There Are Fewer Soap Boxes Than Ever For Authors

About a year ago I wrote a post titled If A Tree Falls In A Forest (The Reason Authors Are Always Promoting Their Books) which was all about how authors' attempts at promotion can slip through the cracks, and about how so many folks will talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to authors trying to expand our audiences. And while all of that absolutely still stands, I wanted to talk about the fact that the changing landscape is making it more and more impossible for creators to reach an audience on our own.

There just aren't any soap boxes to stand on anymore.

Okay, so this was for AGGRESSIVE soap. My point still stands.

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!

Nothing Works Anymore

I've been a professional author for something like 15 years now. If there's been a marketing gimmick that didn't require a huge budget, I've tried it. I've been on almost every social media platform, I've made half a dozen different kinds of content, and I've used all of the "smart" solutions to getting your work seen. And all of those things would have worked fine about 12 years ago. However, in the age of the Internet we find ourselves in, everything is broken, and nothing fucking works.

The short answer is because corporations broke everything. The longer answer is a little more complicated, but not by much.

Because most of this was deliberate.

The first major issue that we're dealing with is platform decay, which I talked about in my post The Reason Social Media Sucks For Everyone These Days (Not Just Creators). The short version is that social media sites used to offer good functionality, and there was a lot of cross-discovery. Your friends would see what you post on FB, and if you made a popular post on Twitter it could generate millions of views with tens of thousands of fresh audience members. These days the websites have been deliberately hamstrung so that there's no discoverability, and so that people rarely see anything on their feeds at all. And if you try to share a link to something that goes off that platform? That's a good way to have your signal buried, because the sites want to keep people on them as long as possible, and they want to hide any off-ramps someone might come across. You won't even show up to your friends and followers, and they have to go looking for you.

For some of my own numbers, in the past I'd share to FB and on a slow day I'd still get 400-500 views on something, with 1,000 or more on a busy/popular posting day. Now I share to more groups, and I have more followers, but I'm lucky if I get 20 views total. That's not an organic failure; that's a hand choking off air. And those numbers are the same with most other smaller creators I know not just on FB, but on all social media platforms they use.

The second major issue is the spread of websites these days. Think of it like streaming services. Once upon a time you had Netflix, and that was it, so you paid a little money and you got to stream whatever you wanted. Then Hulu wanted a piece. Then Disney. And with every company that yanked their copyrights and put them behind a separate paywall, you ended up with more services that were more scattered, diluting the audience and effect. The same thing happened with social media. Because it used to be you had Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, and maybe Reddit. Now you add in Blue Sky, Instagram, Threads, and apps like TikTok, and you have more platforms, but it's harder to be heard by a sizable audience on any one of them... especially if you work primarily in text.

And that's before we talk about the tsunami of AI slop, and how it's shut down websites like Digg because they refused to amplify that signal, but couldn't find a way to stop it from spreading. So that's even more legitimate options taken off the table.

All of that is bad enough... but on top of all those things, you also have so many platforms that are segregating advertisements and promotional posts. To be clear, not banning them. Segregating them.

Yeah, make your posts here. Folks will absolutely see them!

For added clarity, I am all about deciding in your group's rules that promotional posts are not allowed. Whether you're on Discord, Facebook, Reddit, or any other platform, if you don't want promotion happening in your group, that's your decision. But having a weekly thread where everyone links their promotional posts? Or having a subgroup where all the promotion happens away from the actual main page where people interact with stuff? Come on. We all know that no one is looking into those areas, or reviewing what came out that week. It's not happening. It's the equivalent of giving your younger sibling an unplugged controller while you're trying to play a video game so they feel like they're participating... and this has generally become the norm across most of the remaining social media landscape these days.

So if you post on social media it's very likely that your signal will be throttled if you share a link that leads off-site. If you try to get clever and share it in the comments, you'll have folks screaming at you for promoting in their groups. If you try to run a newsletter you'll have literally 1% of the people who subscribed to it click anything you shared (saw that when recently reviewing numbers). Convention numbers are down, and even the people who do attend aren't actually buying anything, or paying attention to authors and creators they don't already know.

