Authors Could Write So Much More If We Weren't Always Promoting

One of the most common things people say when they look at my body of work is, "Wow... you write a lot of stuff!" And they're not wrong. I run two blogs, I have an archive on vocal.media that I'm regularly expanding, I write between 1 and 2 TTRPG supplements every month, I put out 1 video per week for the Azukail Games YouTube channel, I've got half a dozen novels to my name, and in between those things I write short stories that wind up on channels like Altered State Adventures or A Vox in The Void.

However, do you know what I spend the majority of my day doing so I can put a roof over my head, and keep food on my table? Promotion.

And I hate it. But this is the reality that so many people don't realize about being a writer... a majority of what you do in a day isn't actually writing.

It's the part of the job no one wants to talk about...

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!

Getting Back Up On The Soap Box

This topic has been on my mind recently because for some reason I was having trouble sharing anything of mine on Facebook for the past week. I could post just fine to my personal and author pages, but anything else the site was basically blocking me from sharing, claiming that I was posting too often. So I basically haven't been doing much on Facebook for a week or so... and I was doing nothing on at least a few of those days.

Now, on an average day, I'll post in between 30 and 50 Facebook groups. Sometimes it's more, and sometimes it's less, but that's an average spread. Not only that, but in addition to FB I need to make posts on Reddit, Blue Sky. Tumblr, and several other places... and this takes hours of my day. By having FB no longer something I could use, I freed up probably 1-2 hours... especially because the site requires you to stagger out your posts throughout the day.

And what did I lose in visibility? It's hard to say, but generally speaking FB isn't worth much to me. A few dozen blog reads here, maybe 15 views on a video there... I can't remember the last time I actually sold something based on a FB post.

And what did I do with the time I got back? Well, it allowed me to focus on other tasks that I could then clear off my desk. The total amount of time I spend using that site was probably the equivalent energy and time it takes me to write a blog post just like this.

So what if I spent an entire day just writing instead of posting on half a dozen social media sites to promote my work... what could I get done then?

Glad you asked. Because on days where the Internet has gone down and I can't post, I basically finish all of my usual writing tasks by lunchtime. At that point I'll often record some scripts to get ahead on my audio dramas, I'll start a short story I didn't otherwise have time for, or push ahead into the next RPG supplement that I didn't have the energy for with a day full of promotional posts.

Because it's not just the time that promoting your work takes. It also sucks up energy, focus, and creative juice that you then don't have to work on other things. Just like how going to a day job can suck out your desire to write, promoting the things all day can leave your battery empty, and your soul exhausted.

So Why The Hell Do I Do It?

I probably made promotion sound like a constant uphill grind with little to no chance of reward that leaves you feeling empty and exhausted, wondering why you even bother. Unfortunately, that's just how promotion works when you don't have a fat stack of cash to buy ads, or a slick PR team to handle the job for you.

However, I write things professionally... which means I have to at least try to reach my customers. And though my way is often barred by the capriciousness of search terms and shadow banning, and every social media platform is decaying at an accelerated rate, I have to do what I can to try to reach folks.

Because like I've said before, it does not matter how much stuff I write. I have over a hundred videos on YouTube, over 300 articles in my Vocal archive, nearly 200 TTRPG supplements available on DTRPG, half a dozen books for sale... but if no one reads them, watches, them, or buys them, I don't make any money.

Authors don't get paid for what we produce. We get paid for what we sell... period.

Let's say that I kept writing novels, TTRPG supplements, and making audio dramas for the rest of my life. If no one actually reads them, listens to them, or buys them, then I make no money. No ad revenue from online traffic, and no royalties from sales. Conversely, say that I stopped writing tomorrow, but for some reason my hardboiled cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats became a huge phenomenon. They sell tens of thousands of copies a year, and two seasons of a smash animated TV show are commissioned based on these books. If that happened, I could kick my feet up, cash my checks, and do whatever the hell I wanted.

That's why I (and so many other creators) have to spend so much time promoting, and why you see us making post after post about our work... because we don't have enough readers, subscribers, and supporters for us to not do that.

