"Sooner or later you'll have written so much stuff that you'll be able to take your foot off the gas, and relax a bit."
I laugh, they laugh, and the conversation moves on. However, there is a bitterness to my chuckle, because I know something that they don't. Something I'd like to share with all of you today.
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| Trust me, it isn't funny. |
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!
It Does Not Matter How Much Stuff You Make
All right, let me back up a step.
First things first, yes, the more stuff you create, the better the chance you have of succeeding. It's like rolling a 20-sided die. Yeah, you want that 20 to come up, but if your first roll didn't do it, being able to roll again, and again, does help. And, at least in theory, having an archive of stuff you've written means that anyone who discovers you for one thing at least has the potential to dig into your backlog to check out your other work as well.
Let's talk about that word. Potential. Because that is what a lot of us bank on, but it's also what a lot of average folks out there don't really grasp when it comes to this profession. They might understand it academically, but down in their bones they don't really get it.
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| Size is no guarantee of success. |
I've seen dozens of different takes on this over the years. There used to be programs claiming you needed an archive of at least 400 blog entries/articles to really suck your audience in, get people reading through everything you had, and earning regular revenue from their traffic. There are programs out there right now promising that if you can write 20 novels (not an easy feat in and of itself) that you'll have reached the mystic number where your work becomes self-sustaining, and you can relax a bit.
The problem with all of these so-called solutions and promises is that they're bunk. Complete and absolute fables. And I say that so confidently because they put the emphasis on what you are doing as the author, and promising that if you work a certain amount that it's some kind of guarantee that eventually your career will be successful.
I am here to tell you that, unfortunately, that is not true. And it is not true for the simple reason that all you can do is create the thing, and do your best to promote it. The people who decide whether your work is successful is your audience... or lack thereof, in many cases.
No One Knows What Will Or Won't Succeed
I've mentioned this before, but if you look at every major publisher's book list, they have a handful of really big sellers, a few middle earners, and a lot of books that never really go anywhere. And if you ask an editor why publishers don't just publish the books that are going to be top sellers, the answer is always the same.
"We'd love to, but no one knows which goddamn books they will be!"
"We'd love to, but no one knows which goddamn books they will be!"
This illustrates the central point of this week's post. Because even major publishers with all the resources to promote the books they publish, and all the industry insight of experienced editors, cannot predict with any real accuracy which titles and which authors are going to be financially successful. They, like those of us who write said books, are literally rolling the dice and hoping for the best. Books that have everything going for them that should become beloved bestsellers go mostly unread and forgotten, while books by no-name authors no one has ever heard of become roaring, viral successes.
Why? If I knew the answer to that, I'd be sitting on a throne of royalties instead of writing this blog.
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| Seriously, writing books is WAY more fun. |
So the answer to how many books you have to write, how many articles you have to craft, how many videos you have to make, is... it's a crap shoot.
Let me throw some numbers at you. Because as of right now I have:
- 4 novels
- 2 short story collections
- 326 articles on Vocal
- 150+ videos on YouTube
- 191 tabletop RPG supplement titles
I am not the most proliferate creator (and I left out the 1,500+ blog entries on this blog and my gaming blog Improved Initiative, as they don't pay me anything), but I have a rather sizable amount of stuff out on the market for folks to consume. And if I had a big enough audience, or something I made went viral for some reason, yeah, I could take a day off, kick up my feet, and relax. If for some impossible reason a thing I made drew thousands upon thousands of readers every month (or every year in the case of a book), I could theoretically stop making any new stuff and just coast on that popularity.
I wouldn't, because I like writing, but I could.
Because at the end of the day, it does not matter how much stuff you produce as a writer. It matters how many people consume what you're writing. If you write a single novel, and half a million people a year buy it for the next decade, you don't really need to write another one unless you want to. By the same token, you could write 20, 30, or 40 novels, but if no one buys them, it's the monetary equivalent of never having written anything.
Your Audience Decides Your Success (Not You)
You, as the author, should do everything in your power to create the best quality work you're capable of. You should write a good story, fix all your spelling errors, make sure there's no dangling plot threads, and so on, and so forth. You should do your best to pick enticing cover art, to find folks to review your book, and to promote it as best you can.
None of that is going to earn you a dime unless people buy your book.
It does not matter how much you write. It does not matter the quality of your work. It does not matter if you have a massive social media presence, if you go to conventions, or if you make an entire vlog channel documenting the book's journey. If people do not buy your books, or consume your content (in the case of articles, videos, etc.) then you do not get paid. Period.
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| For instance, folks who want more of this serious should buy copies! |
The point, to hammer it one more time, is that you cannot write yourself to success in the way so many people think. If a creator needs more money, they can't just write more articles, make more videos, or put out another book... it's sales, not word count, that matters.
If you've got a successful series with a lot of readers eager for a new installment, yes, a new book will probably get your audience to pick up copies... buf if you don't have the audience who is supporting you, it doesn't matter how much stuff you make, because no one is buying it. You're the proverbial tree falling in the forest, and no one is around to see you or hear you.
An author's success (and how hard they have to work) is determined by their audience. So if you have an author who you want to pay their bills, and work a reasonable day instead of pulling 12 hour shifts at their desk, do what you can to support them. Buy their books, leave reviews, follow them on social media, boost their signals, leave comments... do what you can to help them build up the audience. Because without an audience, it doesn't matter what we do... all of our earnings comes from you. Full stop.
Support The Literary Mercenary
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- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)
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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!
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