Writing Books And Selling Books Are Two Completely Different Skills (And You Need To Be Able To Do Both)

I've said this before, but it's always been in passing. Because of that I thought I would dedicate this week's entry to addressing this misconception that a lot of people seem to have. Because being able to write good books does not actually give you any insight whatsoever on being able to actually sell books, good or otherwise.

These are two separate skills... and while you can make money with the latter by itself, writing a book no one buys isn't exactly helpful if you're hoping to buy yourself some time to write more books. Or tacos. Or a house. Or anything else, really.

This is just a daydream, if you don't have a plan to make it happen.

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!

Addressing Some False Beliefs (So You Can Avoid These Pitfalls)

First of all, right out of the gate, you need to accept that the quality of your book has precisely dick all to do with how well it sells. Good books can go completely undiscovered and ignored, and absolute drek can achieve bestseller status and make the author fat stacks of cash. So before you do anything else, put the idea out of your head that writing a quality, entertaining book will magically guarantee you sales. It won't, and if we're all honest, it never has.

Alice went into a little more detail than I did, and you should subscribe to her channel at Alice The Author.

Secondly, if you're an author you need to realize that sales isn't just going to get "taken care of" by someone else. Unless you have so much disposable income that you can hire a publicist and a PR team (or at least a social media manager to run everything on your behalf), then you're going to have to get stuck in to do things yourself. Trust me, none of us want to do this part of the job, but it's kind of necessary if you actually want to sell books and make money.

Thirdly, sales isn't something you can just fire off in a few minutes before going on about the rest of your day. Honestly, the first half of my day is generally spent making social media posts for promotional purposes, and then a lot of my blogs, videos, etc. are made to get my books and other projects in front of readers. It's an exhausting process that's a never-ending wheel that you have to keep pushing like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first Conan film.

I have a video on this very topic over on The Azukail Games YouTube channel, in fact. I'd subscribe there, if you haven't.

You Need A Plan (And You Need To Be Realistic)

You know how the advice in writing books is that random chance can always make things worse, but it can never make things better? Yeah, that's the mindset you need to go into when it comes to actually selling books. To that end you need to figure out what you can do, and what you can afford, to ensure that you are doing everything in your power to sell as many books as you can... and that you are never expecting to just "get lucky" so you can come out ahead.

Now, I live in poverty, and I'm an author. So, I do not have a budget to throw at anyone, nor do I have a team of people from any of my publishers who handle sales and marketing for me. So, I will tell you all what I do, because I feel it's a solid basis for those who are starting from nothing.

- Social media posting (I use FB, Reddit, MeWe, and Discord as my primaries, with a few extras thrown in from time to time)

- Blogging (I write about a lot of my books on here and my gaming blog Improved Initiative)

- YouTube (I contribute to Azukail Games and The A.L.I.C.E. Files, and have appeared on other channels as well)

- Bi-weekly newsletter (every 2 weeks I put out a newsletter with all my latest releases)

In addition to those regular marketing efforts, I've also taken my books to a dozen regional conventions, and appeared on several podcasts and YouTube channels for interviews. What I have not done is taken out website ads, or paid for a book tour... and not because those things can't work, but because I just don't have the money to gamble on them.

If you can't afford to lose it, don't risk it.

This is the central thing to remember when it comes to selling books... everything is a gamble. You never know what will work, because things that look like a waste of time might net you big gains, and options that looked like certain moneymakers might end up leaving you with a bunch of extra bills and a big, fat goose egg on your earnings.

As an example, I could make a post on Reddit today, telling people to go buy copies of my tabletop RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, and that post could just lead to a landslide of sales. Maybe it was a veterans' day celebration that I wasn't aware of. Maybe someone famous saw my post and thought the game was cool so they boosted the signal. Maybe I just so happened to start a flame war in the comments that kept my post relevant for days on-end, but whatever it was it got seen, and people bought copies. Or, alternatively, the post just vanished into oblivion, and no one saw it.

