Sponsorships Allow Art To Be Made (And We Need Your Help To Get One!)

Do you know why the melodramatic, over-the-top dramas were called soap operas? Because these series (which began as radio dramas, but which eventually made their way to television) were focusing on the housewife demographic, and these shows were sponsored by soap companies. The idea behind it was that the audience would be at home during the day folding laundry and doing chores, and when they heard a certain type of soap sponsored their favorite show they would be more likely to buy that brand because they associated their enjoyment of the program with the soap that helps make it possible.

This is all old hat to us in 2026, because sponsorship deals have become the order of the day in the era of YouTube and Spotify. However, the fact is that writers and creators need that kind of backing in order to keep making their art while also paying their bills... and not everyone can get sponsorship.

However, that's a goal I currently has as co-creator of the audio drama channel The A.L.I.C.E. Files, so I wanted to talk about how you could help us (and any other creators you like, really) start getting offers from sponsors!

 

After all, you can't write if you can't eat and pay your bills.

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!

The Difference Between Affiliates, Sponsors, and Crowdsourcing

So, there's a lot of terms that get thrown around when discussing how creators get paid, and they can often be confusing if you're a reader or a listener, and not someone who's operating on the business side of the equation when it comes to creating shows, series, and so on. As such, I wanted to break down the differences so that readers understand what the terms mean going forward, and to be sure everyone is on the same page.

- Affiliate: If someone is an affiliate, they don't actually make any money up-front; rather they get a commission based on their sales. As an example, I'm an affiliate for Dubby energy drinks. So if someone clicks this link to go to their sales page, and then makes a purchase (using my code LITERARYMERCENARY for 10% off), then I receive a commission for that sale. For those who are curious, I do use this powdered supplement, and I can highly recommend them for folks who want something that's a lot cheaper than the canned stuff. And because I'm an affiliate, I can put that link in blogs, in videos, etc., and I get paid for sales... but if no one buys anything, then I don't make any money. These deals are easy to get, and basically anyone can sign up for them. I made a video about them a while back, for those who want a deeper dive: Affiliate Earnings, What They Are, And Why You Need Them.

- Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing, or crowdfunding, is when you get your audience (or just random people who get hooked by your pitch) to give you money to help you cover expenses. This covers platforms like Kickstarter (for projects that need one, big push to get made) or like Patreon (for people who pay a subscription fee every month to help keep your work afloat). While this option is very useful for novelists, and for people looking to complete an entire season of a show all at once, this is a direct contribution from the audience to the creator, helping to fund a creative endeavor. Incidentally, check out the Literary Mercenary Patreon page if you want to help this blog keep going!

 

- Paid Sponsorship: When folks talk about sponsorship, this is typically the kind of sponsorship they're referring to. In this arrangement a company will go to the artist, and cut them a check to essentially put a plug for their product in an episode of a show, to review them on stream, or something similar. This is pretty much the same way that Firestone, Blue Coal, and other companies paid radio shows like The Shadow, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and others to have commercials for their products in the middle of an episode. Sometimes there's just the straight cash payment to the creator, and sometimes there might also be bonus earnings for each member or their audience who goes through a link, creating a hybrid between a paid sponsorship and an affiliate deal.

There, now that we're all on the same page as to what I'm talking about, what certain words mean, and how creators earn money, I want to talk a bit about how creators land these opportunities. Because, surprise, it's actually up to all of you whether or not creators can get sponsored when all is said and done!

Yep, It's All About Audience Participation

Let me get back on my old soapbox. Regular readers already know this one, but if you're new around this neck of the Internet, I'm going to explain something very simple. No matter how complicated the algorithms, no matter how much slop is out there, or how simple or complicated a project is, at the end of the day it is the audience that determines whether or not an artist of any stripe makes money. If you participate, and support a creator, then they will get noticed by folks with deeper pockets. And if you don't... well, then they're going to be that tree that fell in the forest that nobody saw or heard.

And some trees are harder to take down than others...

I say that because it's true, and I'm going to use YouTube as an example here. It doesn't matter how many videos you make, or how hard you work... until your channel has 1,000 subscribers, and 4,000 watch hours (or roughly 11 hours and change a day for an entire YEAR), you don't make money from it. And you have to hit those numbers in a single 365-day period of time if you want YouTube to actually share ad revenue with you.

At its core, the site doesn't allow you to make money off your videos unless you A) have an audience of a certain size, and B) a certain amount of eyes on the content that you've made... and getting sponsors is just an extension of this mentality!

