Fan Art, Sponsorships, And Other Goals I Didn't Expect To Have When I Became An Author

For folks who aren't regular readers, I've wanted to be a professional writer basically since I was in 8th grade. It was the first time I wrote a short story that really affected someone (it was a found-journal style short about a giant crocodile in the Amazon where the author suggested the thing stalking them was more than just an animal, which was inspired by Robert R. McCammon's story Lizard Man), and the feeling was intoxicating. I decided I was going to try to recreate that, and so I started writing more short stories, as well as several novel attempts, and I took every creative writing class or assignment I could get my hands on.

Now, over a quarter of a century later, I've at least figured out how to reliably craft a good story. However, the older I've gotten, the more my personal goals for my career have changed. It's sort of caught me off-guard, as well, so I figured I'd take a moment and talk about it this week, since I feel like professional goals are something a lot of us don't really consider beyond, "Get my book published."

I wouldn't say no, but things like this have become less important to me over the years.

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!

When You Realize Your Goals Aren't Realistic

I'll admit, when I was young and had yet to even finish my first novel, I had dreams of becoming one of those Big Name (TM) authors. I wanted to be one of those people who made millions of dollars, whose name topped the bestseller lists, and who would have my work turned into hit movies and TV shows. In my mid-20s I expanded that out into having a shelf of awards in my house, showing off my brilliance.

Over time, most of these have sort of fallen by the wayside. Though I would still love to win a Stoker or an Ennie, those are more in the, "Well, it would be nice," category, rather than something I legitimately expect to happen.

Seriously, look at how goddamn NEAT this thing is!

The reason I've given up on so many of these goals I was once striving for is that the longer I've been an author, the more I recognize both how rare these kinds of successes are, and often how little they have to do with the things you're actually writing. I've said repeatedly on this very blog that making sales is a marketing success, and that in the end it's often divorced from the artistic quality of your book. And with every awards scandal that comes across my feed (I'm looking at you, Sad Puppies) the more it feels like awards winding up in the hands of truly deserving, talented creators is a fluke rather than the process working how it's supposed to.

In short, both the idea of becoming a Rich And Famous author, and a multi-award-winning author felt like I was standing out in a field and waving around a lightning rod. Yes, it's certainly possible that I'll catch lightning in a bottle, but it's also possible for me to win the lottery just by buying a single scratch ticket. In the end it sort of felt like striving to make those things happen was just setting myself up for disappointment, and not focusing on what I should be doing; writing the best books I could.

As a lot of folks out there know, nature abhors a vacuum. So while I didn't consciously choose new goals to replace the ones that I felt were too unrealistic, they showed up anyway. And while some of these still feel like long shots, I'm of the opinion they're more achievable than what I had before.

So What New Goals Made It Onto The List?

While I've more or less given up on the life of fame and fortune (it would be nice, but I'm trying to be realistic here), I do have a couple of goals that I think I could manage. Hopefully in the next 5-10 years, but if they take longer, well, it's not like I was going to stop writing, or something.

Let's not get ridiculous... I've been at this since I was 13. You don't put down a habit like that short of anything but the reaper.

Goal #1: Fan Creations

This is a goal I've technically achieved in a few small ways, but it's something I'd like to be able to do more of. The idea that something I made affected a reader of mine so strongly that they wanted to add their own creativity to what I've made, either through the form of writing their own stories, drawing art, or even painting minis styled after a character I made, is one of the sincerest forms of flattery I've ever received.

Perhaps the most notable thing I've seen folks be that excited about is, ironically, some of my own fan stories titled Waking Dogs and Broken Chains, which are about the trials of a renegade space marine in the Warhammer 40K setting. There are even audio versions of these tales, which still give me a chill to listen to, and I highly recommend checking them out (along with more of my work) on the YouTube channel A Vox in The Void.