What the fuck are we supposed to do? Well, the same thing I've been saying this whole time, because there is only one thing that seems to work anymore, and it's the one thing we, as creators, have zero control over.

Word Of Mouth Is All We Have

I've said it before, but I feel that I need to keep saying it because people don't seem to grasp how truly dire the situation is for creators. Because we literally cannot do anything to make the broken machinery all around us work. There is no magical keyword we can use to hoodwink the algorithm to make sure we get more views. There is no organic interaction we can perform that will magically cause our posts to be seen. There is no other social media site out there that's just waiting to give us views, reads, listens, and sales. Our hands have literally been tied, and unless we have hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to budget for ads on platforms, we can't really do much with the systems as they exist.

All we have is you. Our audience. People who want us to actually be seen, be heard, and to keep making more stuff. Because without your shoulders pushing the wheel right alongside us, we aren't going anywhere.

You are the wellspring from which we flow.

If there's a creator you care about, whether its me or someone else, make sure you do the following for them:

- Follow/Subscribe to Their Socials - Algorithms give preference to those with the most bodies behind them.

- Interact With Their Posts - Whether it's sharing, liking, and commenting on Facebook, upvoting on Reddit, or liking and commenting on YouTube, that interaction pushes creator's content up in the algorithm rankings

- Leave Ratings and Reviews - Positive reviews on books, on podcasts, etc. add up, and help creators get seen more

- Tell Your Friends and Family - We can talk until we're blue in the face, but no one is going to care. If you have friends or family you think would like what we make, tell them because we can't.

And after you've done all that, it helps to buy books, leave tips, become a Patreon patron, and all that... but even if you just lend your voice to helping make that wheel turn, that's still doing something that authors are unable to do for themselves these days. So until we figure out some other solution, I hate to say it, but you all really are our only hope!

As A Final Call To Action

In order to help focus the energy of your readers, you're supposed to give a call to action by giving them something specific to do. Well, if you've read this far, and you really want to help me get the word out about something, then head over to the YouTube channel The A.L.I.C.E. Files, subscribe, and give our episodes a watch! It's a sci fi reimagining of Alice in Wonderland with a couple of odd little twists and turns that I think most people who enjoy my stories will get a kick out of!

Most importantly, we need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watched hours before YouTube lets us actually keep ad revenue... so please, help us get there!

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.

If A Tree Falls In A Forest (The Reason Authors Are Always Promoting Their Books)

We've all heard the question, "If a tree falls in a forest, and there's no one around to see it or hear it, did it actually fall?" Now, from a raw physics perspective, of course we know it fell. You just told us it did. Even if there aren't human beings nearby to perceive the tree falling, that doesn't change the fact that it fell. Philosophically, though, the question is asking us whether something that happens with no one there to perceive it truly occurred. Or, taken another way, does it matter if the thing happened if no one ever knows about it?

This is what creators are dealing with, and it's important for folks to understand this. Because we can write all the novels, make all the videos, record all the audiodramas, and so on that we want... but if no one sees them or hears them, we may as well have done nothing at all.

So... are you watching? Are you listening?

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!

NIMFYP (Not In My "For You Page")

Academically I think we all know why authors are constantly trying to promote our work. Simply put, if we don't do it then no one else is going to do it for us. Because if we had a PR team willing to do all the marketing on our behalf? Hoo boy, I can promise you there wouldn't be a peep from probably 90% of authors out there.

We want to write books (or short stories, or make audio dramas, etc.). We don't want to be making promo posts any more than you all want to be seeeing them.

However, we need to do those things, because if we don't then you're never going to find out about our books. Whether it's making posts on social media, writing blog entries about our process, or even making mini commercials or audio teasers for the books that show up on YouTube, we have to do everything we can to try to get eyes on our work, and to get people talking about it.

But as Alice The Author pointed out recently on her channel in A Plea To Bookstagrammers, people just keep barking at us to shut up... even if they actually like the things we make, and especially if they tell us they "respect our hustle" but are sick of hearing from us.

This is, in my opinion, the digital equivalent of the old NIMBY problem... Not In My Back Yard.

