Time Isn't On Your Side As A Writer

There are a lot of writers out there who take comfort in stories of late blooming authors. Tales of how someone didn't start releasing books until well into their forties, fifties, or sixties, finally standing up to tell their stories long past when other people would have given up and moved on. And I agree, there is something heartening about a story whose message is, "It's never too late."

This applies to more than just writers, of course.

With that said, I would like to grab all of you who are hanging onto that feel-good message, and give you a thorough shaking. Because it might be true that it's never too late to succeed, but it is definitely never too early to get started!

Are You Ready For The Marathon?

I've said it before, but it bears repeating; a writer's career is an iceberg. The part we all see (and the part those success stories I mentioned earlier focus on) is the actual release. The book, the collection, the work making it into the light of day, and being consumed by the masses. What we don't see is all the effort that went into making that project a reality.

That bottom part is what we're talking about, in case you were wondering.

That huge, pendulous foundation? That is the amount of work you put in behind the scenes. That's all the reading you do to brush up on technique, and to get genre savvy. That's all the sessions of taking notes, fleshing out ideas, and talking with your friends, loved ones, and occasionally rubber ducks about your stories. Most importantly, though, it represents the amount of time you spend actually writing, reviewing, editing, and publishing your work.

Because that's a thing that a lot of folks seem to forget... writing takes a long time. And good writing takes even longer, as a rule.

First off, let's talk about getting the idea ready. For some lucky few of us, stories come in a flash of inspiration, all gift-wrapped and ready to go. For the rest of us, though, we have to sit on the idea, and sculpt out the basics. Figure out who the main cast is, what is supposed to be happening, what world we're writing in, stuff like that. In my experience, and factoring in other writers I've talked to, this can take anywhere from a few hours, to a few days, to a few months. Some writers spend years on this stage, though I wouldn't recommend that.

So, let's say you're lucky, and it didn't take you more than a few days to nail down all your specifics. Cool. Now it's time to hammer out that first draft. If you're a Robert Louis Stevenson, or a Stephen King, you can bang that puppy out in a month or two. However, most of us don't get anywhere near 10,000 words per day. And given that most novels these days tend to trend more to 100,000 words than 50,000 words, you need to ask how long it's going to take you to reach that goal. Especially if you aren't writing every day, or you run into road blocks that require you to go back and change parts of your story in order to keep things cohesive.

For me, this process typically takes about a year or so. Lots of writers I know can do it in half that time, but I don't know too many folks who can claim less than a season for a first draft. And, typically, folks who can pound out a rough draft in such a short amount of time already have a lot of experience as authors, which isn't factoring into this equation.

Let's say you're really good, you write every day, and things go smoothly. So it's been about 7-9 months since you first decided to write this novel. Solid length of time for giving birth to a project. But wait, you're not done. Not even close! Because now you have to go through and edit that book you just wrote to make sure all those pesky mistakes, plot contradictions, and other errors are handled. Depending on your skill, experience, and how straightforward things went during the rough draft, this step can take anywhere from a few weeks, to most of a year.

Oh but wait, you're not done yet!

Once you've gotten that book as good as you think it can be, you then need to turn it over to your beta readers. Because no matter how good you think you are, you need fresh eyes on it to detect any problems you aren't seeing. Because what seems clear as day to you might confuse your readers, and they will notice when you spell a character's name differently in chapter 3, or when you give conflicting explanations about an event.

Depending on your beta readers, this review can take as little as a week, or as much as a few months. So let's say they're attentive, and get the changes back to you within a month. Then you need to make changes based on their feedback, which can take even more time.

At this point, we're looking at about 10 months to a year and change of effort, just to get one book to the point where it's ready for submission. If you want to put it up for sale yourself, that means you need to convert the file, make sure it follows all the guidelines for where you're publishing it, acquire the cover art, and generally handle all those loose ends. If you're fairly tech savvy, and you can handle all the blocking, conversion, and getting an attractive book cover put together. This could take a few hours on the weekend. If you're buying art, aren't all that familiar with the formatting requirements, etc., you can tack on more time. So, in general, getting your book ready to go up will take between a day and a week, depending on a bunch of different factors.

If you don't want to go the self-publishing route, though, you've got a long wait on your hands. Submissions to publishers often take months to get looked at, and bigger publishers can have you waiting years on a yes or no as they skim through all the other hopeful novelists out there. And a lot of publishers don't accept simultaneous submissions, so you have to get a yes or no before pitching your book to someone different. Also, even if your book does get accepted, it can take several months to several years before it gets released.

