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.

Artists Are Going To Need Your Help Now More Than Ever Before

It seems like every time I turn around there is some new crisis facing creative professionals. A handful of years ago it was the pandemic, and the fact that productions were being closed, contracts were being cancelled, and artists were struggling along with everyone else who was staying home and staying safe. Then it was the rise of AI, and how it was leading to layoffs as artists and writers were both being shunted aside by companies who were trying to give their jobs to programs that were not capable of doing them.

And now we find ourselves facing yet another crisis. A crisis that we are going to need serious help to get through, and that help is going to have to come from our audiences because literally no one else is going to swoop in to make sure we can keep making art. And just as with the previous crises mentioned, the one constant is that when times get tough and people need an escape from reality, that is where our job can have the biggest impact.

Strap in folks, this one is going to be a frustrating slog.

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!

The (New) Looming Crisis

Those who were paying attention to the latest presidential race likely heard the economic plans the next administration proposed. Namely that they wanted to cut as many social safety nets as possible, regardless of harm to the populous, and that they intended to put tariffs on any and all goods imported into the United States. These policies, along with all the other proposed plans, stand a good chance of cratering any progress made in the U.S. to recover from the last time this particular candidate sat in the big chair, and those ripples are going to spread around the world while shooting inflation up to worse levels than it was at before.

In addition to those economic policies, though, there is a lot of talk about book banning, re-defining and outlawing "pornography," and other attacks levied at artists who produce "certain kinds" of work (largely inclusive work, and especially work focusing on LGBTQ+ characters).

In short, a lot of artists are going to lose support, and right at a time when everything is poised to get a lot more expensive!

The math ain't gonna math, folks.

So what can you do? After all, you're going to be dealing with all of these problems too, and there's only so much money to go around.

Well, first and foremost, if you are one of those people who has some spare dosh at the end of the month (emphasis on spare, here), consider using it to support the creators you want to stay afloat during the coming storm. The most effective way to do this is by giving out tips on Ko-fi, or becoming a Patreon patron, as that direct support ensures the largest amount of your cash goes into their pockets. With that said, though, buying books, games, art prints, or other merch is also extremely helpful, and it means you get something out of the transaction other than the ephemeral feeling of knowing you made future art possible.

If you have limited funds (and who doesn't?) that doesn't mean you can't still help, though! If you have time, energy, social media, and an Internet connection, you can do any or all of the following:

- Consume Free Content That Pays The Creator: Whether it's Spotify, YouTube, Vocal.media or another platform that's free to use but which can still support people making things, use it. Additionally, make sure you turn off the Ad Block. Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but it's how creators make money from your traffic! If you don't see the ads, then it doesn't count as far as their bank account is concerned.

- Follow And Interact With Creators You Like On Social Media: Algorithms decide who gets popular based (at least partially) on our followings and interactions. So subscribe to people's YouTube channels, follow them on social media, and interact with their content. Leave comments on articles, posts, and videos, review things whenever possible, and make it clear people are listening. The machines will promote artists where this happens.

- Share Their Work (Clandestinely Or Otherwise): Creators depend on views, reads, etc., in order to earn money, and the more visible we become the better our chances are of finding an audience. However, if a creator's work is likely to be censored, then make sure you get physical or downloaded versions of it so that it isn't lost. Preservation is important, as well as support!

The thing that seems most frustrating for folks regarding this topic is that artists of all stripes require active support. It takes time, energy, and effort to really engage with a creator, and to do so in a way that will help them be more widely seen, and make enough money to live on. A lot of folks simply do not want to do this. They just want to passively engage with content as it comes their way, and then move on with their lives.

That's all well and good... but if you don't want to find yourself asking, "I wonder why that one author/podcaster/YouTuber I liked gave up and disappeared?" you should put in this effort to help. Because as PBS says, it literally takes viewers like you for us to keep our heads above water. Because without an audience, and the money they can generate, we cannot afford to make art. And if we can't afford to do it, then you aren't going to get any more of it.

And in the times that are coming, we're going to need all the distraction and escapism we can find!

