Diamonds Are Worthless (And What This Has To Do With Your Book)

Diamonds have, for most of our lives, been a symbol of wealth. We see celebrities dripping with these rocks, and everyone knows that in order to prove your love for your partner you propose with a big, fat diamond that probably cost several months of your salary. However, diamonds are actually a pretty common rock. Not only that, but with the ability to grow one in a lab, there's zero justification for them being so damn expensive.

So why do we think they are? And what does that have to do with your book?

The answer to both of these questions is perceived value.

How much do you think this is worth? Really?

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!

Value Is Made Up (And Too Many People Think It Isn't)

So, to finish the history lesson, the current campaign to convince us that diamonds are intrinsically valuable was started by the De Beers company in the early part of the 1900s. They controlled a huge part of the market, but their product wasn't seen as intrinsically valuable, and when the Great Depression hit and wallets got tight, they ran into a serious issue. The answer... a marketing campaign!

Decades of marketing were conducted to convince people that diamonds stood for true love and eternal devotion. Why did a shiny rock need to cost 3 months' salary? Because the people selling the rock wanted you to buy it at a grossly inflated price. And because one company controlled so much of the supply, they were able to determine to a large degree how many diamonds were on the market, and what that going rate was. The result was that generations of people see diamonds as a necessity for a successful marriage proposal, and that people think they're an extremely valuable commodity, when the truth is that the only thing that made diamonds so valuable was that the people who had all the diamonds said they were valuable over and over again until people believed them.

No, it's worth more than that. Yeah, that should do it!

What does this have to do with books, though?

People have this mythical belief in the idea of an author's skill, and the quality of their story, giving the book an intrinsic value. This means that if a book is good then it will sell a lot of copies, and the author will be rewarded for their efforts. I don't know if this is an offshoot of the prosperity gospel, or just the idea that a reader base of 10 million people can't be wrong, but this myth persists, and it is pervasive in the mind of the reading public.

It doesn't matter how many trashy, poorly written, low-quality books make the bestseller list, and have for decades. It doesn't matter how many Twilights or 50 Shades we have, so many people believe (often without questioning this belief) that if a book sells a lot of copies that it is a direct reflection of the skill of its author. The problem is that the quality of so many books, just like the value of diamonds, has nothing to do with their intrinsic value.

They sell copies because of marketing.

In the small sense, perhaps you came across one of those rare authors who has a solid pitch for their books at a convention, and they knew just how to target the parts of you that made you interested. Maybe you saw an ad that looked cool on a banner, or a book reviewer you enjoy couldn't stop gushing about it. It's possible the algorithm decided to show you this book in your recommended tabs over and over again, or maybe you were at a convention and you saw the author at a signing table with a line of folks, and you decided to ask about it.

All of those things can make a book look like it's successful (and thus popular and valubale by extension), but none of that has anything to do with whether or not the book is well-written. It says nothing about whether the plot is cohesive, the prose is engaging, or the writer sticks the landing. But all of these factors, from the cover art, to the name of the author, to how many conventions or bookstores you see them in, is a factor in you deciding whether you'll buy their book, and whether the price you pay is worth it.

I've said it before, but it's worth saying again. If you're an author, you not being able to build a massive, national marketing campaign to get thousands of people to buy your book doesn't mean it's not a good book. And if you're a reader, remember, just because you've never heard of someone, or never seen their book before, tells you nothing about their work... except that they probably don't have the money and connections to reach a bigger audience.

Just pick it up, and read a few pages. See if you like it. That is the only real way to detemine whether this is a book you're going to enjoy.

Support The Literary Mercenary

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

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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. 

The Reason Social Media Sucks For Everyone These Days (Not Just Creators)

Social media these days sucks. That's probably a statement you've heard before, and it's the sort of statement that sounds like the usual old person griping about how things have changed since their day. You hear it with fashion, movies, music, and every other aspect of life, so of course people are going to complain that social media was so much better when they were young, and in the prime of their life.

As someone who depends on social media for at least part of my living, though, you aren't imagining it. It really does suck more now than it did before... and if you're a creator, that's a storm that just might sink your boat.

And it doesn't look like it's going to get better any time soon.

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 Enshittification of Everything

I really wish I could take credit for this term, but alas, I cannot. Enshittification, or to use its more polite term according to The Chainsaw platform decay, is basically a microcosm of the capitalist mindset on fast-forward.

So how does it work?