So, to recap. From inception to release, if everything goes smooth, you work hard, and you don't run into too many issues, you're looking at between 6 months if you're really good, and a year or so if you experience set backs for a self-published book. For a traditionally published book, you're looking at a year to several years, assuming your work doesn't get caught in the grinder just before it slows to a halt.

What Was The Point Of All That?

So why did I walk you through all of that? Especially since every writer is different, and average times are just a shot in the dark? Mostly, it was to point out all the time, energy, and raw effort it takes to get a project from being an electrical impulse in your brain, to being a fully-rendered story people can buy and read. Because it doesn't just happen overnight, and if you take comfort in the "some day" approach, then you might be overlooking how much work you have to do just to get to the point where you can see if this book was a winner or not.

Because more than anything else, writing takes time. And while you're never too old to tell stories, there isn't really any time to waste if you want to actually do this thing. If you want to be ready for that marathon in two years, you need to get off the couch and start your training today! Same goes for being a successful author. Pre-season started yesterday... so what are you going to do?

Also, for those who were interested in this post, you might also enjoy Making A Living As A Writer Is A Waiting Game and Don't Wait Until You're "Good Enough" To Get Paid.

That's all for this installment of Craft of Writing. Hopefully it did something to stoke your pilot light, if you were still in that "one day" frame of mind. For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and to stay on top of all my updates follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you'd like to support me and my work, you can Buy Me A Ko-Fi, or drop a few quarters into The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. Either way, my eternal thanks and some free books are yours for the asking.

5 Warning Signs You're Dealing With A Vanity Publisher

I first decided I was going to become an author around the age of 13 or 14. I took classes in high school, won a few contests (and did a lot of extra credit), and when I turned 18 I decided to submit a book of poetry to a publisher. I wasn't expecting much, because despite the colossal size of my ego, I was well aware that I'd only been honing my skills for a few years. However, my book was accepted. Not only was it accepted, but it was praised.

That's where I should have gotten suspicious.

I was young and stupid. Learn from my mistake.

I, like many starting authors, fell victim to a vanity publisher. And today I'd like to show you a few warning signs that should send up red flags.

#1: The Name

I fell victim to Publish America. If I had not been 18 and convinced of my own genius, I would have taken one look at that name and laughed out loud. While not every vanity publisher has a name that screams, "I'm here to bilk you out of your money," a lot of them still do. And with all the publishing tools we have available today, they can pop up like dandelions.

Before you even consider talking with a publisher, run a search on their name. Find out how long they've been around, and what other authors have to say about them. Check to see who they've published, and if they're names you know and respect. See if you can find anyone who's been rejected by them, and keep an eye out for fluff pieces written to bolster their image.

#2: Thick, But Impersonal, Praise

One of the big things that suckered me in, and which is a baited hook to a lot of newer authors, was the praise. Even if you believe your writing is good, the idea that someone in the industry agrees with you can shoot you into the stratosphere if you haven't built up the proper amount of cynicism. Before you get too satisfied with yourself, though, it's important to take a good look at the acceptance letter. Does it mention any specifics about your book? Does it give the sender's personal opinion? Sometimes an editor will, indeed, offer praise. When that happens, it will never be generic.

#3: Asking You For Money

I covered this one in Questions Beginning Writers Ask (That Experienced Writers Are Tired of Hearing), but it bears repeating. Authors do not pay to be published. Period. End of story.

The publisher pays you, not the other way around.

Now, it should be mentioned that if you want copies of your book to sell at shows or fairs, you still have to buy those. A publisher will typically sell them to you at, or near, cost. However, real publishers don't pitch you the opportunity to be in a "special, collector's edition" volume, or try to get you to pay for an upgrade to your book.

This applies to marketing your book, as well. If you get published, your publisher will want to sell as many copies of your book as possible. That means they're going to give you an attractive layout, a noticeable cover, and they're going to promote your book. While smaller presses will have a shorter reach than bigger ones, every company is going to have a marketing plan that they'll discuss with their authors. If at any point in time they lay out a marketing plan, and then tell you that you'll have to cover these "expenses," you should run the other way.

The publisher is the company investing in you. They are the ones making the lion's share of the profits. If they want you to foot the bill, but are still taking the bulk of the earnings, that is a scam in progress, my friends.