Goal #2: Be A Convention Guest Of Honor

I've been to my share of conventions over the years, and while I still enjoy them, they're a lot different when you're there for work than when you're there to play around. And if I'm there I'm usually on panels, running games, holding down a table in the dealer's hall, and sometimes all of these things in a single day. However, it would be a feather in my cap to be invited to a convention as a guest of honor. Additionally, it would just be nice to be recognized for my achievements in that way, whether I'm there as an author, a gaming guest of honor, etc.

Of course, it would also be nice getting the perks that come along with such a position. Realistically, I expect I'll be able to manage this for a smaller, regional convention, but it would still be nice for it to happen at a bigger event if and when the opportunity arises.

 

Goal #3: Become An Institution

In the past I thought about essentially being a stand-alone writer who sold enough books that I could pay all my bills, buy a house, and just sort of live that celebrity lifestyle. However, like I said, I know exactly how rare that kind of success is for most people in my profession. But what I would like to do is to create projects that help keep me afloat financially, but which allow me to give work to other creative people in my circles.

This, for example.

I've had a few, smaller examples of this already. Sales of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, as well as any supplements that use Anonymous Katsodon's art ensure that part of the royalty payment goes right to her. Additionally, Isiah Burt has written two novellas for my fantasy RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age. Legacy of Flames is a story about a hulking lizardfold warrior, and his unusual mission in the Dragonsbreath Mountains, and Blight Bane's Gambit follows an orc mercenary company as they attempt to solve the riddles of a tricksy dragon in the woods beyond Hoardreach, the City of Wyrms.

Honestly, what I'd love to do is for something to get so large in terms of popularity and earnings potential that it allows me to start hiring people on as staff, or giving them positions are regular contributors, so that we can all share in the bounty. I'm not saying that I essentially want to get successful enough where I can form an LLC and give regular, reliable jobs to all my friends so we can work on our projects together while shielding each other from the roving wolves of capitalism... but yeah, I'd love to be able to do that.

On that note, I feel like the next project with that level of potential might be my Chronicles of Darkness audio drama, Windy City Shadows. If you haven't heard about it yet, check out the elevator pitch at Windy City Shadows, A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, and take a look at the Ask Me Anything I put together for it a while back!

Goal #4: Get Sponsorship (And Maybe A Gift Or Two)

This is probably my shallowest, most selfish goal, but we've all got to have one or two of those. However, the idea that things I'm creating are so popular that a company decides that they need to butter me up in order to reach my audience by sending me a free trial of their service, and perhaps a cool present for me to keep in the background of my videos, is something that would be pretty nice, not going to lie.

Whether it's game books, a portable dice tower, an unusual display shelf, filming accessories (I'd love to have a green screen I could break down and store in my closet, as an example), or even something as seemingly random as a cool mini fridge (I like having drinks on hand for when I'm recording), it would just be a mark of pride for me that I was considered well-known, popular, or influential enough to make that happen.

The issue here, of course, is that sponsorship tends to come with a wide reach and a big audience. I don't really command one of those, but every little bit helps. So consider subscribing to the Azukail Games YouTube channel if you haven't yet, and help me keep climbing up that ladder so I can get myself noticed!

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. 

Writing is Art. Publishing is Business.

There is a constant argument in writing circles that I see almost every day. On the one side of it you have people who are here for the art. These are people concerned with the craft of storytelling, with the work of bringing ideas to life, and with the constant need to keep their skills and words sharp. Then there are those who are concerned with actually selling books. These are people concerned with market share, trends in genres, what strategies actually move copies online versus in-person, and all the minutae of making a living in the trade.

Each of these groups have dug trenches, and set up their defenses, each convinced the other is wrong in important, fundamental ways regarding being a writer. However, there is something that's important to remember... this isn't an either/or situation. If you actually want to succeed in this career, you're going to need both aspects of this discussion.

You should work on writing the best books you can... but writing a good book and believing that's all you have to do is like saying if you talk to the cops then nothing bad will happen to you. It's a nice sentiment, but historically, not true in the least.

There's no way around this. I wish there was, but there isn't.