In the case of the former, a few minutes of work and zero up-front cost just netted me a big win. In the case of the latter, I didn't make any money, but I didn't lose anything except half a dozen minutes of time and effort, either.

The more a marketing endeavor costs you, the more pressure there is on it to succeed, and the more money you're going to lose if it doesn't. And you should always go in assuming that this isn't going to work, because if you start telling yourself that you're going to make bank, then you're going to start justifying expenses that you can't afford because it will be okay when you make all the sales that only exist in your head.

Don't pay a bunch of money to someone claiming they'll get you a lot of sales. Don't go into debt to attend a convention in the hopes that you can sell books. Don't blow a bunch of money on Amazon ads when you don't know how to build a campaign. And even if you are familiar with a convention crowd, an advertising platform, or anything else, you need to always have that voice in your head asking what happens if this flops... because sooner or later something is going to flop. And it's probably going to be sooner instead of later.

The advice I would close with is to start small, and build up. If your book is traditionally published, then contact your publisher and ask if they have any resources to help you market your book. Reach out to author communities online and start making connections. See if there are local events you could attend to a small fee, or no fee (I'd check your local library and farmer's markets). Reach out to your local newspapers and radio stations and send them a press briefing to see if they'll interview you about your book. Become active in any existing social groups you have, and stretch out to others as you can.

Marketing your book and making sales is not easy. It's grueling, often repetitive work, and it can feel like you're swinging a sledgehammer as you try to mine out a hidden vein of gold. You can't just throw money at the problem and fast-forward to being a bestselling author, though. Or, if you have that much money, you probably aren't concerned with your books paying your bills.

In the end, do the work, and approach selling your book with the same seriousness and purpose that you approached writing it in the first place. After all, you did the work to make it, now do the work to get people to read it.

Support The Literary Mercenary

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

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

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

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

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my 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.

Writers Can't Take Breaks (Because The Wheels Don't Stop)

I do a lot of complaining, both on my platforms, and on my socials. Because sometimes it's important to open the vents, and let some pressure out so the engine can keep working. However, time and time again I find myself getting well-meaning comments from folks out there about how I should take a break. Go on vacation. Just set everything down and breathe for a little bit. I need to stop working so hard, and all this stress can't be good for me.

And while the diagnosis about what I (and so many of my fellow creators) am dealing with is accurate, the suggested course of treatment is a death sentence. Because we need to rest, relax, and stop pumping every bit of energy we have into this struggle, yes... but the only way to do that is if something breaks out way, and we can be successful.

Because we live inside a machine that eats money, and if we can't feed it, it will kill us. I am not being hyperbolic here... that is literally the stakes most of us are playing for.

And the machine is hungrier with every passing day.

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!

No Days Off For Good Behavior

So, this is where I want to discuss the problem of how people in the audience don't usually understand how creators make money. This is a topic that needs to be understood by folks who wonder why it is authors, artists, YouTubers, etc. are working themselves to the point of burnout every day.

We don't do this because we like to. We do it because it's a necessity. We would love to stop, but like sharks, if we stop then we die.

Hey, have you heard about my Patreon?

I know a lot of folks are academically aware of this, but creative professionals generally don't make money the way other folks do. Because most people either earn an hourly wage, or they make a salary, meaning that you are compensated for the amount of time you work. Creators, though, don't have that. We get paid either based on the project (meaning that we get a check in-hand once the work is complete and we turn it in), or we get paid based on the amount of activity our work generates.

An example of the former was that when I accepted a writing assignment for the project Night Horrors: Primordial Peerage, I was paid 6 cents per word when I turned in my portion of the book. And it didn't matter if I wrote those assignments in 1 day, or 30 days, I was paid the same amount of money for it. And with projects like my article Henchmen And Goons, I earn money based on how many people actually read the article; if no one reads it, I don't make anything. And while I earn 30% of the sales for any of my 100 Kinfolk supplements, if no one actually buys them, I don't make any money off of them.