Trust me, we would love to not spend half our work day trying to tell everyone out there about the things we've made... but that's not an option.

Unless, of course, you help us spread the word! Because while I've said this before if I had 1,000 fans (or, hell, even 500 of them) who actively spread the word every time a new release of mine dropped, I could basically just make a post or two on my professional pages, or send out a newsletter, and just let my audience spread the word on my behalf.

So please... if you want the writers you follow to be able to create more and promote less, take a few moments to subscribe, comment, and share the things we make... it really is a massive help, and it weights the odds of finally making the algorithm work in our favor for once.

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)

- 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.

You Can't Make A Living Doing That? Says Who!?

There is a phrase that every artist, regardless of their art form, has heard at least once in their life. Likely more than once. It is a phrase that fills us with rage and exhaustion in equal parts.

"You know you can't make a living doing that."

If you're the kind of person who says this, let me assure you, you are the reason the artists in your life can't make a living. Yes, you, personally.

Because entertainment wouldn't be an industry if what you're saying is true.

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!

Art Is A Job. Period.

When the world shut down for Covid, where did everyone go? They went to play video games, watch movies and TV, check out YouTubers, listen to music, and a hundred other things. When you're on your way to work you've got a podcast going in your ear, or the radio on in your car. When you're off of work you're probably going to a concert, an art museum, the movies, the theater, or any of a dozen other things.

People consume art in a myriad of forms every, single day. But for some reason a majority of people seem to think that "starving artist" is not just a trope, but a universal truth that is the natural end of a creative profession.

What it is, though, is a thought-terminating cliche. You aren't meant to think beyond the statement, or to question the fact that it isn't goddamn true.

After all, aren't most highly paid celebrities artors, singers, and so on?

Think for just a moment and ask yourself how many people make a living as artists of one stripe or another. How many famous authors, well-known actors, and even jobbing professionals are out there making the things you love? Art exists everywhere and people are paid to make it every day. From special effects artists working on TV shows, to extras who make up the crowds in the background of a shot, to mid-list authors making up panels at conventions, to artists taking commissions on social media, creative professionals are goddamn everywhere!

So why is it that people say you can't make a living as an artist?

Well, part of that is that artists have (historically speaking) been extremely exploited. From the record industry giving singers and performers a pittance while keeping the lion's share of the profits (something that happened again with Spotify and streaming libraries), to movie studios literally deciding when, and to whom, their actors had to marry during the era of the silver screen, to modern companies like YouTube insisting you create a massive amount of content for free before they deign to share any of the money you make with you, creatives are forced to jump through hoops and take crumbs as their reward.

The other reason is because people believe this thought-terminating cliche. If there's no money in art, well then it makes sense that anyone who does it would be broke, doesn't it? That's just the way it is, and there's nothing you can do to change it.

Except you can. And if you want the artists you follow to keep making art, you should.

Support Is Where The Money Comes From

While some of us are lucky enough to have steady jobs in the field (working for publishers at a desk, on staff as art personnel, so on, and so forth), a lot of artists are independent. We work on commission, when we get work from clients, and the rest of the time we make a living off of our sales, our views/reads, and our community support.

So there is no big company or middleman to cut us a check... it's just us and the audience; you.

"This show made possible by viewers like you," isn't hyperbole.

Now, let me break down some numbers for you to show you what goes into supporting a creator, and how little it can cost you in terms of time, energy, and money. And to do this, I'm going to use an audience of 800 people, because that's roughly how many folks I have following my author page on Facebook.

800 is a tiny fraction of people, but it's a number I have. Or, more accurately, if all of those subscribers were active supporters, these are the things their efforts could accomplish:

#1: Give Directly

No, you don't have to tip every, single creator whose work you like and follow, but as they said in the commercials, "For less than the cost of a cup of coffee," you could help an artist in a real, meaningful way.

Because if 800 folks all went to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page, and pledged $1 a month (not even per release, just per month) that would utterly change my financial status. And that's not even a big audience, as creators go. There are people with thousands of supporters who give far more than that every month... but even something that small (relatively speaking) would transform my current financial situation. I could pay my bills, save, and actually start replacing some things I need to work on, but can't currently afford to.