NIMBY is the disconnect between someone saying they want something to exist, but not wanting that thing to exist anywhere near them. They want low-cost housing for poor and disenfranchised people, but they want it somewhere else so they don't have to look at it. They want prisons to keep dangerous people locked up, but they wouldn't want one anywhere near their town. They want expanded highway systems, or job training centers, or data hubs, or whatever else it is they believe is going to be a social good... but they don't want it in their back yard where they'd have to look at it, and where it might affect them, personally.

This is how someone can say, "Authors work hard, and we should support them so they can keep writing books!" and, "I'm just so sick of nothing but promotional and marketing posts from creators!" in the same breath. Because they mean both things sincerely... but the disconnect is they want other people to support those authors. They want other people to see those promotional posts, and to give their money to these writers. They just want to float in an online space where they don't have to see yet more ads trying to get them to buy this, read that, watch this, and so on, and so forth.

And you know what? That's a fair desire. Seriously, it is. The Internet is so jammed full of advertising (both obvious and concealed), that it's easy to feel fatigued when you scroll through a group or your For You Page, and you just see more and more of the same.

However, if you are someone who wants authors to survive (whether it's authors in general, or just a handful whose work you actually like), put your money where your mouth is, or stop saying that you support us in theory, as long as you don't have to actually do anything.

Put another way, we need your praxis, not your theory.

Thoughts And Prayers Don't Do Squat (Take Direct Action)

A disclaimer for this section. If you are already actively supporting creators in the ways you are able to, whether that's buying books, writing reviews, following them on social media, sharing their posts, watching their videos, listening to their podcasts, or whatever else, you can sit down.

This message is for all the people in the back who didn't hear me the last time I put this out there. And there are a lot of people who don't like hearing this, but you need to internalize this if you're going to actually help creators at all. Are you listening? Good, because this is important.

If you are not taking specific actions to help creators, you are doing nothing. If you are proclaiming that you support them as creators, but then actively attempt to avoid doing anything helpful, you might actually be doing less than nothing.

And no matter how many people you think are helping, it's probably about 10% of that number, as I pointed out in Your Audience Support Is Like A Reverse Iceberg.

Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that you have to do everything in your power to support every creator out there simply because they are a creator. What I am saying is that you need to be aware of how your actions do (or in many cases don't) help the authors you care about, and whose work you want to see more of.

For example, are you buying merch from creators, or giving them money directly so they can keep making stuff? Are you following them on social media, interacting with their posts, and actually reading the articles or listening to the podcasts and videos they make? Are you sharing their stuff on your own social media channels, or spreading the word in groups you're part of because you want to help boost the signal? Are you leaving ratings and reviews?

Or are you just sitting back and wishing them success?

Because while I don't wish to malign anyone's spiritual practices, I believe the most important attitude you could adopt is to be the change you want to see in a creator's world. Don't wait for a random fan to come along and discover their work... be the fan who tells your friends and family about the stuff they make. Be the person who leaves the comments on a creator's video that gases them up, and tells them how much you like what they're doing. Be that person who shares their work in another group so when they find their own creations out in the wild it makes their heart swell.

Don't just sit around waiting for someone else to help... be the first one to offer your hand. Because if enough people pull together, you can suck someone out of the clutches of the algorithm, and raise them up so they can finally take a deep breath, and throw themselves into their work with gusto!

If we all did that for the creators whose work we love, it would be a lot easier for them to survive, thrive, and in the end give us more of the art we want!

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.

Don't Wait Until A Series Is Done To Check Out The Books

There is a common attitude among readers (and particularly readers of sci fi and fantasy) that if an author is writing a series that they aren't going to get into it until that series is over and done. They want to be sure that the author isn't going to die halfway through, or that the series isn't going to peter out before they get invested in it. And while that is a fair point, I want to address something that's extremely harmful about this attitude toward these specific projects, as well as the profession in general.

Because if the author can't eat because no one is buying the series, then they aren't going to be able to continue said series, and all the misgivings end up becoming self-fulfilling prophecies.

Something to keep in mind.

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!

Authors Can't Do What We Do Without Audience Support

On the one hand, I very much see where readers come from on this issue. Because if you're the sort of person who likes to read series, then you like to really get invested in the story. So if there's only one or two books out, you might not feel like you're really on solid ground just yet. Even if the early entries are good, you don't want to jump in with both feet and get really into this world and these characters only for an author to leave the series on a cliffhanger, or for a publisher to decide future installments aren't worth publishing.

