not Passion, Is What Lays Your Foundation

When people think about art, they usually focus on the thrill of creation, and the happy brain chemicals that flow through you when you get do it. Whether it's drawing, sculpting, or writing, the rush of translating something from your mind and onto a page is the part that most folks tend to focus on.

However... that is only a tiny fraction of what actually goes into making art as a craft (to say nothing of doing it as a profession). Because natural ability and the joy of movement and execution is a single facet of a complicated gem. There's also studying other creators, attempting to learn new skills and master new tools, but at the core of it all there is the one thing that really makes a difference... practice.

To paraphrase Bruce Lee, you don't need to fear someone who has tried a thousand different kicks 1 time each. But that fighter who has perfected a single kick, throwing it a thousand times or more? They will be able to execute that maneuver with power, grace, and a precision you do not want to be on the receiving end of. 

Lock in. Get it done.

Think of any physically demanding job or task out there, and you probably imagine them doing drills, and going through constant training to stay on top of their game. From soldiers and SWAT teams, to firefighters, athletes, dancers, and others, the idea is that if you want to be at the top of your game then you have to put in the hours to perfect your skills. You can't just pick up a fencing rapier, mess around with it for a few hours, and become a sword master; you need thousands of hours to familiarize yourself with the weight of the sword, the strategies of attack and defense, and so on, and so forth. The same is true with wielding a story and making sure that you can twist it, turn it, and execute it as tightly as possible.

Just as important as the amount of practice you put in, though, is the fact that you need to make sure you don't lose your instincts for it because you let yourself get rusty.

Take a moment and think back to when school was in session during the Fall. You've had 3 months off, and you haven't cracked a textbook, done a math problem, or put together a science experiment. Now you're back in school, and your teachers have to spend the first few weeks of school priming your brain pump and reminding you of all the things you learned last year that you've forgotten. And if you haven't been in school for years, instead of months? Well, you might need entire refresher courses to get your brain back in gear, and performing where it was. The same is true of writing... if you have weeks, months, or even years in between your bouts of work, you're going to find yourself trying to make up progress you lost. Like if you went to the gym, got in shape, and then stopped showing up for the holidays... you're going to notice some of your gains are gone, and you aren't as tight as you were before cookie season.

I thought holiday calories didn't count...

Drive is important. Talent is important. But discipline and dedication are going to be your bread and butter when it comes to writing, because they are the tortoise who puts one foot in front of the other. Because when you practice writing every day, no matter how you feel, whether it's rain or shine, then that is the same as showing up to drill even on your off days. And it's why you're going to be that much faster, that much smoother, and that much more natural than someone who just practices when they feel like it, or when they're in a good mood, or when they don't have anything else to do.

You get out what you put in when it comes to your work. And there's going to be frustrations and annoyances, stumbling blocks and hurdles... but if you want to be able to create, you have to keep coming back every day, stretching, and trying to be just a little bit better than you were yesterday.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!