#2: Buy Their Art

The biggest way that artists make money from their art is for the public to buy it. Whether it's you buying a painting from a gallery, getting art from a convention, or just picking up a copy of someone's latest novel, the artist gets a piece of that action, and it's how we pay our bills.

Say, for example, those 800 folks decided to buy a copy of one of my books. Whether it was my sci-fi dystopia thriller featuring my version of space marines Old Soldiers, a copy of my dagger and witchcraft fantasy novel Crier's Knife, or even the first book in my hardboiled cat series Marked Territory, that would be a rather large payday for me when my royalty check came due. Because at $2-$3 per copy sold, we're looking at a check between $1,600 and $2,400, depending on the sales.

Even if we went over to my tabletop RPG content, the numbers there would still be really good. Because I earn roughly $0.30 cents per copy for something like 100 Professions For A Sci-Fi Setting, whereas a copy of something like Towns of Sundara will net me around $0.60 per copy. So that would be somewhere between an extra $240 to $480 per month.

For the record, I have 5 fiction books, and going on 200 TTRPG supplements on the market right now. If those 800 folks bought 1 novel per month for 5 months, I'd shoot into a whole new tax bracket. And if they bought a single tabletop RPG supplement a month? Well, that would definitely make my life a lot more comfortable... and I come out with 1-2 new ones every month, so they'd probably never run out of content if they kept it going!

#3: Consume (And Share) Free Content (That Pays Them)

Most artists put out free stuff on the regular. However, there's a difference between really free stuff, and stuff that's free to you, but which still pays the creator. For an example of the difference, this blog is totally free. There's no ads on it, and it's supported entirely by my affiliate links for my books, and by my Patreon patrons. Whereas the articles over on my Vocal.media archive are free to read, but for every 1,000 reads, I earn $6 from the platform.

Now, as you've no doubt noticed, the math isn't mathing on this one. Because let's say those 800 dedicated readers all decided to check out the post If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month. Well, that's only going to be about $4 in my pocket, isn't it? Can't do a whole lot with that. However, what if those 800 people read 1 article out of my archive every day? At time of writing I've got 323 published pieces in that archive, and I add 2 more every month... so if 800 people read 1 article every day, it would add roughly $120 to my monthly earnings, and it would take them about 11 months to work through where my archive would be by the end of the year.

And if those 800 people shared one of those articles on their social media pages? That kind of signal boost on the regular would be a massive push for my content, even if everyone didn't share the same article at the same time. Even if they just shared 1 article a week, that's a huge amount of exposure for work that is free to consume.

The same is true of YouTube videos too, by the by. Because the Azukail Games YouTube channel is finally monetized, and if we got an extra 800 views per day on our content, that would be a big damn boost... and if those 800 folks also upvoted videos, left comments of 7+ words, subscribed to the channel and shared videos on their socials? Hoo boy, we'd be off to the damn races!

It Won't Happen Without You

If you didn't watch the above video, I urge you to do so. The central point I make in it, though, is for every 100 people who show up for something, only 10 people will participate, and roughly 1 person will support. So those 800 people I have subscribed to my FB author page? Those people who clicked the button and said they want to hear all about my updates? Well, if I'm lucky, about 80 of those people will actually see something I'm doing, and stay mildly involved. Only about 8 of those people will actually support my work in a meaningful way.

I won't lie, becoming an engaged part of someone's audience is a habit you have to get into. You have to subscribe, hit notifications, interact when you see stuff, and so on, and so forth. However, it matters when you do these things. It makes a difference, as I illustrated above. Because yeah, maybe that artist you like, or even just someone you know, isn't making a living doing what they do. But what is going to help them more? You condescendingly telling them no one makes a living doing that, or stepping up to try to support them either in little ways, or big ones?

Because if everyone who commented, "You can't make a living doing that," to me just gave me $1 for my trouble I'd be on the top earners list with Stephen goddamn King by now.

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)

- 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. 