Lastly, before I sign off for the day, I'd like folks to take a moment to watch episode 16 of Tabletop Mercenary, Audience Support Is A Reverse Iceberg. Because however much support you think someone has, I guarantee you it isn't so much that your efforts won't still make a difference. And if this is the sort of thing you'd like to see more of, subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel so I can keep making more content over there!

Support The Literary Mercenary

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

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

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

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

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. 

If You're An Author, You Can't Afford To Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Over the past several weeks of staying home and trying to flatten the curve, I've been talking with a lot of my fellow authors. Just like any other group of people they've had to leave day jobs if they weren't considered essential, they've had events they were counting on to sell books at cancelled, and they've been scrambling to find solutions for their bills, food, and daily survival.

So in other words, writers are getting hit just as hard as everyone else by what's going on outside.

Which is why this week I'd like to talk about eggs, and baskets.

I currently find myself in a bizarrely unique situation. Because though I am still a mostly-broke, middle-of-the-road author who's had a modicum of success so far, basically all of my work was already done online. I only attend two conventions a year on the regular (neither of them as a merchant, as I don't have the cash for the books and the table fee), I don't have any local signings or events, and my fans (the few that I have) all know me from the Internet.

In other words, my career path hasn't led to a huge amount of financial success, but what I do have is uniquely insulated from this current situation as long as the Internet remains functional.

Now, to be clear, this is not a brag. I'm not suggesting that anyone follow the path I've taken, nor did I specifically lay my career out like this because I'm a Hunter S. Thompson-like recluse who doesn't trust the glue that holds society together. It's mostly a happy accident, but it's one that happened because I've had the rug yanked out from me several times before. The lessons I've learned from that are what I wanted to talk about this week.

Happy Accidents and Lessons Learned

As I've mentioned before on this blog, the first time I ever got steady pay for writing was when I was in college as a reporter for the newspaper. I really liked that gig, but it was very limited work, and it had an undeniable shelf life (paper didn't run during the summer, and I was eventually going to graduate). Rather than let the grass grow under my feet, I started looking for similar gigs in my town, and managed to land a semi-regular position with a smaller paper. It still wasn't rent money, but at the same time it wasn't nothing.

Pretty sure this is how addicts are made, now that I'm thinking about it.

While I was finishing up my schooling, I started getting tips from friends of mine that I should look online for work since that's where a lot of clients were reaching out. I eventually became a regular lurker at Online Writing Jobs (I swear that is not a made-up website, go check them out if you need work) where I found everything from catalog entries, to dating site profiles, to current news articles. From there I stretched out to other websites, until I finally found one (which I shall not name for professional reasons) that paid well, offered revenue shares on some articles, and generally let me step up into that adult income bracket.

For those of you who know the story, about ten years ago that employer didn't exactly fire me, but they made it clear that despite having written several thousand articles for them, I was no longer going to be allowed to work for them unless I earned a master's degree. This basically kicked my earnings square in the crotch, and left me scrambling. I moved to a smaller apartment, returned to several websites I hadn't worked for in a long time, and reached out to clients I hadn't had time for to see if they had anything new they needed help with.

This one incident taught me a very valuable lesson; never put all your eggs in one basket.

Over the past ten years, I've lost a lot of clients. I've had businesses shutter their doors, anthologies my stories had been accepted to close without giving me a check I was promised, and entire websites shut down with barely a few weeks notice that my work would no longer be earning me royalties. And while these things have never been good news, and I have had to recover from them, I've never received the twin of that knockout punch that sent me reeling before.

My Tips For My Fellow Writers

I will fully admit, a big part of it is luck. Another part of it is risk management, making sure that if one plate falls that my other plates wouldn't be affected by that. And a third part is just paranoia.

Burn me once, shame on me, and all that shit.

 As of time of writing, I definitely have one income stream that pays me more than others. However, rather than going all-in on that one stream, I'm trying to build up all the others to absorb a hit if a hit needs to be taken. It's why I sell books and RPG supplements, why I have affiliate accounts with Amazon and Drive Thru RPG both, why I have a Patreon, why I'm constantly increasing my Vocal archive, and why I still maintain a list of work-for-hire clients.