Now, nothing is set in stone regarding the following figures. However, when it comes to paid sponsorships, the larger the audience you have, and the more attention your work gets, the better a deal you're going to get. Generally speaking, you shouldn't expect to get approached for a paid sponsorship until your channel has at least 10,000 subscribers (though some product reviewers may be approached if they have an active and loyal following that's smaller). However, all sponsorships are not created equal, and the more subscribers and followers you have, the more generous these deals are going to be.

Why? Well, it's pretty simple. Sponsors are paying for direct access to your community, and the bigger that community is, the more the partnership is going to be worth. That part, at least, is pretty cut and dry.

But I said this is all up to you, and I meant it. So let's take a hypothetical situation.

Let's say, for whatever reason, The A.L.I.C.E. Files becomes wildly popular over the next weekend. We're going to be talking to folks at the Chicago Steampunk Exposition, and the theme is Alice in Wonderland this year, so it's not out of the realm of possibility. We soar past the numbers we need for both subscribers and views as people watch the series, share it with their friends, and subscribe in record numbers for us. Not just the 1,000 subs we need for the basic monetization, but we scoot over the 10,000 subscriber line by the time we get back home and unpack after the long weekend.

If we kept seeing growth like that, even if it was slower and steadier, it would only be a matter of time until we had someone approach us with a sponsorship deal. Maybe it would be Raid: Shadow Legends (groan all you want, they're just an easy example), because they have an entire Alice in Wonderland set of characters, and they want to make the most out of that synergy. Maybe we even get approached by Raycon, and we can tell people how good their headphones are for privately listening to our terrifying tales, or how the clear sound is perfect for editing episodes without constantly interrupting work to recharge them. Regardless, the point is that sponsors will look at the size and fervor of your audience, but also at what kind of pitch they could make to them, and if they're a good fit. After all, you don't want to pitch a product that is antithetical to the needs and wants of a target audience.

The most frustrating part about all of this, though, is that we as creators have no control over this aspect of the business. All we can do is tell the best story possible, and use the tools we have available to try to engage with our audience, and hope that we can cut through all the algorithms, signal throttling, and the waves of slop to reach people who are interested in what we're trying to do.

So, on that note, check out The A.L.I.C.E. Files playlist, or watch the trailer, and see if you'd like to join the crusade to get us the numbers we need to at least get monetized, even if we never make it big enough to catch the eye of a paid sponsor.

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)

- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (an audio drama channel I launched with Alice Liddell)

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 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.

Killing The Myth: Making Good Art Does Not Automatically Mean Monetary Success

There is a pervasive myth in the world. The myth is that if you are an artist, be it a writer, a videographer, a graphic artist, or anything else, and if you work hard, develop your skill, and create good art that you will be successful. An overwhelming majority of people out there believe that there is some cosmic force that ensures hard work will be rewarded, and that quality art will be found by an audience who loves it. These people also believe that if your work has not found an audience, or if you are still on the struggle as a creator, that the fault must be yours. You aren't working hard enough, or maybe you aren't making good art, and that's why you haven't been rewarded yet.

To reiterate, this is a myth, and it is bullshit. More than that, though, it allows people to abdicate their own power when it comes to helping artists whose work they like actually succeed. Because it isn't some mystical money fairy that decides who succeeds and who fails... it's you, the audience, who literally decides our fate.

People don't like hearing this, but it's imperative this myth dies.

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!

Let's Talk About "Fear and Hunger"

I'm going to guess that most people reading this blog post have never heard of the video game Fear and Hunger. It's an indie horror game made using RPG Maker, and it is a bleak, punishing, horrific experience that draws on some of the grimmest and darkest fantasy stories to create something utterly unique. It has built a cult following, and while it isn't for everyone, it has broken containment and there are a lot of people who are aware of it now.

Just stick with me, I'm going somewhere with this.

The video linked above by Super Eyepatch Wolf is primarily about the second game in the series, however, in this video we see a chart that clearly highlights the first game's rise in popularity (or notoriety, if you prefer) around 2:09. As the host points out, the game languished in relative obscurity for nearly five years after its initial release. And then, thanks to word of mouth growing through a variety of gaming YouTubers, as well as regular people on forums discussing games, Fear and Hunger started getting attention. A lot of attention. It breached containment, growing a huge following for an indie game, and now it's reached the point that it's well known in general circles where people play survival horror video games.