#4: The Publisher Dodges Your Questions

Publishers and their authors need to be on the same team. If a publisher doesn't give you specific answers to your questions, especially for basic things like what percentage you get, how long the editorial process should take, and where your book will be available for purchase (and in what formats), that should put up some serious red flags. Those are things every publisher knows, and they should be in your contract. If they aren't, then you are looking at a shoddy publisher at worst, and a scam at best.

#5: The Publisher Takes Your Rights

Most publishers ask for first-time rights from their authors. They want to be the first ones to publish your book, both physically and digitally. A contract will specify when rights return to the author, and it will typically avoid acquiring things like audio rights, film rights, and other rights considered more minor.

Vanity presses, on the other hand, will usually try to keep your publishing rights indefinitely. That way not only did you fall into their trap, but if your book is actually good, then you can't wait for your contract to run out, and then take it elsewhere. They keep the rights for years, and in some cases they may have the rights permanently if you don't read the fine print.

Always read the fine print.

If there's anything in your contract you don't understand, ask about it. If you don't get a clear answer, walk away, and walk away quickly. A publisher should be transparent with you when it comes to the terms of any legal agreement, and if they're trying to hide something, it is not in your best interests.

Well, those are the five warning signs that come to my mind, though I'm sure there are others. Hopefully this week's Business of Writing post saves a few folks from the pitfalls of vanity publishing. If you'd like to help support me and my blog, then stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to leave a little bread in my jar. Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter yet, then why not start now?

Recycling is Key When it Comes to Being a Successful Author

The worst thing in the world to an author is a rejection letter. While they typically come digitally these days, there's nothing worse than feeling excitement curdle on your tongue when you recognize the opening lines. However, as the old saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens. If you find yourself with a lot of stories just sitting around, remember that just because your first option said no, that doesn't mean someone else won't say yes.

So, while you're doing the hard work of producing new stuff, don't forget that it's perfectly all right to recycle the old stuff while you're at it.

There's some good stuff in here... somewhere.

Rising From The Ashes

The most obvious form of fiction recycling is when you take a rejected story of yours, and submit it to a new publisher. For example, I originally wrote my short story "The Slog" for an anthology that wanted unique stories of people's personal journey through their own, unconscious minds as they died. It didn't get picked up there, but when I took the exact same story, text unchanged, and sent it to Cohesion Press, it would up in SNAFU: Survival of The Fittest.

Seriously, you should check it out. My story is in great company.

That's what most people think of when they think of recycling. One publisher turns down your book or story, so you submit it to another who's looking for the same genre, length, themes, etc. It might take half-a-dozen tries, but sooner or later you'll find someone who is picking up what you're laying down. You might have to wiggle your word count a little, or change a few scenes, but minor editorial tweaks are a lot easier than writing a whole new story from scratch.

Of course, this isn't the only way to recycle your stories, if you're looking to fatten your publications page, and your wallet.

Re-Printing and Self-Publishing

When you sign a contract, most of the time you're signing away first worldwide rights, and often times first digital rights. If you read your contract thoroughly, though, you may find that many publication rights revert to you after a certain period of time goes by. For example, say you wrote a short story for an anthology a few years ago. You may be able to sell it again, provided you let the new publisher know up-front that this is a re-print.

You get spit on by surprisingly few editors, actually.

Selling a re-print is no easy task, since it's already been exposed to an audience. However, if you have a solid story, you can pick up some extra mileage and visibility. Even better, you can collect some more cash for your efforts.

It's also important to remember that, just because you can't find an established publisher, that doesn't stop you from self-publishing your work once you have the rights back. Simply read your contract carefully, and contact the former publisher to make sure you're all on the same page. Then all you have to do is choose which service you're going to use, and produce your own, finished version of the project.

This is particularly useful for those who work primarily in short fiction, since ebooks give you access to an audience you never had before. A low price and an interesting cover can get you a long way, and might be what you need to jump-start your sales.

You Can Recycle Almost Anything

It's important to remember that you can recycle more than just fiction. Do you have a blog entry you wrote for another website that was insightful, funny, and popular? Well, with their permission, you can republish it on your own blog. Often all you have to do is provide a link to the original. Did you write an article for a periodical or a newspaper? Well, if you want to double your money, you could publish it again on a site like Infobarrel. As long as there is no version of it currently in circulation (like, say, archived on a newspaper's server), then you can put all your old sweat back to work.

Is it a guaranteed way to increase your earnings? No, there are no guarantees in the life of the author. With that said, why get paid once when you can get paid again and again?