"Passion" Is Not A Replacement For A Solid Business Plan

This week I wanted to address an accusation that I feel gets lobbed at creators a lot... particularly from people who don't want to think about the cold, hard reality that nothing gets made without a cost. As the song about rock stars goes, "Yeah, it's a fun job, but it's still a job."

Creators aren't pixies that run on fairy dust, happy thoughts, and upvotes. We're human beings, and because we're forced to live under late stage capitalism, we're human beings who have to pay rent and buy food. Which means that, at the end of the day, we either need to be so rich that our material comforts aren't a concern, or we need to make things that are going to generate enough cash that we can buy the necessary essentials so we can survive another day, and put our fingers back on the keyboard tomorrow.

Despite this obvious statement, there seem to be a lot of people out there who seem to be unaware of these very basic facts.

Here you go. Now give us another season of that show you were working on!

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 Current Project (Some Background)

For folks who aren't regular readers of this blog (or my sister blog Improved Initiative where I talk about tabletop RPGs) you may not have seen me talk about a brand new podcast project I'm trying to get off the ground. For those interested in an elevator pitch, it's essentially a modern fantasy John Wick involving a Big Bad Wolf type getting involved in a hunt for a fellow missing fae, and having to deal with strongarm goons, deadly supernatural threats, and at least one femme fatale to claw his way to the heart of this mystery.

If you'd like a more detailed run down of the project, you can check out Windy City Shadows, A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, as well as the AMA I recently did for the project over on the Azukail Games YouTube Channel.

Now, I told you that story to tell you this story.

The reason that I wrote blog entries about this podcast, and did an Ask Me Anything for it, was to try to test the direction the wind was blowing, and to see how much support I could expect from the public for it. Because much like writing a novel, writing, recording, editing, and releasing an entire season of an audio drama podcast is going to take between a year and a year and a half to complete. That's a lot of work, and if I'm going to put in those kind of hours between now and my 42nd birthday, I'd like to know that it's something people are actually interested in, and would like to listen to.

I'd also like it to make enough money to pay at least some of my bills... and apparently there are some corners of the Internet where this is considered heresy.

"Just Follow Your Passion" Is Not A Business Plan

There is something to be said for the satisfaction of a job well done. There is no denying that it feels good to put words on the page, to finish off an audio drama, etc. And I won't deny that most of us have our own pet projects we really want to bring to fruition... but most of us don't base our workload on what makes us personally happy and satisfied.

We do these things for money. Full stop.

It's a job. That's why we do it.

I've been a professional writer for over a decade now. For full clarity, that does not mean I am someone who has made side money as a writer; this has been my full time job since my late 20s. I've written novels and short stories, I've written for newspapers and magazines, I've written TTRPG supplements, blogs, online articles, audio dramas, and more. I've taken some jobs because they seemed like a lot of fun. I've taken other jobs because the check was fat, and rent was coming due. The job isn't always a fun time, but it needs to get done all the same.

I do not "follow my passion" and hope for the best. When I have an idea for a project, I hold it at arm's length, and evaluate it. I ask where I can get it published, who would be interested in it, how long it will take, how many other people I'm going to need onboard to bring it to fruition, and a dozen other questions. There are some projects that seem like an absolute slam dunk, and they get pushed to the front of the line. Others could go one way or another when it comes to crowd reception. And some... well, some appeal to me and maybe 12 other people.

This idea that authors, video creators, painters, game designers, and all these other creative professionals are just doing whatever we want like manic faerie dream folk is ridiculous. We are people who, by and large, take our work very seriously, and we expect to be paid for our efforts. The things we make might be whimsical or dark, silly or serious, but at the end of the day we are running a business.

You wouldn't tell someone to be a cashier for 8 hours a day in the hopes that maybe they got paid for it. You wouldn't suggest someone shovel snow, or fill in potholes, or cut grass hoping that someone tipped them for their efforts. And if someone came to you and said, "I want to open my own shop," or, "I'm thinking about starting a lawncare company," one of your first questions for them would probably be, "Cool... so what's your business plan?"

That's what we're doing. Because making the art is only half the process... the other part is actually selling it. That's the hard part of the job, and it's not something you can just wing and hope for the best.

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!

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.

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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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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!