And I bring this up to illustrate a point. Nothing fundamental changed about the game between its release, and its meteoric rise. It was the same piece of art that it was from then, until it got discovered. Literally the only thing that changed was people who had megaphones started talking about it, and bringing attention to the game.

This is the truth of being a creator in a nutshell.

Because this video game didn't change in the five years since it was released; people just found out about it, and they were finally able to experience this art they otherwise would never have found. And if those YouTubers didn't make videos about it? If there weren't reviewers out there talking about their experiences? Then the game would have remained undiscovered, and the creator might not have been able to make a second game, or the third game I'm hearing rumors about.

The book, the game, the video, the art does not matter if people don't find out about it, and interact with it. And something having the nebulous quality of good doesn't matter. If you paint an absolute masterpiece, that doesn't magically cause an art gallery to call you, or a rich collector to show up at your door like a TV psychic. Success isn't just waiting in the wings for a deserving artist to make something the cosmos deems good art. Not only that, but you can make good art for years, but for reasons utterly outside of your control no one will find out about it, it will never sell, and you won't make a single dollar off of the work you put in.

No magical force is coming to help us. We can't make a sacrifice to the gods of capitalism and pray we become the next money grab, hot trend, or big business scheme. The only thing that helps authors, YouTubers, podcasters, graphic artists, and people who make independent video games, is for people out there to interact with what we make, and do what they can to spread the word about us.

That's it. That's the super secret formula to becoming successful as a creative professional. Period.

Good, Bad, It Doesn't Matter

This whole idea that only good books are successful, and only deserving authors get rich, flies in the face of facts. There are plenty of books, series, movies, etc. that are absolute drek, yet they still keep getting made, and they still keep making money. What matters is there are people who are willing to show up and buy copies, buy tickets, watch/listen to episodes, buy merch, etc. to help keep those endeavors going.

No one is coming to save us. There is no great, cosmic force waiting to reward creators out there. So if there's someone who is doing something you like, or making something you want to see more of, do what you can to support them. If you're just a regular person, you can still follow the creator on social media, interact with their posts, consume the content that's free, and buy their books and merch when you can afford it. Leave reviews, and tell your friends about their work. Be that person who helps build a community around this thing you like.

Some people reading this might be able to do more than that. You might be a YouTuber, a podcaster, or a blogger, which means you have a platform to talk about other creators' work. Maybe you can arrange interviews, or even get someone invited as a guest of honor to an event you host. Hell, if you're someone in the same field who already has a fan following, just telling your audience, "Hey, this other creator is doing some pretty great stuff. You should all go check their work out!" can make a colossal difference.

Haven't you wondered why every Clive Barker book has that quote from Stephen King on the cover that calls him the future of horror?

And before we sign off today, I wanted to leave a plug for The A.L.I.C.E. Files. This project has been nearly impossible to get eyes on thanks to social media signal throttling, and YouTube's terrible algorithm. So if readers who made it this far could take a moment to watch the trailer, leave a comment, and subscribe to the channel, it would be greatly appreciated!

Of course, the show is really starting to pick up steam, so you might want to set aside some time to binge the stories we have out already... because there's quite a few more where this came from!

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)

- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (an audio drama channel I launched with Alice Liddell)

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 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.

Why Would You Want Creatives To Work A Day Job?

"There's too much talent trapped by poverty."

- Anonymous

The economy has been doing barrel rolls in the middle of its swan dive over the past year, and as an elder millennial who was living on my own back during the crash that came after the housing bubble burst 15 or so years back, this feels like very familiar territory. People are losing jobs left and right, and it seems like every day I scroll social media and see Go Fund Me campaigns for people who are trying to keep their homes, trying to pay their medical bills, and just trying to keep food on the table.

That said, though, there is another phenomenon that I've seen rear its hideous head over the past year. It's been present, swimming just beneath the surface, but it's been in full-throated roar the past several months; it is people who, in response to the struggles or requests of artists, have responded with vitriol and mockery. And the most common refrain is, of course, that we should all go and get real jobs.

Leaving aside the stupidity of that statement for just a moment... why do you want to take someone who can write, sing, perform, paint, animate, or entertain, and force them to stand behind a cash register, stare at security cameras, or deliver pizza? Why don't you want people with skill, vision, and drive to make things that could entertain you, and add value to your life?

A question that is really worth pondering. Especially if it's uncomfortable for you.