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!

Two Sides of The Coin (That Rarely Interact With Each Other)

I've said it before, but there is a truth that bears repeating. I want everyone here, if you take nothing else away from this article, to remember these words.

The success or failure of a book, commercially, has NOTHING to do with its quality artistically.

If you read those words, I want you to read them again. And then one more time just for good measure. Because we all have this assumption that good writing will be rewarded, and bad writing will fail, and there is no evidence to support this belief. We just think that's how it should be, because that's what seems fair.

And this industry laughs in the face of fairness.

Seriously, the Invisible Hand of The Market is just giving you the finger. Always.

Publishing is a business. Pure and simple. The publishing industry does not care about art. It does not care about groundbreaking stories, or well-told narratives, or all those things that matter to most of us as writers. Publishing, on the whole, cares what moves copies, and what does numbers on the market.

That is it. Period.

This is why so much of what you see from the mainstream publishing industry is easily digestible, easily slots into genres, and hits the right bullet points for the largest number of people in the audience. Because publishers are, essentially, gambling on every title they put out. And they do not care if a book is barely-disguised vampire fan fiction with the serial numbers sanded off, or the next great American novel that will move readers to tears and give them a new view on life... if the numbers say the former book is a safe bet, that's what they will publish.

Now, are there publishers and editors who try to elevate books they believe have artistic value, or traditionally come from writers who aren't considered the safest of bets? Of course there are. However, in this case, these are the exceptions that prove the rule.

The publishing industry, like any other industry, runs on money. A company has to pay a salary to its editors, to its staffers, to its layout people, artists, and everyone else who turns manuscripts into books. Not only that, but there's the cost of printing books, the cost of shipping books, and the cost of all the marketing that's done to help that book move copies. For a book to be a success, it has to not just cover its costs, but make extra profit for the company so that it can take on new titles, and keep doing what its doing. Books that it doesn't think will sell don't get picked up, and that may not be because they aren't good. It may be that they're niche, or that the author isn't well-known enough, or that they're from a genre or style that has, historically, not turned a profit.

At the same time, factors that have nothing to do with the quality of a story or the skill of the author may be deciding factors for getting it published. For example, is the book written by a celebrity or a public figure? If so, then it will likely be greenlit rapidly, because it comes with a built-in audience. Is the book about a hot button issue, or a major historical event that happened recently that people are engaged with? Is this book from an author who has been successful in the past, regardless of the quality of their work? If so, then it gets published.

Art is Just a Product To Money

Consider, for a moment, the world of gallery art. The idea is that if your art is good enough to show in a gallery, and to be purchased for such obscene prices, then clearly your art must be good quality, yes?

It's the same fallacy at work in a different way.

As Adam Conover points out here, the world of fine art is just a grift for the wealthy. They do not care about the integrity or skill of the artist, or the message or quality of the art. They will, quite literally, sell canvases with hot dog smears on them. Why? Not because, "modern art is stupid and ridiculous," but because it makes them money. The art gallery, the rich patrons, and art appraisers work together to jack up the supposed value of this art, and then that art is used as donations, or other ways to avoid rich people paying taxes.

It's a bait-and-switch, and they'll do it with a blank canvas titled Take The Money and Run as surely as they'll do it with a Rembrandt.

Capital doesn't care about artistic integrity. It doesn't care about skill, or pain, or the years it took to tell a tale, or the emotional impact it will have on the audience. Capital cares about profits generated. This is why so many companies were throwing together A.I. slop and trying to get people to buy it; because pushing a button to generate a novel costs them nothing, and can only make profits. Doesn't matter if the product is bunk if it made them money. And if they could do it dozens, hundreds, or thousands of times, even if these books were unreadable, nonsensical drek (or, worse, contained inaccurate, harmful information), at the end of the day, if it made money, it was considered a "good" decision.