Hopefully everyone enjoyed this week's Business of Writing post. If you'd like to help keep this blog going, then why not stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron? As little as $1 a month gets you some free swag, and helps me keep making the content you love. Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter yet, well, now is as good a time as any.

Will Self Publishing Work For You? Maybe... If You're Lucky

You can't turn on the TV news or check your social media feed without hearing about one more self publishing success story. Whether it's an author making bank putting out monster porn on Amazon, or a married couple saving their house with their steamy romance novels, it seems like self publishing really is shoulder-checking the big publishing houses out of the way and rendering them irrelevant. Soon publishing will be available to everyone, and sales will be based purely on the merit of the writer's skill!

Keep dreaming Skippy.

Sadly the world in which self publishing is the Rocky Balboa to Random House's Apollo Creed is just a fantasy. Does that mean you can't self publish and become successful? Of course not, because (in case you didn't notice) it seems there's a new joker every week that hits the publishing lottery and makes between $25k and $100k a year in book sales.

That isn't the norm though, and if you're going to get into self publishing there's some things you should know beforehand.

You Have To Do Everything (And I Do Mean Everything)

It should be evident just looking at the term self publishing that you're going to be responsible for every aspect of the process. Lots of authors think they understand what that means, but until you've gone through it you really don't.

Pictured: Everything

I'm not just talking out of my ass here, either. When I was having some trouble getting my stories placed I decided to take three of the better ones in my stable and publish them myself through the Smashwords platform (you can find my Smashwords author profile right here if you're curious). It looks easy; it isn't.

You know going into the process that it's your job to write the story. You have to handle the rear cover blurb, and you have to take care of the cover art (that gets complicated since you're limited to public domain images and royalty-free stock photos, unless you're a talented artist yourself). You know that you have to edit the book, and that it's your job to find beta readers. But you also have to format the book, you have to put it up on the platform, and you have to make sure the page displaying it is accurate and attractive.

There's more though because you're not just the author and publisher. You're also the publicist, which means you need to find ways to promote your book so you can get eyes on it. You have to come up with marketing plans, you have to keep your clicks up on social media, and you have to answer any questions or comments that fans and readers come up with. This is actually what leads into the second thing you should know...

No One Takes You Seriously

Because it's your job to promote yourself and your book you're going to want to talk to media outlets to try and get coverage. You're going to want an author page on LinkedIn and Facebook, and you're going to want an author website and a blog. Once you've set up shop you might set out into the big bad world to tell them about how great your book is. Maybe you go down to the local TV and radio station to see if they need guests. Or you call up your local newspaper and inform them you're an author who just released a new book. No matter what you do to though, chances are you're going to get the door slammed in your face hard enough to break your nose.

This is what you have to do in order to get an interview. From a college paper.

Something not a lot of writers know is there is a marked prejudice against self published authors (and to a lesser degree against those published by small presses). The general consensus is that self-publishing is a field with a few rebel geniuses in it, and a sea of talentless hacks who couldn't get their books past the gatekeepers at real publishers. This isn't an accurate view by any means, but if you regurgitate something often enough it becomes the governing view. As such the news media by and large does not care about your book unless it meets the following criteria:

- Is it a novel?

- Is it a physical book (mainstream media seems to hate ebooks)?

- Can you walk into a store and buy it?

- Are you generating a lot of attention with your book?

This is the catch-22 of being an author. Short of being struck by Internet lightning you aren't going to get famous without a lot of exposure and buzz about your book. One of the main ways to do that is to get coverage from media sources. Mainstream sources, of course, don't want to hear it unless you're already selling books.

Speaking of selling books...

Selling Books Is Damn Near Impossible

The public loves to read, and there are niches for all kinds of tastes and desires out there. Your problem is convincing readers to give your book a try, and most authors really have no idea how hard that actually is.

For example, have you read the samples for anything linked in this blog yet?

People read books based on a lot of factors. One is how popular the book is, the logic being that a hundred thousand people think it's great so maybe I should check it out. Another is a recommendation from a person they trust, like a good friend or a critic whose views they find insightful. Some people might read a book because its cover art is intriguing (and that kind of art takes talent and cash to make), or because it's free.

If all you had to do was write a book, post about it on your Facebook page and kick up your heels, everyone would do this.

As a self published author you have to build an audience, overcome prejudice, and get your book in front of new readers all without the support of mainstream media, or the staff and influence that comes with a traditional publisher. Even if you run a successful social media campaign, acquire some followers, get noticed, and manage to move up the ranks though, there's something else you should be aware of...