Well, the first stage of the cycle is where you create a platform, and do everything you possibly can to attract a huge user base to it. You charge little to no fees, you provide great features, you keep it open to as many people as possible, and most importantly you provide something of value to your audience. Maybe you're a search engine that gives fast, accurate results, an online storefront that gives you access to a massive amount of products at a low price, or maybe you're a social media platform that gives people a smooth timeline, ease of use, and the ability to connect to all of their friends.

Once a platform has made itself valuable to the users (often by running at a deficit, or by barely breaking even), that's when it starts altering its priorities. Maybe your social media site or your search engine starts slipping in more ads. It's subtle at first, but they're bringing in revenue, and they aren't too big of an eyesore. Maybe your video streaming platform ads a second ad at the beginning, or has several ad breaks throughout longer videos. Maybe your digital store now has "recommended" products at the top of your search results that are paid placement from clients who want to make sure shoppers see their stuff first. The platform isn't terrible yet, but it's taking its first steps down the path to hell.

Just sign here on the dotted line, if you will...

The decay continues as the platform's greed increases. Now the platform is choking off the signal for average creators, trying to squeeze money out of them to force them to pay for ad space. This also stops users from seeing anything from their friends, family and community. The platform increases the cost to bigger clients for ads as well, making it a huge pay-to-play market. In the end, no one other than the platform is getting anything out of this arrangement.

By the time you reach the end of the decay cycle, you have a platform that is rotten to the core. It's trying to squeeze its clients, its users, and the service it was providing is being actively degraded as it tries to charge you for more, and more, and more. And when all is said and done, there will come a point where everyone on both sides of the corrupt middleman dusts off their hands and simply says, "No more." They abandon the platform, moving on to somewhere else, and leaving the platform without the blood and treasure it needs to keep itself alive. Maybe it backs up and readjusts its course, but it's entirely possible that the platform just dies, leaving a power vacuum for something else to try to take its place.

This is Happening To Social Media Before Our Eyes

If you've been watching the trash fire that is Twitter, then you've seen this kind of action in real time. While the platform had its flaws before Musk took over, he put on the gas on the enshittification process. He started removing features users liked (and firing a lot of people to reduce the overhead), charging for things which were previously included (the ongoing saga of how much users would have to pay for the blue check mark), and actively alienating both users and clients with the way the platform was run.

Twitter is, of course, not the only platform dealing with this kind of decay.

We see it with Facebook, where user signals don't travel nearly as far as they once did, and creators are constantly encouraged to pay for advertising if they want people to see their posts. We see it on Reddit with the removal of fixes and work arounds that helped keep many communities functional. We see it on YouTube as they enact more and more stringent guidelines on many creators if they want to be monetized, eliminating entire genres of content off the platform, and leading to a bizarre kind of doublespeak as people try to avoid invoking the wrath of the algorithm.

And we're all suffering from this. The users in our audience, the creators writing books, running blogs, and making videos, and the companies who want to find a place to sell their products or sponsor us as creators... we're all getting squeezed.

And it's why so many of us rely on straight crowd funding these days.

I've got the numbers myself, just from my own little corner of the Internet. In ye olde days, I could share a blog post from Improved Initiative, or even from right here on The Literary Mercenary on just Facebook, and it would usually get around 400 hits just from the groups I shared it in. That was my bottom floor. If it was a popular topic it could get up to 800 or 1,000. If I also shared it on Reddit, I could easily see it climb to between 1,500 and 5,000 hits.

These days? I'm sharing my articles in more than double the locations on Facebook, and it generates about 20-50 hits. On Reddit I'm also going into more subs than I ever did in the past, and I'm lucky if a single post even breaks 1,000 hits. For something to get more than that it has to really catch the attention of a community, and start a small firestorm of replies, shares, etc. And even then, the reactions from the community are worth so much less than they were in the past, making it a monumental task to even be seen, much less to make sales.

So What The Hell Are We Supposed To Do?

As I said back in Why Writers Hate All These Twitter Alternatives (Hint: It's Because They're Useless), all of us are caught in the whirlpool of the drain of enshittification. It's not just Twitter, or Facebook, or Reddit, or YouTube. It's not just Amazon, or Netflix, or any other titan of industry... it's all of them. They grow as big as they can, crush their competition so they're the biggest name in town, and then they start turning the screws until eventually there's no more blood left in the stone.

So what are we going to do? Unfortunately, the answer boils down to, "Try our best to survive."

And that also means we need to rely on our audience more than ever.