Do people prefer well-written stories that touch them? Do readers like characters that stay with them long after they close the covers? Absolutely. However, getting your book into the hands of actual people can be hard as hell when you have to ride the roller coaster of figuring out what obscure factors the all-knowing publishing oracle thinks will or won't make your project a horse they should back.

So What Does This Have To Do With All Of You?

Why am I telling you all this? After all, if you've been around here for any length of time, chances are you already knew most of this. And if this is new information to you, well, you may be wondering what you can do to change it. You probably don't work in the publishing industry, and all you can really do is vote with your wallet, right?

Remember how I said that publishers make decisions based on numbers? You are one of those numbers, and all the things you do, and all the activity you generate, is what makes those numbers go up for the authors whose work you love, and whom you want to support.

As an example, take this novel of mine.

Take my novel Marked Territory, a gritty, gangland noir mystery where the entire cast are street beasts from NYC. This book currently has 19 ratings and reviews on Amazon, and it sells a handful of copies every quarter since it's re-release. Its sequel, Painted Cats only has 12 ratings and reviews, and moves about the same volume.

Now, if I were to write more books about Leo, I'm sure my publisher would take them, and publish them. However, if both of the existing books started getting a lot of ratings and reviews, and moving big numbers (hundreds to thousands of copies a quarter, rather than a few dozen), I daresay that my publisher would be calling me up. Firstly to congratulate me, and secondly, to ask me how long it would take me to get another book into their hands so they could ride this train a little further. It's even possible that, if these books developed a large following, that projects like putting out an audio book, or even going into discussions for film adaptation rights might happen.

And you know something? With the money those sales would generate, I could actually focus on writing those books as the main part of my workday, rather than trying to fit in a few hundred words here and a few hundred words there at the end of the work day.

Money talks. Everything else walks.

I happen to think these books are well-written, fun, told with a wry sense of humor, and that they generally leave readers satisfied. However, even if these books weren't good, that wouldn't matter if they were still doing the numbers I mentioned. If the product makes a profit, it gets published, and gets all the bells and whistles. If it doesn't move those numbers, no matter how much care, love, and art went into it, it sits in the bottom of the bin waiting for someone to dig down deep enough to find it.

And that is where a majority of us are, as creators. We don't have baskets of money to buy advertising for the stuff we make. We don't have legions of followers, or huge controversies getting our names in the news. We just have the books we wrote, and a sincere belief in our work.

But that doesn't move copies, or pay the bills.

So remember this. Because if you want that author you like to succeed, you can't trust that the invisible hand of the market is going to recognize their talent. Be the change you want to see. Be the number on their spreadsheet. Buy copies, leave ratings and reviews, follow thier social media, share their stories so other people can see them. Be an active participant in their career. Because the more people that stand around and cheer, the more people are going to wander over, wondering what it is that's gotten you so excited.

And that is what it takes to make us successful in business.

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'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!

Authors Need To Seize The Initiative To Get Work

Most of us are familiar with the general process of finding a job. When a business has an opening, they post an offering. People interested in that position respond. The business then reviews applications, conducts interviews, and decides who they're going to hire. And despite what your parents might tell you, you should under no circumstances hang around to talk to the manager, call, or send any messages asking about your application. In today's job market that basically gets you written off as, "person who has no idea how to follow instructions," and that's not someone most businesses want to deal with.

Then there's being a writer, where that kind of behavior is basically a necessity if you're going to get anywhere. And for the purposes of this blog, I will refer to the practice of reaching out and contacting potential paymasters as seizing the initiative.

Yo! You need a writer?

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!

Seize The Initiative (It Gets You Way More Work)

One of my favorite stories to tell is how, while browsing the FAQ section for Paizo publishing I ended up sending a request to write for the company. I hadn't expected anything to come of it, but less than a week later I got a return email asking me what I was looking for in terms of writing assignments. This is how I wound up writing the short story The Irregulars for the Golarion setting, and it also led to me contributing to Blood of The Moon and Bastards of Golarion as well.

Seriously, check it out if you haven't yet!