It Really Is Like Winning The Lottery

Becoming one of those people you see on the news is possible. Someone has to become the new sensation after all, so it might as well be you, right? After all you've honed your craft, created a compelling story, and you've come up with a unique way to market it to both niche readers as well as those outside of a given genre. You're a shoe in!

Know something? That's what the other several hundred thousand other self published authors are thinking.

Hate to disappoint everyone else, but that's my bulls-eye.

In the year 2012 there were over 391,000 self published books on the market. That's not counting the traditionally published books from all the other companies big and small, which you're still fighting over for attention like the smallest puppy in the litter. Those numbers aren't going down either; if anything they're only getting bigger.

Why? Because everyone thinks they can write, and with self publishing there's no one but sales figures to inform them they're wrong. To make it worse for every terrible indie book someone reads that's another black mark (in that reader's mind) against all indie books. They don't have a company or an editor to blame, so instead they saddle the whole of indie authors with the sins of the few.

Is it possible that your book will be the one chosen by lottery to be read by hundreds of thousands of people? Sure it is! But it's more likely that you're going to sweat buckets and strain your mental back trying to shove yourself through the ranks to get to the front for a few minutes in the sunshine.

Even if you are chosen though, you should really know...

You Need to Move Millions of Copies To Eat

How much would you make at the top of Amazon's bestseller list for a week? Well Patrick Wensick's novel Broken Piano For President spent a week in the #6 spot (partially because of a viral cease-and-desist letter that Jack Daniels sent him), and most authors assume that means Wensick made an absolute boatload of cash. After all he was placed higher than The Hunger Games, Gone Girl, and dozens of other bestselling books for seven days. Surely he's relaxing and writing his next book even if he isn't a millionaire, right?

Well, it seems he made $12,000.

Gangbusters

Now Wensick might not be an ideal example, since he isn't an indie author. However, his case shows you just how hard it can be to make bank. If a viral news story and a week in a top spot on the biggest online marketplace nets you less than a year's worth of minimum wage pay, then what do you need to do to become the next Stephen King or Anne Rice?

Be lucky, for the most part. That, and keep your momentum going.

The Neverending Story

Being a successful author of any sort (indie, traditional, or otherwise) is a lot like being a shark; you swim or you die. Publish or perish. You need to publish more stories, tack another chapter onto your epic series, or offer your audience something new and shiny to devour at least once a year or so. Only once you've built up a library of published work can you experience the backlog effect; when a reader discovers you as an author and then decides to read everything you've written.

This is a key point for all authors, but indie authors in particular. If you only have one book on the market then no matter how much someone loves your work you can only make one sale (perhaps one or two more if that reader gives your book out as gifts). But say you have 10 or 20 books on the market; you're going to notice a spike in your total sales every time one catches a wave and gets a little more popular.

That's how you really cash in.

Are You Up For It?

In closing it's true that self publishing is a viable way to make money. Self published authors have completed books, and they're working hard to find their audiences. However, it isn't the right path for everyone. People who don't want to handle every aspect of a book, or who want a traditional publisher's marketing muscle behind them may find that self publishing feels like more work than it's worth, and they'll be discouraged by all of the hidden work that comes with it. Other authors, who like to be at the helm of their own careers and who aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves and bang on doors till someone listens may find that self publishing is just right for them.

All of that said, there's just one more question. Did you check out Jungle Moon?

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"The Audacity of Hope" or "Why Variable Ratio Reinforcement Keeps You Writing"

Hope is a powerful thing, as every writer knows. Hope can keep readers coming back book after book to see whether or not their favorite characters really do fall in love. It can keep someone turning pages all night even though he has work in the morning because he can't believe there's no way out of the dark place you've taken your lead. Hope also keeps writers putting words on the page even though there's no guarantee that the blog entry, article, short story, novella, or novel will bring in a single, red cent. The kind of writers who are banking on selling books, getting ad clicks, or otherwise earning a living from the things they create for the public to consume do this every, single day.

Why do writers do this to themselves?

Hope. Hope, and a concept called variable ratio reinforcement.

That, and robbing banks is dangerous.

 What is Variable Ratio Reinforcement?

Reinforcement is a psychological term that is used to describe situations where someone's behavior is strengthened. If a child reaches for a hot stove and gets her hand slapped, that punishment reinforces the idea that reaching for the stove is a bad thing that shouldn't be done. On the other hand if a student earns $20 for every A on her report card, then that reward will make her even more likely to shoot for that 4.0 honor roll. When someone takes an action the result of that action leads to behavior being reinforced or discouraged. The more often the result happens the more solidly the behavior is reinforced.