Surviving has a lot of aspects to it. On the one hand, we need to try to navigate the changing faces of the platforms we're already using, even as they decay right under our feet. On another hand, we have to try to keep an eye out for replacement platforms that give us more tools, a more direct connection to our audience, or which help us find a bit of breathing room. And while we're doing all of that we still need to find time to actually create new content, write new books, or whatever else it is we're doing.

And let me tell you... it is exhausting trying to navigate a sinking ship day in and day out while also keeping an eye on the horizon for a more seaworthy ship, and remembering to play enough music for people to hear us. And most of us could really use a life preserver right about now.

Support The Literary Mercenary

For folks who just want to do their part to help keep me making more content, please subscribe/follow me in these locations:

- 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!

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, 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!

What Do Creators Do When The Grind Grinds You Down?

There has been a single, constant refrain from most folks who get to see behind the curtain of what it takes me to make a living as an author. Everyone, without fail, tells me that I need to take time for myself. That I can't be working all the time, or I'm going to overheat my engine and explode. At best, I'll get burned out, and at worst I'm going to have a heart attack and wind up in an early grave.

And they're not wrong. The stress of having to constantly be on the grind all the time is bad for your health, both mental and physical. Even if you eat well, exercise regularly, and try to get good sleep, you need time to not be grinding.

The problem is, of course, capitalism doesn't recognize your humanity, or its attendant needs. So unless you're one of a privileged few, you wind up stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Shit is relentless, and you can't stab the sea and stop the tide.

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!

This is a Pay-To-Win Game

I want to make something very clear to folks out there. I don't take on so many projects because I'm filled with a burning desire to do a thousand things at a time, or because I have a Type A personality that simply will not allow me to take my foot off the gas. I do so much stuff because I live in poverty, and not doing these things means it's unlikely that I will have the money to keep paying my bills at the end of the month. If I didn't have to do all these things to keep my head above water, I would do less writing every day, and I would probably shift my focus to projects that I am very passionate about/interested in, but which are not big earners for me as a creator.

I know this because about 10 years ago I was making more than double what I'm making right now. And at that time I would get up, put in the articles I'd agreed to write by mid afternoon, and then I'd do something else. I'd go out to eat with friends. I'd play video games. I'd drive out to a LARP, or I'd roll some dice during a board game night, etc. For a while I even had a weekly sword fighting meetup that I'd go to, and I could spontaneously take trips to go see people just because I missed them. Because money buys you time, and opportunity.

I did not dedicate every minute of every day to working on new projects when I didn't have to. I still wrote short stories, I still planned out novels, and I still made notes on script ideas, but I wasn't hammering on them all day, every day like a madman. More importantly, though, I didn't have anxiety that kept me up into the wee hours of the morning, and which jolted me out of bed because the sun had risen, and it was time to put the pedal back to the metal until my tank was utterly out of gas again.

Let's get this bread...

I say this because I want to frontload an important point, here. The amount of stress that creatives you know are under is, 9 times out of 10, about money. Because if we had money, it would solve a majority of our stresses, and fix so many of our problems. Because the more money you have on-hand (or the more your work regularly earns you), the less you have to worry about it. When something goes wrong with your teeth, you can call the dentist. When something goes wrong with your car, you can take it to the shop. When you're hungry you can ask, "What do I want to eat?" and not "How can I make that pack of Ramen taste different than the last 6 I've eaten this week?"

So if you've wanted to ask how you can help your creative friends feel less burned out, the top answer is going to be, "Give them money and/or support so they don't have to work so damn hard." If you can afford to become a patron on Patreon, or to tip them on Ko-Fi, do that. If you want to get them a gift, or take them out for lunch some time, do that. If you want more people to see their work then leave reviews on their books, share their articles and blogs, on your social media, and use your voice to help them be seen. For those who are interested in numbers, I have a pretty good break down in If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month.

Because everything else that comes after our concerns about earnings and money is just, "How to distract yourself from the fact that you don't have enough resources to live your life the way you want to."

And for folks who like my work, and are wondering if I have a collection of links all in one place so you don't have to go search, I do! So consider supporting me at the following:

- 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!

With That Out Of The Way...

With that said, if you can't just write a book that becomes an instant bestseller, or post a video that goes viral and makes you an overnight sensation, there are some things you can do to help stave off that grinder. This isn't a complete list, obviously, but these are the things I do to help me stay as even as I can while dodging the stamping boots of capitalism.