This was far from the last time, either. I made contact with TPK Games at Gen Con basically by walking up to their booth, shaking the owner's hand, and offering him my business card. I got all of my jobs working for newspapers by sending emails or making phone calls, asking if there were positions for contributors open. Ditto for the few magazines and ezines I worked for which are now defunct (sadly for my bank account).

So why is it okay to do this when you're a writer, but not for any other kind of job? Well, it's generally because writers, by and large, aren't hired on full-time. A majority of writers, from the lowliest newspaper stringers to the highest-paid novelists, are hired as mercenary talent.

Do not attempt this strategy to get a staff writing position. I promise it will blow up in your face.

When a business is hiring on a regular part-or-full-time employee, there's a certain protocol that needs to be followed. There's proper channels to go through, and there's routine to be established. For freelancers and mercenaries, though, paymasters tend to be more concerned about drive, ideas, and their project record. This is particularly true for RPG companies (who do a majority of their work through freelancers), but it holds true for a lot of the serialized publishing industry. Whether you need fresh movie reviews on the company blog, new short stories for the monthly magazine, or just someone to put together a fresh list of weird encounters for a fresh DND supplement, everyone is always looking for another set of hands.

Lastly, though, most companies who use freelancers will want to keep as large a pool of talent on-hand as possible. Because unlike hiring people to fill salaried positions, freelancers get paid on commission. So it costs a business nothing to put someone new into the writing pool, as they're not going to have to pay anything until the writer has turned in an assignment and it's been selected for publication.

In short, they lose nothing by keeping you around.

Caveats

Now, there are some important caveats I'd add to the very broad statements I made above. So if you're psyched to start knocking on digital doors, wait until you've finished the briefing.

Hold your fire.

First and foremost, seizing the initiative works best when you are attempting to get assigned work from a company who needs a constant stream of material from writers. Newspapers, magazines, websites, RPG publishers, the idea is that you are looking to be assigned work to complete for them. If you already have something complete (a short story, a novel, a roleplaying game, an article, etc.) then you need to instead see if the publisher in question has a submission procedure for you to follow.

If you can't find the query procedure, then reach out and ask for it. That is going to be more helpful to you, and it will probably start things moving more smoothly if you're attempting to place something you've already finished.

Secondly, before you start reaching out to potential paymasters and asking if they have any assignments available, make sure you have a portfolio of previous work, as well as a list of potential pitches. Your portfolio can be made up of anything you're comfortable being judged on, but both it and your pitches should be geared toward the publisher you've reached out to in order to give them an understanding of what you're bringing to the table.

Why is this necessary, you might ask? Well, if you reach out to a short story magazine, they're going to want to have some idea of the kind of fiction you've written before. Ditto if you want to write articles for a newspaper, or mechanics for a game; your potential publisher is going to want to see some samples of your work to get a sense of what your output is like. As to the pitches, sometimes a publisher will test you by asking what you think would make for a good project. It's a backdoor way of testing your knowledge of a subject or area, and seeing how much supervision they'll need to put in. Sometimes the publisher will take you up on a particular pitch, sometimes not, but either way you should always have 2-3 in your back pocket just in case.

Eventually Work Comes To You

I'll be the first one to admit that when you're an author you end up chasing a lot of work. However, the more assignments you complete, and the more your name gets out there, the more people are going to recognize you. When that happens you're going to find that people will, eventually, start coming to you with offers. Whether it's because they saw your name in enough publications, you've made the right contacts who've bigged you up in their circles, or because you seem approachable on social media, people will seek you out sooner or later.

That doesn't mean every offer you get is going to be a banger, but eventually you'll get solid offers. Just keep your nose to the grindstone, and when in doubt consider sending an email and asking if there are currently openings for content creators.

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!

Authors Need More Than Just Money

I had a client several years ago who always seemed to have work for me. Whether it was revising nations in his setting, or adding new wrinkles to plots in the RPG modules he was preparing, it seemed like no sooner had I turned in one assignment than he would have another one ready for me. This client was generally agreeable, gave me some free rein with my creative decisions, and was generally appreciative of what I was doing. Not only that, he paid me promptly when I turned in a given assignment. But eventually I had to stop working for him.