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!

Seriously, Though... Why?

If someone has a skill, and a desire to put that skill to use, the most logical thing is to let that person do the thing they're made to do. If someone likes to work on cars, we let them become a mechanic. If someone is satisfied hanging drywall, framing walls, etc., we get them onto construction crews. If someone can fix computers and set up networks, we get them into device repair or some form of IT. If someone is good at cooking, they work in a restaurant, if they're a good driver they might work in a cab or driving a bus route, and so on, and so forth.

Because, for some reason, we understand that in these examples you should pair a person's skillset with the job that best utilizes said skillset. However, when the person is a singer, a videographer, a writer, a painter, or really anything artistic, all of a sudden we start looking for reasons they shouldn't be able to make a living using those skills.

To be clear, all the naysayers will still encourage (and in some cases demand) that the creative folks keep making things. They just don't want said creative people to be paid for utilizing their skills.

Yeah... I don't get it either.

Here's a bottom line for folks. People who create, whatever form that takes, generally enjoy the act of creation. And yes, there are always going to be folks who are willing or able to just do things for the love of the game. But if you've ever wondered, "Why don't people make art like they used to anymore?" the answer is always money.

Because if you look at those classic sculptures, the amazing paintings, and so on that fill our museums? If you read books by a lot of classic authors? You're going to rapidly notice that a majority of them either came from money (and their family supported them so they could just be an art goblin without worrying about bills and food), or they had patrons (old-timey sugar daddies who threw money at their art goblins who wanted them to keep making great art instead of getting up to adult fun time when they were in town).

That's it. Period. End of story.

Money is necessary for artists to make art in the world we live in. Because it takes time to write novels. It takes energy to make audio dramas. It takes skill to paint, sculpt, and illustrate. And if someone is spending 8+ hours a day at a job that doesn't engage them (or worse, makes them want to chew their arm off to escape), they aren't going to have those necessary resources when they finally manage to get home.

This leads to the current issue. If you want creatives to be able to keep being creative and making art, they need to be able to focus their skills on doing that. However, if they don't come from a wealthy family, or have rich patrons backing them, how are they supposed to make it happen?

You. The answer is you, the person reading this right now.

We Literally Depend On You

I've said this before, but for anyone who hasn't been present for the sermon, creatives depend on our audiences to support us. And that audience is made up of individuals who are all doing their part to help raise the artist's profile, boost the signal, and to make sure that their pet creatives have the necessary resources they need to buy tacos and pay rent so they can spend their days producing more of the art that their audience wants to see.

And sure, maybe that means you just give an artist you like money. Whether it's as a tip on Ko-Fi, or you have a regular subscription through Patreon, just giving creators money is a great way to just grease the wheels so they can make more stuff. My Patreon and Ko-Fi are here, since we're on the topic.

If you don't want to just give an artist money, however, the next best thing you can do is buy their creations. Whether it's novels, paintings, prints, or just merch for their YouTube channel, this is the second best way to make sure their bills stay paid. After all, haven't you ever wondered why every concert you go to has a merch table at it? It's because the concert itself essentially makes no money once all the costs and ticket sales are tallied.

Seriously... bands make more money off your tee shirt than they do your ticket.

But what if you don't have any money? Well, you can actually make sure that your pet artist gets paid with nothing more than just your time and attention!

Do you like to watch YouTube videos? If you want to support that creator, then watching those videos without your ad block on means that you are actively making sure they get paid by advertisers, which allows them to keep making videos. And if you subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment of at least 7 words, you're also increasing their momentum in the algorithm, and helping more people find them! You can add a similar amount of weight for authors by following them on social media, leaving reviews for their books on places like Amazon and Goodreads, and actually requesting your library to buy copies of their books. This lets you read them for free, but the author still gets paid for the sale, in case you were curious. Hell, even leaving 5-star reviews on a podcast you like will make it more likely to show up in other people's searches and random mixes!

As I've said before, if you don't like a particular artist or a particular creator, you are under no obligation to support them in any way. However, if you do like a given artist, and you want to help them keep creating, then that burden is on you to help in whatever way you can. If you want them to make more art, then you (and everyone else in the potential audience) needs to help turn the crank to make sure they get their needs met.

Because the spark of creativity dies in the wet, grinding misery of being forced to spend all the resources you need to make art on scanning items, bagging groceries, or making phone calls when that isn't what you were called to do. And if you genuinely want your pet artist to keep making art, then do what you can to make sure they can nurture and grow that spark into many, many future projects!