And this could happen all on its own. However, lack of participation practically guarantees the series will die before it really gets a chance to live.

For those who were curious.

This is the way the process goes. An author decides they want to write a series. They finish the first novel. That novel is published, either traditionally or through a self-publishing platform of some variety. The author is, essentially, giving the audience a sample of the story. They're saying, "This is the story I want to tell. If it's a story you all want to see more of, then I have more to tell you!"

Under ideal circumstances, this first book will get the audience's attention, and enough people will buy copies that the publisher considers it a success, and greenlights the next book in the series. The author will then get to work on the next book, using the earnings from the first one to help pay bills and stay afloat long enough to tell more of the story. This process then rinses and repeats until one of two things happens; the author runs out of story, or the sales peter off to the point that the publisher no longer considers it a valid investment.

The problem with folks who are, "Waiting until it's done to get into it," is that you're actively denying a series and its creator the oxygen they need to actually finish the project in the first place.

As a good example, consider my Hardboiled Cat series linked in the pics above. I've got a dozen more stories I'd love to tell about Leo and the other street beasts of his setting, as well as a whole spinoff series about the kitten Trouble when he grows up to become a streetwise stray in his own right. However, I'm not writing those right now because I literally cannot afford to. I sell a few copies online every quarter, and move a couple more at conventions, but overall these novels can take as much as a year of effort to write, and they just don't move the numbers for me to justify adding to this series, even though I'm very certain my publisher would happily take more books about the rough, brutal lives of this hard-nosed Maine Coon heavy.

However, if these books suddenly moved a couple hundred copies each? Or a couple thousand because someone on BookTok gave me a shoutout, or an influential furry told their fans how much they loved my novels? I would have a fresh notebook out and the plot of book three figured out down to the chapter by end-of-day tomorrow.

Authors Need Support Or We (And Our Projects) Die

I've said it dozens of times before, but audience engagement is literally what decides whether creators live or die, and whether our projects succeed or fail. It's not just novels, either. Everything from YouTube videos, to podcasts, to comic books depends on the audience turning up for installment after installment, giving us your eyes, your ears, and your approval. Whether that comes in the form of purchases, watch/listen hours, or straight up Patreon donations, your engagement directly translates into the money that we use to pay our bills, and keep telling our stories.

And if you don't provide that support until we reach the end... well, that makes it that much more likely we won't be able to afford to reach the end.

Now, that's not to say that you must support every creator out there who is writing a series, or that you owe anyone your purchasing power, your reviews, your engagement, etc. However, if a series has caught your interest, whether it's on Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, or it's good, old-fashioned print books, don't sit on it and wait. Authors and publishers alike judge whether a creative endeavor is worth pursuing further based on the reaction of the public, and the money it's making. So if something looks interesting, but there's only a few installments out, go check them out and see if you like it! If you don't, well, now you don't have to worry about it anymore. But if you do like it, and you do want it to keep going so you can see how things turn out, now you know this is worth putting in your efforts.

Yes, you might end up with a George R.R. Martin scenario where you're waiting for years on end for him to finish the damn series. But you know something? At least you know Martin didn't give up on writing it because it wasn't making money, and since no one seemed interested he moved on to another project, or had to go back to a job doing something else to keep the lights on.

Speaking of Series and Support...

While I'm on the subject of series and audience support, there's a project I proposed about a year ago that I've been trying to get off the ground. It's a dark modern fantasy audio drama series set in the Chronicles of Darkness that I've tentatively titled Windy City Shadows, the first season of which can best be described as fairy tale John Wick set in modern day Chicago.

If that sounds like something you'd be keen to check out, then you can get the details in Windy City Shadows: A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, or watch the video I made on the subject a while back!

The short version is that, while the show would be a podcast available on a variety of platforms, one of those platforms will be on the Azukail Games YouTube channel... and before we start in on it, we need to get that channel monetized! So if you want to see this idea come to fruition, help us reach that first goal by subscribing to the channel, as well as watching and sharing our videos so we can get the final 500 and change hours we need for YouTube to agree to share ad revenue with us!