Why? Well, because he never actually released anything I wrote for him. And while we need bread to live, as the saying goes, we need more than just bread if we are to truly feel alive.

Truer words have never been spoken.

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!

Validation, And Audience Reaction

Folks who read the Business of Writing section on here may be scratching their heads a bit. After all, for someone whose handle is The Literary Mercenary, and who is usually focused on the nickels and dimes of the profession, this might seem like a bit of a left turn into the artsy-fartsy part of the profession. However, as anyone who's ever commanded soldiers or tried to act as a team lead can tell you, morale is a very real thing. And speaking as a writer, it takes more than just the satisfaction of putting words on the page, or getting some cash in your hand for the job, to keep you going.

Your stuff needs to be seen, read, and reacted to.

Let's talk about science for a second...

We all know how dopamine works. While there's a lot of scientific descriptions of how it's made and the purpose it serves, generally it's a hormone that's associated with happiness and pleasure. It's your brain's way of telling you, "This is a good thing. Keep doing this thing." We get it from all sorts of sources, but one of the ones we're all familiar with is when something we post on social media gets likes and positive approval from the site. Whether it's from friends and family, or from complete strangers, the ding of notifications can put a little shot of good feeling into you.

It's not so different for authors. While there may be folks who write just for themselves, or who don't want their work seen, those of us who do this professionally want our work to find its fanbase. We want people to read our stories, to learn about our characters, and to follow the path we've trailblazed for them with our imaginations. And even if we're being paid for our efforts, it is hard to keep pushing forward if we know we're basically shouting into the void because none of the words we're putting down on the page are ever getting released to the public... or being read by anyone if they are released.

A good example of this for me are my short stories Waking Dogs and Field Test. These are just little throwaway pieces of Warhammer 40K fan fiction I put together as a kind of palate cleanser to keep my story mind sharp when I didn't have the resources to work on new novels. The former is a tale of a World Eater space marine coming out of the fugue state caused by the butcher's nails, and the other is about an inquisitor testing a unique, living weapon she's been training for several years, for those who are curious.

What makes these pieces unique, though, is how far they've gone in the 40K community, and how many people reacted positively to them... something that happened largely because of A Vox in The Void's beautiful audio renditions of these tales.

Now, I'm not claiming that my name is known as well as folks like Dan Abnett or any of the other authors whose official work with Games Workshop is the cornerstone of the Black Library. But when hundreds of folk leave supportive comments about how much they liked a story, and when subreddits dedicated to the Death Korps of Krieg, the World Eaters, or Chaos Marines actively recommend me my own story before they find out who I am, that definitely hammers on the dopamine button in my brain.

Because it's one thing to have a nice, fat check in your hand. But knowing there are people out there who read your story (or listened to it) who actively enjoyed it? People who talked about it, and told strangers that they should read it? That is a feeling that you can't get anywhere else.

That feeling won't pay your bills at the end of the day. On the other hand, having your bills paid also won't feed your spirit the way knowing you wrote something that stuck with readers, and that they want other people to read as well. And that feeling can drive you pretty far, making you take on projects that have no real return on investment, but which may let you get another hit of that good stuff.

Because, contrary to a lot of what people might say, being popular (even popular within a small part of a fandom) is not a guarantee that you can turn your name recognition into money and opportunity. But sometimes you really just need to hear the crowd roar, and to be told you did a good job.

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!

Uncertainty is The Worst (and The Best) Thing About Being an Author

The most common piece of advice I've heard since the point I decided to become an author (around age 13 or 14, I think it was), is that I need to have a reliable, steady source of income while I do that on the side. It's not that they didn't think I had the chops or determination to crank out books till the day I died, but rather that there's no telling what the market is going to do when it comes to a writer's trade. You might write one book, hit the lottery, and explode! You might spend a decade or two writing shelves worth of novels, only to become an "overnight success" when someone with a big following tells their fans your work is amazing.