So where does the irregular part come in?

In addition to rewards and punishments there's a reinforcement schedule. This schedule is how often that behavior is reinforced. If every time someone breaks a rule he gets punished, then there's a certainty that bad things will happen if certain actions are taken. That's a fixed ratio. A fixed interval is applying a certain reinforcement after a certain amount of time; getting a yearly raise every year one maintains a job, for instance. Variable ratio reinforcement is when you perform a certain action, but you don't know how many times you have to perform it before you get rewarded. This is essentially how slot machines work, but it's also how a lot of writing works as well.

How Do You Mean?

If you keep rolling this until your character succeeds, you already understand.

This concept works best when you use examples. When I wrote an article titled "Is Thou Shalt Not Suffer A With To Live A Biblical Translation Error?" (which you can still read here if you're of a mind) it got a lot of page views. I looked at the subject, comments, and content, and decided that writing about religion and how our modern interpretations of it are skewed was a smart way to make some money. So I published several other articles including one about a devil named Azazel from the Old Testament (found right here), and another about the Satanic Panic, one of America's great moral panics from the 1980s (still live right here).

These articles did get some page views, but I didn't recreate the months-long splash and more-than-decent royalty payments I'd earned from the first article. They got fewer views overall, and those views dropped off more quickly. Because I'd seen that an article about religion could generate a lot of traffic though I kept at it. I never managed to recreate the original article's success, and the website got a great deal of content out of me it might not otherwise have received for a lot less payment.

This works the same with book sales. Let's say that you wrote a book about a vampire private detective, and that book shot through the roof and made you a lot of money. Your next, logical step would be to write another book to try and make the lightning strike twice. Even if subsequent books didn't do as well, or if they did terribly, knowing it's possible is sometimes enough to keep you running on the hamster wheel just a little bit longer than you otherwise might.

But I've Never Had Any Successes Like That!

What if I told you that you didn't need to actually experience the success in question to make this effect happen? Knowing that just one pull on the slot machine can make you rich is often enough to make you put your last quarter in the slot. If you've actually won a lot of money on a slot machine before though then you're a lot more likely to keep pulling that one-armed bandit until you either run out of money or you win.

Writers do this all the time, except the slot machine is the publisher and the coins you're hoping for are royalties.

This is easily illustrated in short story anthologies. One anthology might offer $30 for an accepted story, and another one will offer an even split of the royalties. Even if the story is an electronic-only anthology from a first-time publisher, there's a little bug in the back of most writers' heads that tells them royalties might be a better bet if this book takes off. It also means more than one payment, if all things go well. More often than not books in this scenario sell enough copies that no one but the publisher makes a profit, and the writers end up being paid $0.68 each quarter for a year.

Why do we do this? Because the next one might be what hits it big!

Like this book right here, for instance!

The media doesn't make this any easier on us as writers either. Just look on the Internet and you see stories about self-publishing authors who make six-figure incomes off trashy romance and monster porn. That monster porn thing isn't a joke either; read this in case you thought I was fucking with you.

What's The Problem With Hope?

Part of the problem is that I'm a hard-bitten, cynical bastard who likes spitting in your eye. The other part of the problem is that hope does more than keep your energy up, and your outlook positive. Hope, much like cocaine and meth, can blur your energy and make it hard to remain focused and realistic. You can get so high on your own hopes and the potential of victory that it's easy to forget you're betting black on a roulette wheel with a disproportionate amount of crimson on it.

Is it possible for your short story or novel to springboard into national or international fame even though you're an indie author no one's ever heard of with no one to help advertise your story or spread the word about it? Yes, it is. It's happened, as the news and the Internet are only too happy to point out. But the chances of it happening are astronomical.

Keep your hope, by all means. I'll be the first to admit that hope of infecting the world at large mixed with a genuine love of my story (and a touch of spite, if I'm honest) is the cocktail that keeps me going on some projects. But it's important to make sure that you're not just jerking the lever and hoping against hope that the Bestseller Gods take pity and shower you with big sales, TV interviews, and book deals for sequels. If that's the kind of thing you want it's time to grab a shovel and start laying your foundation. Hope is just as useful, but a lot less necessary, when you've actually done the work to build a readership, earn a place with a good publisher, and made certain to refine your craft until you can cut right into your readers' hearts and guts with it.