For folks who got rocked harder than I did by being kept at home, I highly recommend checking out the following options if you haven't already:

- Free Resources For Artists Affected by Covid-19: This should provide immediate relief and help.
- Online-Writing-Jobs: For those who need work with a fast turnaround, this site has listings.
- Patreon: If you have a blog, or you're willing to release regular fiction, you can mobilize your fans.
- Ko-Fi: Ko-Fi allows you to take one-time donations, and pairs beautifully with Patreon.

If you're looking for something to work on in a more long-term way (aside from just writing and selling books), then I would recommend checking out some of the following:

- Vocal+: If you have a lot of content looking for a home, and you want to make it pay, go here.
- If You're An Author, You Really Need an Affiliate Marketing Account: Affiliate earnings take time to grow, but they are more than worth the effort to build up your monthly streams.

Hopefully the resources and explanations are useful for folks out there! And if you or someone you know is an author who's looking to make ends meet, feel free to reach out via the Contact Me gadget on the page. One of the best things we can do right now is big-up each other's signals to make sure all our potential readers can get hold of our books while we're hunkering down and trying to flatten the curve.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

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!

Free Resources For Artists and Creators Affected By Covid-19

If I kept to my schedule, this week would have been a Craft of Writing post where I picked apart something in terms of storytelling that we should all think about, or do better. However, in light of the pandemic, I wanted to take a moment to boost the signal on a bunch of resources that will be of use both to all the creators out there, but also for those who want to support creators in these times of toilet paper bulk buying and enforced introversion.

Also, for those of you looking for something to read, my latest release The Rejects is currently free to download until Saturday! With monsters, metahumans, murder, and mayhem, these 13 strange little stories will certainly keep you distracted if you're trying not to go outside for a while.

You listening? I'm here to help.

If you are an artist whose been hurt by the pandemic, or someone who wants to help artists but doesn't know how, then go to Covid-19 & Freelance Artists. It's a big, dense list that breaks it down by state (and sometimes by city), showing you all the resources currently available to help you out.

Is It Really That Big of a Deal?

Yes. Unequivocally and undoubtedly yes.

There are some people out there who think that Covid-19 is just being blown out of proportion. That it's a hoax, or it's not really that bad, or that it's only going to affect people who are old or sick already. Even if those things were true (they're not, but let's say they are for this), the point is that this pandemic has massively disrupted the economy. And freelance artists, writers, and creators don't have an ample amount of stability to begin with, which means they've been hit doubly hard.

In a lot of situations this disease will kill them. Not because the creators got sick and couldn't afford care (though that will no doubt happen, as being a freelancer usually means you don't have a lot in savings, and you can't afford health insurance), but because the disruptions are canceling opportunities they were depending on to earn money to pay their bills.

Because you don't have a lot of alternatives when you're a creator.

Because there are a lot of creators out there who depend on convention sales, book signings, and even holding down a table at a farmer's market to reach a new audience while making sales. And while it's entirely possible to still sell products digitally (people who are practicing social distancing still need books and art, after all), you're not going to have the access to people you would have had at an in-person event.

You can compare it to the restaurants who can now offer takeout, but who can't have anyone come in to eat. Sure, they'll still make some sales, but it won't be remotely like what they would have earned had it been business as usual. And for freelancers who were depending on those earnings (many of whom haven't gotten a rebate from cancelled events, leaving them in the hole), they need to find new fans and move some books ASAP.

So if you are sitting at home, wishing you had some authors you could read and support aside from me (my info is at the end of the entry as always), I would suggest checking out some of the following folks.

- Lauren Jankowski: With a long-running series filled with shapeshifters and deep magic, a solid choice for any fantasy lover.

- Alice Liddell: This author has a wide selection of fantastical fiction that boasts a little something for every taste out there if you're looking for an escape.

- Brendan Detzner: Specializing in the unique, the weird, and the dark, Brendan's work is more than a little underground, but that's all the more reason to dig it up for yourself.

- K.M. Herkes: Middle-aged superheroes and worlds on fire... what more do you need to know?

- Clinton J. Boomer: Author of The Hole Behind Midnight, Clinton is better known for his RPG work. If you haven't read any of his fiction, though, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

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!