Because once we cross that goal, that's when I can start revving the engine on this bigger, more involved project... and I'd love it if all of you out there could join me!

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!

"Write What You Want" is Often Terrible Advice

There are a lot of misconceptions about what it's like being an author. From how much money we really make, to the hours we work, to just how much of the job is promotion to how much is actually writing, those are all things that can be corrected (if people listen to those of us who actually do this for a living). However, there is a piece of advice I keep seeing that I'd like to address today. Because it is both unhelpful, and it can actually be harmful to both your career and your mindset if you embrace it too hard.

The idea is, in short, that when you sit down at your desk to start up a new project that you should just do whatever your little heart desires! No matter the genre, no matter the length, no matter the style, you are the master of this ship, and it will sail wherever you want it to go!

Just grab an idea! I'm sure they're all good ones.

Before we get too far into this week's topic, remember that if you sign up for my weekly newsletter you'll get all my updates, releases, and news sent right to your email! And if you want to help me keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron... even a small donation makes a big difference.

Why This Advice is Misguided

To be clear, there are two circumstances where this advice is relatively harmless. The first is if you are here primarily for the experience of writing, and if your only real goals are to finish a project and enjoy the ride. The folks who just want a book out there who wouldn't say no to a juicy royalty check, but for whom that is a bonus, not the goal. The second is if you are an author who already has a dedicated fan base that will read anything you put out, so you can basically guarantee there's going to be a certain amount of support for your book no matter what it is, or where it goes.

For the rest of us, though, this phrase plants an idea that I've found can be toxic; it's the idea that you are always right, and it's your readers who need to get on your level.

The crowd decides... not you.

The advice Maximus was given in Gladiator is perhaps the best advice you can take to heart as an author. It isn't your skill with a blade that matters. It's not how fast you can complete the task. It's the show you put on, and whether you can win the crowd to your side.

Now apply that to your books.

Because you might be a proficient author with a flair for drama... but if you don't turn that skill toward telling a story people actually want to read, then nobody's going to buy your book. And to add insult to injury, someone who may lack your technical skill as a writer will probably have more success than you have if they are better at pandering to the mob.

Because at the end of the day, once you cut through all the faff and chaff, that's what your job is. Entertaining the masses, plain and simple.

So I'm Supposed To Hate What I'm Writing?

To get out ahead of the bold, italic text here, there's a big difference between working on projects you don't enjoy, and tempering your enthusiasm with an understanding of where the market is going, what drives reader interest, and how much energy it's going to take to turn what you're working on into a reliable seller.

As an example.

To be clear, I had a lot of fun working on Marked Territory... but it was not my first pick for my next project when I sat down to sketch it out. At the time I was considering working on a sequel for my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or perhaps writing a modern-fantasy story where a recently-reanimated Chicago detective has to solve the mystery of his own murder (while simultaneously allowing the readers to explore the bizarre underbelly of the world of the undead).

But then I brought copies of From A Cat's View to Windy Con, and that basically decided me.

For those not familiar with the novel, Leo is my heavy with a heart of gold who ends up getting his whiskers involved in other people's problems in New York City. But I debuted him in a short story titled Stray Cat Strut in the anthology of cat stories. I brought 10 copies or so to the con just because it was the newest book that I had, and within a day they'd all been sold. I didn't even have a table at the con, but they were out of my hands faster than I could say, "Film noir cats."

That's what I'm talking about in this case. My sample size was pretty small, but I asked around in writing groups, various social media groups I was in, and tried to read the room. The amount of interest people showed not just in the short story, but also in hearing more about Leo, his adventures, and the weird world he inhabited, meant that the smart money for me was to focus my energy on writing stories about him. Lo and behold it was that rather unique genre mash-up that got me noticed by a publisher, and at time of writing I've completed a second tale (pun very much intended) following our bruiser through the mean streets of NYC.

So while I still have other ideas and projects trying to catch my eye, it's important to hold your ideas at arm's length, and examine them critically. Don't just ask what would be fun to work on; ask which of them is going to get you the results you want. Because it's a lot easier to work on passion projects once you have an audience listening, and enough earnings rolling in that the next book doesn't have to make a massive splash in order to help you keep your lights on.

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!