Actually, Speaking of Future Projects (That Are Free)

The A.L.I.C.E. Files is a YouTube channel I launched in partnership with Alice Liddell, and it's an ongoing audio drama narrative that will also have other dramatized stories from both our bodies of work, as well as various other authors over time. So if you want to support a free project that takes just the click of a button, as well as your eyes and ears, then please watch this trailer, give it an upvote, leave a comment, and subscribe to the channel to help us out!

YouTube requires you to get 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours before they share ad revenue with you... and we definitely need all the help we can get on this one.

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)

- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (where many dramatized versions of my stories can be heard for free)

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 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.

Asking For Support Is Not "Begging For Money"

There is, apparently, a lot of confusion among folks on the Internet about how artists get paid. For some reason a lot of people out there seem to believe that once a creator makes something that it is submitted to the council of Art Warlocks who vote on whether the creator of this work will be given the standard Rich and Famous contract, or if they are to be turned away and told to try again.

Unfortunately, that isn't how it works. So I wanted to take a moment to explain to folks out there how it is artists actually make their money, and how important our audience is in making sure we actually have the ability to pay our bills.

For folks who wondered, we can't do this without Viewers Like You.

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!

Where Does The Money Come From?

Allow me to pull back the curtain, and show you how it is authors get paid.

So, if you write books then you have to first write the manuscript. You then have to get it published either by a traditional publisher, or through a self-publishing platform. Traditional publishers do layout, art, etc., and give you a royalty for every sale, while self-published authors have to do all of that stuff themselves, but they get to keep a bigger percentage of every sale.

And if you're writing blogs or articles (or making videos), then you tend to have an option for traffic-based payments, as well as crowdfunding. For the former, consider the article If 90,000 People Read This Article I Can Pay My Bills This Month. It points out that 90,000 reads is what an article on Vocal.media needs to acquire in order to yield about $540 in payout to the author. And if someone wanted to support this blog, then you could go to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page in order to kick in a fee for every article I write in order to help me keep the train rolling.

It's all about numbers, baby.

However, the point of all of this is to say that authors do not get paid for making things... we get paid either by our audience buying things, or our audience giving us their time and attention on a platform which then gives us a fee for how much traffic we brought to their site. We could spend 20 hours a day putting words on the page, but if no one buys copies, or reads them on hosting platforms that actually pay the creator, then there's not going to be any money to be had.

This is why we ask our audience to support us. Because just like PBS says, "This program is made possible by viewers like you."

And there are a LOT of people our there who get vitriolically angry when you point this out to them.

We Literally Need Your Help To Do What We Do

I have lost count of the number of people who have left snide comments, telling me that if I need to "beg for money" then maybe I should give up and "get a real job" as they put it. However, the point that I feel needs to be driven home to so many people is that ALL creators are literally paid by the audience in one way, shape, form, or another. It doesn't matter if it's one of the biggest touring musicians in the mainstream, or somebody with a small YouTube audience talking about gardening. Whether it's you watching our videos so that we get a cut of the ad revenue from YouTube, you buying our merch so we get a piece of that sale, or you just directly handing us money as a tip for what we do, YOU are required for us to make money.

Period. End of story. And for folks who need the details spelled out, I made a video on it a while back.

Now, if you made it this far, I need you to read this next part very carefully.

You are not obligated to support artists whose work you don't like. Even if you do like a an artist, you aren't required to give them money. However, at the end of the day, you are what decides whether or not an artist gets paid. So if you want a particular creator to keep making things, it sort of behooves you to put in the effort to big up their signal, and make sure they're getting money in their hand one way or the other. Sort of like how if you want to see sequels to a movie, it's important for you to go see it in theaters, bring your friends, buy it when it's available to own, and so on, to send a message to the studio that there's an audience who wants more of this.

And it's something you need to work into your everyday. If you like a video, leave a comment of 7+ words, and give it an upvote. Get used to subscribing and following to people who you want to do well. Leave people tips, and buy some merch when you can. Being an active participant is worth so much to creators, and it is unfortunately so rare to find in an audience.

If you need a list, then just take the one at the end of this article, and apply it to all the creators our there that you want to see pay their bills, and keep making more art. Because it is a lot easier to keep doing this job if you have your utilities covered, and food in your cabinets. Just saying.

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.