And while most advice you get from people with no experience being a writer is basically garbage, there is a lot of truth to this one. Because writers are self-employed now more than ever before in the age of the gig economy, and your income is going to depend almost entirely on the fickle finger of fate. And I'll be the first to tell you that can be both infuriating, and exhilarating.

Pay your fee, take your shot, and hope for the best!

Before we go too much further, if you want to help me negate some of the uncertainty I'm dealing with (and make sure this blog keeps on trucking), consider becoming a Literary Mercenary Patreon patron! Or, if you don't have the spare dosh for that right now, signing up for my weekly newsletter to ensure you don't miss any of my new releases!

Reliability is an Illusion (Unfortunately)

One of the hardest truths there is about being an author is that your entire profession is largely a matter of luck. Talent helps, developing your skill and craft is necessary, networking is good, and gumption goes a long way, but everything you achieve (or don't) basically turns on the fulcrum of luck.

And this is a door that swings both ways.

Sometimes opportunity doesn't bother knocking.

As an example, take the current pandemic. I had spent several years building up a rather large pile of completed work as a ghost blogger, and it was slowly getting approved, ensuring I had a "regular" check to help bolster all the work I do writing novels, RPG supplements, blogs, and all that other nonsense. Then when the plague crashed across the economy, many of my clients put a freeze on approving any more work. Others cancelled projects (some of which I'd turned in weeks or months before), and still others just ghosted entirely, cancelling their orders and vanishing.

So practically overnight I went from a ghost writer who is hoping to one day quit that job to write novels and RPGs full time, to suddenly relying very much on my body of creative work to make up the difference from the "safe" clients who'd left me hanging.

You know, just like any other job where you're considered an expendable worker, or where the company suddenly takes a nose dive into concrete.

That same zeitgeist can go the other way, as well, putting a surprising amount of good fortune in my pocket when I didn't expect it to be there. For example, a few months back my article Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice was randomly shared on a pretty wide scale thanks to a single mention on a subreddit. It picked up several thousand reads, and quickly rocketed up to the front page of my most-read pieces ever on Vocal, suddenly easing my difficulties covering bills that month. In the early summer of 2020 Drive Thru RPG had a big sale on a huge number of World of Darkness game supplements, and overnight my entire 100 Kinfolk project that I'd written for Werewolf: The Apocalypse jumped in sales, pushing my earnings in royalties over $200 for the first (and so far only) time since I started getting a cut of my RPG earnings. I haven't gotten my first check for my noir mystery novel Marked Territory yet, but it's entirely possible that a mystery with a Maine Coon alley cat trying to figure out why a pack of stray dogs is putting the squeeze on a church mouse and her community sold far better than I expected it to.

And one of the hard truths of this job is that while you can tell the story, talk about the story, and try to spread the word, so much of whether or not you succeed is actually out of your hands.

You Can Only Do What You Can Do

Hitting the jackpot as a writer is basically being a professional gambler. You need to read the trends in fiction, understand your audience, learn to recognize interest, figure out what the social media algorithm wants to see from you, and do what you can to gather support from the community. But even if you crunch all the numbers, put your links in the right place, show up to interviews, do readings for your audience, at the end of the day you're basically just gambling. Every book, every blog, every supplement, every article is just one more roll of the dice.

As Captain Picard says, it's possible to do everything right and still fail, when all is said and done.

Even if the odds are on your side, there's no guaranteeing you're going to win. And even if the odds are against you, there's no guaranteeing you're going to lose. The best you can do is put the words on the page in the most compelling way you can, do everything to get it in front of the audience's eyes you can think of, and hope for the best.

Never depend on luck to see you through. At the same time, understand that it is often pure, unadulterated chance that happens to be what makes a book, blog, video, etc. popular. And getting struck by lightning ain't an easy thing to do.

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, 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!