As always thanks for sticking your head in here at The Literary Mercenary. If you'd like to keep me going feel free to toss your loose change in by clicking the "Shakespeare Gotta Get Paid Son!" button in the upper right hand corner, or going to my Patreon page and becoming a backer. To keep up to date with my latest hits put your email address in the other box on the top right, or follow me on Facebook or Tumblr.

How to Make an Amazon Author Page (And Why You Should)

Before we get started I'd like to toot my own horn a bit. It seems that Amazing Stories has taken an interest in the anthology Shadows of a Fading World, which was the debut anthology from Long Count Press featuring my short story "Paths of Iron and Blood". To see the nice things the reviewer had to say read the full review here, and if you'd like to buy your own copy (or just read the free sample) you can find it on my Amazon author page.

Don't lie, you know you want one.

What's An Amazon Author Page?

Well, since you asked so nicely I'll be happy to explain. As most authors (and all readers) know, Amazon is the premium destination for books online. Their Kindle is burying opposition like the Barnes and Noble Nook, and Amazon has become the nexus of self-publishing for ebooks. It's even expanded into audio books, and if you want to get in on Amazon's audio book revolution by reading books for money here's an article about Amazon's deal with Audible and iTunes and how you can take advantage of it.

Now because Amazon is just so damned big it's really hard for authors to get noticed. Unless you're already famous, or your books have been positively reviewed thousands of times, you're not going to get discovered very often. The reason for that is Amazon is a marketplace, and if what people want is Dan Brown and 50 Shades of Grey, then that's what's going to show up on the homepage. It's dismal, but the catch-22 of Amazon is that you and your books don't get seen by browsers unless you have a lot of reviews and purchases. Of course, if no one knows you're out there then it's impossible to get those purchases or reviews in the first place.

The Amazon author page is a tool to help authors consolidate their presences on Amazon, and to make themselves easier to discover.

You are here. No, no... over here.

How Does It Work?

The first step in getting an Amazon author page is to go to the Amazon Author Central Homepage right here and to sign up. Once you're signed up the page works like any other form of social media; you upload a photo, give the readers a short description of who you are and what you do, and you tag all of your books. Once you've done that Amazon will make sure to include a link to your profile on every page with one of your books so that if a reader wants to know more they can check you out with the click of a mouse.

In addition to making you easier to find by putting links on all your pages (which is particularly nice if you're in a lot of separate anthologies like I am), this author page also allows you to post links to signings and events you're having. Lastly if you have a blog (and I'm assuming you do) you can plug in the feed on your author profile so that anyone who stops by can see what it is you've been posting about. In short this profile acts as a one stop shop for everything you're creating that you want readers to check out.

What's The Catch?

There is no catch, friends. An Amazon author profile is simply a way to make sure that you can be more easily discovered, that readers can find all of your books instead of just a few, and that you get a chance to tell them where you're going to be and to hook them onto your blog. It's completely free, and costs you nothing more than the effort of signing up and creating an attractive profile for the masses.

Why would Amazon do something like that for authors? After all they're an evil corporation out to maximize profits and become a monopoly, aren't they? Opinions vary, but to answer your question Amazon provides authors with these profiles to help us sell more books. Through Amazon.

Gasp. Shock.

I've said this two or three times now; Amazon is here to sell books. They don't care what books they sell, as long as they get a cut of the action. If you write five novels, and one of them becomes a break-out success, Amazon wants an easy way to direct all those new and eager fans to your other books so they, and by extension you, can make more sales. By creating this tool they're helping authors to become more visible because more visibility means higher sales, and higher sales means more profits all around. You win, they win, everybody wins.

Do you have to do this to succeed? No, of course you don't. But while it's possible to start a fire by rubbing sticks together, it's easier to flick a Bic and call it a day. Why work any harder than you have to, especially when you've already put so much effort into getting books on the market in the first place?



As always, thanks for dropping by the Literary Mercenary. Like what you see? If so then join our email list by leaving your address in the upper right hand corner, or checking me out on Facebook and Tumblr for regular updates. If you'd like to pay the sellsword's fees, well you can leave a donation in the "Shakespeare Gotta Get Paid, Son" button through Paypal, or check me out on my Patreon page.

Stop Calling Me A Starving Artist

I made the decision to become an author when I was 14. I won my first poetry competition at 16, and when I was 19 I fell victim to my first publishing scam. I remained undeterred, and when I was 24 became a freelance writer working for newspapers, magazines, websites, and anyone else who would pay me to create the content they needed. When I was 28 years old in the year 2012 I hit my stride as a fiction author and got my first taste of success. Since then I've had short stories featured in seven different anthologies, I've had four stand-alone stories published, and I've even self-published an additional three stories. If all goes well I'll be releasing my first book in 2014.