#1: Take Care of Yourself

This is easier said than done, but it goes a long way. First of all, drink water. I know that we all live off of Mountain Dew and coffee in the creative fields, but please, I'm begging you, alternate your drinks so you're properly hydrated. It really does do wonders for you. Beyond drinking enough water, try to get some exercise every day (whatever form works best for you). I'm fortunate enough that my apartment complex has an on-site workout room that I can use whenever I want to, but even just going for a walk, doing a yoga routine, or some body weight lifts can help reduce stress and clear your mind. Sleep as best you can, and don't be afraid to use some tea, warm milk, or a melatonin tablet if you need to.

If you aren't up to a challenge physically, that will make everything ten times harder, and this stuff is hard enough as it is.

#2: Make Opportunities For Your Passions

Again, this feels like something that's a pie-in-the-sky scenario for a lot of us. After long days of working on a dozen projects, where are you supposed to get the time and energy to just do one more thing?

For me, this comes down to finding some way to turn something I want to do into at best a tax-deductible expense, or at best a paying opportunity so that I can justify spending resources and time to make it happen.

As a for-instance, any convention where I volunteer for programming, hand out business cards, etc., becomes a business expense. Mileage, ticket costs, meals, hotel room, etc., are all things I can claim at the end of the year. Not perfect, but it does allow me to attend events I otherwise wouldn't because they're just self-indulgent, or I want to see my friends. Alternatively, I really like making audio dramas. I couldn't justify the half dozen hours even a small snippet took to make, but when I reached out to Azukail Games and they hired me to turn my fiction vignettes into audio dramas for the Azukail Games YouTube channel (which you should check out and subscribe to), suddenly this thing I didn't have time for could be made a priority because it came with a check.

This can be difficult, but it never hurts to use the network and connections you have to try to get more personal enjoyment out of the work you do. And sometimes this can result in you finding a new niche, growing as a creator, and really enjoying your work in a way you weren't before. Even if you can't reduce your workload, finding work you feel motivated to do helps a lot. Variety helps, too, so if you're getting bored doing one thing, try some sideways thinking to see if there's a way you could change things up without damaging your bottom line.

#3: Allow Yourself To Be Entertained

I don't have a single subscription to a single streaming service. I flat-out can't afford them, and I know there's a lot of other creative folks out there who are in the same boat. However, diversion and entertainment are key to not overloading your brain, and you need to make time to just sit back, and enjoy things sometimes.

Fortunately, there are options out there for free stuff all over the place.

First and foremost, check your local library to see what services they offer. A lot of them have apps these days that allow you to check out ebooks and digital audio books right to your devices, which can make everything from riding the bus to going to sleep a lot better. YouTube is also full of great content you can just binge at will, and if you are a fan of independent narration, I'd recommend checking out A Vox in The Void, as well as Warrior Tier for those who really enjoy Warhammer 40K content. If you live in an area where there's local events then you may have free concerts, movie screenings, and a dozen other things going on as well. There's online roleplaying groups, watch parties, and all sorts of other activities you can do, too!

As always, there's the matter of time, convenience, and how much energy you can put in. But sometimes you just need to put in some headphones and listen to a new album, or catch up on some creepy pastas while going on an evening walk, to recharge your batteries just a little.

Wars Aren't Won on a Single Charge

With a dramatic few exceptions, your career isn't going to explode overnight. Most of us won't make something that goes viral, or become massive bestsellers. Changes take time as we build our archives, find our audience, try new things, and so on. While the best way to help the creators you want to see succeed is to give them any and all support you can, it's also important that when you're down in the trench that you do the best you can with what you have. Change your socks so you don't get trench foot. Drink tea or coffee in between shellings. Take a bite of chocolate every now and again.

You have to keep up your strength so that you can keep the pressure on when it matters. Be as kind to yourself as the conditions allow you to be.

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 sci fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects! You can also check out my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary for free audio dramas!

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!

Creators Need Support, Not Another Hustle

If you're a regular reader here, or if you know a creative professional in your daily life, chances are you're already well aware of the struggle most of us face. Whether we're trying to sell books, get reads on our articles, hustle for Patreon patrons, or a dozen other things it can often feel like we're dancing on the edge of a volcano, and that we might fall in at any moment.

The volcano in this metaphor is capitalism, and there's no safety net to stop us from being burned up like an evil ring at the end of a trilogy if we miss a payment.

Capital has but one master, and it answers to no other!

And while there are a lot of folks out there who are willing to give advice, I want to take this week to ask you to please, pretty please, stop suggesting that we pick up "side" jobs or "real" jobs until we make it. Because you're not helping, and if possible you're making things worse.