All of that is to say that when it comes to our earnings as creators, the amount of work we put in is often wildly disproportionate to the amount of money we make. Because we could put weeks, or months of work into a project, but if no one reads it, watches it, or buys it, then that was all shoveled into a hole to disappear forever with no return on that investment. And we might put only a few hours into something, but if it explodes for no reason that we can put our fingers on, it doesn't matter, because we still get paid.

I had that with my video essay The Problem With Pentex, which is still the most-watched thing on the Azukail Games YouTube channel.

And if you are lucky as a creator, and something you made goes viral, you can afford to take a few days off. If you get really lucky, you might even be able to lower your overall output, because when more people are watching your videos, buying your books, or reading your articles, you have a steady stream of money flowing into your bank account, which allows you to relax a bit.

But if you don't have that, then you're just spending entire days earning no money. That's stressful as hell, I can tell you from first-hand experience.

The thing to keep in mind here is that if you're a creator who already has a loyal fan base, or has popular material out there that pulls in regular sales, you're already not stressed. You're probably even saving a little money for a rainy day. The creators you see who are pulling 10+ hour days, and releasing content on a ridiculous scale and schedule, taking no time for themselves, and not leaving the house? The problem those creators have is that they aren't making enough money to cover their bills, and to buy them the security they need to take a break, or let their foot off the gas a little bit. We aren't addicted to working... we aren't being paid enough to stop.

And if you want them to be able to afford the rest that you acknowledge they need, then you (and all the other folks who want them to rest) are the only people who can make that happen.

Care And Feeding Of Your Creators

I've said this so many times that my soap box is starting to get serious wear and tear, but I'm going to say it again because there's folks out there who don't seem to have gotten the message yet. Authors (and other creators) don't make money because of how hard we work. We make money because of the amount of support our audience gives us. Period, flat out, that's the way the machine works.

It does no matter how much we write, or what kinds of projects we make... if no one buys our books, reads our articles, etc., then it's all for nothing. And it is people like you, the audience who actually make up the numbers we receive which determines our earnings at the end of the day.

So if you want that creator you love to be able to buy food, pay their bills, and rest, ask yourself what you're doing to make that happen... because your efforts are what matter!

And if you don't know what you can do to help a creator, well, consider all of the following steps.

If You Have Money To Spend

- Buy their books/merch

- Send them a tip on Ko-Fi

- Become a Patreon patron

If You Don't Have Money To Spend

- Subscribe to all their socials (bigger subscriber numbers make the algorithm support a creator)

- Comment on and share the posts they make (this also makes others likely to see them)

- Consume their free content (watch YT videos, read blogs, etc., with ad block off to get them paid)

It might not sound like a lot, but creators generally don't have huge needs. As long as they're making enough money to pay the rent, keep the power on, and maybe go out for tacos every now and again, they will keep making stuff... but it takes a dedicated group of at least 50-100 folks just helping boost their signal and regularly consuming their content to actually make the wheels turn.

And yes, that takes some effort on your part as a fan. You need to visit creator's pages, make sure you leave comments, upvote them, and help spread the signal... but we literally cannot do it on our own. We are basically trees, rooted to the spot. We're trying to make the tastiest-looking seeds possible, but we need you to act as the wind the scatters them, or the animals that consume them to spread them out far and wide.

Because unless you do, we're probably going to wither and die. Maybe literally (especially for those of us who have medical debt to pay off), or maybe figuratively... but if your favorite creator has to stop creating because they're forced to work a minimum wage job that leaves them no time to make videos, write books, or do anything else... what's the functional difference from where you're sitting?

Support The Literary Mercenary

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

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

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

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

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.

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

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

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

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

 

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

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more! And, of course, check me out on Blue Sky, since that's what we're talking about today!

The Difference Between Affiliates, Sponsors, and Crowdsourcing

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

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

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

 

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

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

Yep, It's All About Audience Participation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Support The Literary Mercenary

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

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

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

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

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.