Before I get into the nitty gritty details of that, though, remember to subscribe to my weekly newsletter if you want to stay on top of all my content. Also, if you want to help me stay on top of my own bills consider becoming a Patreon patron!

A Side Job? Oh If Only I'd Thought of That...

If you have a friend, family member, or even just a close acquaintance that's a creative professional, chances are good you've let fly with this sentiment at some point. You've probably wondered why the simple solution of just picking up a few shifts at a local grocery store or gas station until they break big hasn't occurred to them. After all, it seems so easy. The author sacrifices a bit of time, they get an extra few hundred bucks a month, and they're not as worried about the performance of their work.

A win all around, right?

Just don't be poor? Shit, why didn't I think of that!

There's a lot of reasons why you're probably getting scornful looks from your creative friends if you've made this suggestion to them, either in-person or in text. So I want to take a moment to break down both why it's insulting, and the underlying message that it conveys to them since it's something the person making the suggestion rarely thinks about again, but which will stick with the creator for months to years afterward.

First and foremost, let's talk about the tone of the suggestion. It's often presented as a simple solution to one's problem, as if somehow the creator in question doesn't know what wage labor is, and hasn't even considered it as an option. Secondly, the suggestion is usually presented as something that's easily achievable, which it often isn't. Even if there are businesses hiring in someone's area (far from a guarantee), there may not be any that are willing to offer the schedule a creator needs, to be understanding with their requirements (you can't go to shows and conventions if your job won't give you weekends off, for example), or which will compensate them fairly for their efforts.

Thirdly, and this is the category I often find myself in, a creator only has so much time and energy in a given day. If they are suddenly using that time and energy to perform labor for someone else (and especially if it's labor they hate, find difficult, or which is extremely draining for them), they aren't going to be able to make art at the same rate they were before. In some cases it's possible that this "side" job siphons out all their energy entirely, making it impossible for them to keep making their art at all.

As the song says, being a rock star is a fun job, but it's still a job. And when someone is already giving their all to push a rock up a hill, you showing up and suggesting they put on this pair of ankle weights as if that will somehow make things easier is not helping.

There's Also The Underlying Message We're Hearing

In the interest of absolute clarity, I'm not talking about when a friend offers a writer a job as a stringer for a news site they have connections at, or brings them on as a short-term editor so they can get a fast paycheck to cover their bills. I'm talking expressly about when someone suggests you simply go out and get a standard, minimum wage, part-time gig that has nothing to do with your creative field, but which is meant to supplement and support your creative efforts. Because a different message is being sent in these two situations that people who think they're being helpful might not realize.

If someone offers you a job using your craft, what they're saying is, "I value your talent as a professional, and I trust you to get this job done for me."

If someone just suggests you go pick up a few shifts as a clerk, or find a part-time security officer gig, though? The message there (whether you intend it or not) is, "Well, clearly your art isn't worth anything on its own, so go get a real, grown-up job if you insist on following this dream."

As we all know, subtext is often present whether we want it there or not.

If you think the artist you're about to talk to creates good art, and that they should have the time and resources to create more of it, they don't need you telling them to spend their energy on other things. What they need is you to hold out your hand, and help them make those ends meet.

Because talent is meaningless when it comes to the success of art. We rise and fall, live and die, by whether we have an audience that supports us. Period, end of story.

Again, if you have money, you can support your creative friends directly. Buy their art, become patrons, and make sure your cash goes directly toward helping them. If you don't have money to give, though? Boost their signal using your voice. Share their art on your social media pages, leave good comments, and tell your friends and family members about them. Help them reach a larger audience so that they can get the eyeballs (and patrons) they need.

That might not feel like a lot, but I'll give you a concrete example of how this could snowball.

Seriously, go check this out!

About a week ago I released the short story Devil's Night over on my Vocal page; a fun little fantasy tale about devil-worshiping fascists getting punched right in the face in the low-town district. It took me plenty of time to put together, but at time of writing it's gotten maybe 50 reads or so... which amounts to about 30 cents in my pocket.

On average, roughly 100-500 people read my entries on this blog. If 100 people out there read this short story, it would probably put another 50 to 60 cents in my bank account. But what if 100 people all went and shared it on their social media pages? Sure a lot of those shares might go unremarked, but with that many shares chances are good it would catch on somewhere, and reach a far wider audience. It's possible that it could spread, reaching hundreds (if not thousands) more eyes than I could ever reach on my own. For every one thousand people who read said story, I'd earn $6... and there are millions of potential eyes on those platforms.

Will all the people who read this article click through to share that tale? Probably not. But that one, concrete action taken by even a moderately-sized group of readers could have rather dramatic consequences for me as a creator. And it would be far more helpful than any advice that I just pull myself up by my bootstraps until something eventually got popular enough to pay me what I'm worth.

Be the change you want to see in the careers of the creators you like. It makes a far bigger difference than you know.

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 noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, 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!

What I Find So Motivating About Royalties

Have you ever wondered why you hate your job? Well there's a lot of psychology and research behind it, but one of the major factors that's gone into both psychology and philosophy is the idea of being separated from the effect your work has. That feeling you get when you're just a cog in the machine, answering a call here, or checking an order form there, but you can't really see how your job affects anyone or anything so it all feels sort of like pointless make-work? That's what this feeling references.

At the same time, there's also the knowledge that you aren't getting the full value of your labor. Now this may stray into hammer-and-sickle territory for some readers, but the idea is pretty sound. Whether you're making pizzas, sitting at a security desk, or delivering truckloads of goods to stores, you know in your mind that your boss is paying you the absolute least amount they can for the labor you're providing. Which means the difference between the cost to do the job/produce the product added to what you've been paid, subtracted from what the client paid, is the total value your employer puts in their pocket. This means that you know, no matter how good a job you do, the only person who's making more money from that effort at the end of the day is your boss.

Ain't capitalism grand?

Being an author, though, hourly wage isn't something I've earned for many years now. And while I still get a per-word rate on a lot of my work, I find that the most personally motivating thing I can be offered is a cut of the profits generated by something I either created, or helped create.

While that sort of structure might not be full-on socialism, it's certainly edging a lot closer to a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship than any hourly job I've ever had. It still doesn't pay as well as I'd like, though, so if you want to help out consider becoming a Patreon patron to help keep a little wind in my sails it would be much appreciated!

Getting My Piece of The Pie

For those not familiar, a royalty is when the publisher splits earnings with the author to compensate them for their part of a book, article, or other piece of work they helped create. So if you went and bought a digital copy of my noir mystery cat novel Marked Territory, my cut of those earnings would be a few dollars. If you bought a physical copy I'd earn a few dollars more, because it's a higher price, and therefore my percentage comes out to a larger amount than the digital copy did.

My sensitivity editor wants to know why you haven't gotten your copy yet!

There are, of course, practical, business-oriented reasons that so many publishers focus on royalties instead of just buying books, short stories, articles, etc. straight from authors... primarily because it's so difficult to judge the market that you never know what will explode and what won't, so you hedge your bets by keeping costs as low as possible. However, the side effect of this is that when you're a writer you've basically signed onto a pirate crew; you get your share of the bounty, whatever it is. And if there's no action (meaning your book didn't make any sales), then your percentage of nothing is still nothing.

And that does something to my brain chemistry that addresses the two factors I mentioned in the introduction. Because when I write something, whether it's an article like 5 Things You Can Do To Be A Better Ambassador To Your Hobby, a novel like my recent sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, or even an RPG supplement like my most recent splat Gods of Sundara, I have no disconnect from it. From my fingers to the sales page, there's a direct line I can see when it comes to my work that lets me keep a clear image of how my effort impacts things. Not only that, but if something I wrote does well (generates thousands of reads, gets a few hundred sales, etc.), then I get a part of that action. This motivates me to actually share my work, get interviewed about it, boost the signal, run marketing campaigns (as best I can), and to make sure my work gets seen by people.

Do you know what I do when I just get a flat fee for a piece of work? Even if it's a piece of work I enjoyed, or that I think is really worth people's time? Absolutely nothing. I take my check, I cash it, and I immediately get to work on the next thing, because I don't have the time or the energy to spend bigging-up a signal that isn't going to pull me along in its wake. I've got bills to pay, and making more money for a client who isn't sharing any of those profits with me means that I've actively stopped treading water while diverting my energies to them instead.

I'd like everyone reading this to take a moment, and ask how'd they'd feel if their job actually gave them a portion of the day's take while they were on-shift helping make all that profit. What if cashiers received a portion of the profit generated based on how much they checked out? Or perhaps they were paid a bonus that went up based on how much product they cleared? What if waitstaff, instead of relying on tips, were given a portion of the earnings generated by their tables (meaning big tables suddenly become big bonuses)?

Think about what that kind of cooperation would do for morale, as well as earnings? Because if everyone got back a portion of what their work helped generate, I bet you'd see a lot of stuff start to change in a big damn hurry.

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 noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, 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!