You wouldn't know it to look at my royalty checks, though.

This is $10 and one gun more than I made in royalties last year.

Whenever I start talking about the financial realities of being an author, people feel the need to give me advice. "Why don't you get a day job?" is probably the most common tip I get, in case the idea didn't occur to me. "You just need to write something that gets popular," is another one. My least favorite, typically accompanied by a slap on the back and a hearty laugh, is "Well you're just doing your time as a starving artist."

We need to stop using that phrase. Why? Well, I'll tell you why.

The Double Standard

Calling someone a starving artist or a struggling artist might be accurate, but it's also putting them in a box. If someone is a painter, or an author, or a steel sculptor there's no need to put a qualifier before it. Defining someone by the art form he or she practices is enough. By calling attention to the person's lack of financial success all the speaker is doing is invoking the double standard of the art world.

The who with the huh?

The double standard artists are forced to contend with is pretty simple. On the one hand artists are told their art cannot be defined by a price the way other work can be. Because art is judged subjectively, there's no way to put a universal price on it. On the other hand artists are judged directly in proportion to how much money they make from their art. The Catch-22 here is that an artist's success justifies the price of the art, but if you can't sell the art in the first place you can never achieve that kind of success.

If an artist does get noticed, and manages to achieve success that can also lead to self-sustaining cycles which are referred to by laymen as "the Big Break". Artists which make a lot of money like rock stars or bestselling authors are judged to be "good enough" for their success because if they weren't then why would so many people pay them for what they produce?

This reasoning shows up in bookstores all the time. People buy bestsellers not because they like the author, or even because they know what the book's about; it's the idea that a book which sold 100,000 copies must be worth something. This logic flaw goes both ways though, which is why if an author hasn't sold a lot of books people may make the assumption he or she simply isn't good enough. We assume an author's previous sales reflect his or her talent, and it's why no one feels bad judging creative professionals they see as struggling.

The True Secret to Success

What really makes an author successful? What puts food in the pantry and pays the rent check every month? What's the big secret of success that divides the struggling from the commercially successful?

You. Readers.

Yes, even this guy.

This is where those cycles I mentioned earlier come in. If a writer gets on the bestseller list, or wins an award, that writer is going to get time to promote to the masses in traditional media, genre magazines, and a dozen other places that "struggling" writers simply won't be able to reach. People see an author and think "wow, he's on TV. Guy must have written something pretty sweet to land this day time spot." By getting his or her signal boosted an author finds an audience, and that audience grows. They visit the author's blog, come to events, buy copies of the book, clamor to see a movie get made, buy merchandise, etc., etc.

You want to know how quickly that can happen? How fast someone can go from a struggling nobody to a celebrated master in a genre? The answer to that is Clive Barker.

Today people know Clive as a painter, a director, an author, and a master of horror. Once upon a time though he was a fairly fresh author with a book of short stories that was tanking badly on the British market. "The Books of Blood" is famous now, but there was a solid chance it was going to fade into total obscurity. Except that one reader thought it was pretty goddamn good, and he said so.

That reader was Stephen King.

Practically overnight the sales of the book skyrocketed, and what had looked like a half-sunk career with maybe one or two more books in it became a titan in the horror genre. Did King's opinion change the words in the book, or alter the intent that Barker wrote them with? Did his approval magically transform a struggling author into a bestseller?

No. The readers did.

The Moral of the Story

The point I've been trying to make is that all of us are authors. We put words on a page for the enjoyment of readers. By separating us into successful authors and struggling authors we are being labeled in ways that can and do affect our careers. Do people want to read the latest release from a "struggling" author? Probably not. Would they be interested in a "local" author? How about a book written by a "horror" author, or a "science fiction" author? That sort of labeling plays less on the heart strings, and more on a reader's curiosity.

Secondly, just because someone isn't on the bestseller list doesn't mean there isn't a great story waiting between those covers. I'm not saying you should just throw aside your favorite writers to start snatching up everyone you've never heard of, but just keep in mind that the number of 0's on a check doesn't necessarily mean what you're buying is a well-written story. Not that you didn't already know that of course, but it bears repeating.

Third, if you really want to help then take a lesson from Mr. King. The greatest compliment you can pay to an author is to tell someone else how great his or her book was. Leave a review on Amazon, make a post on a forum, put up your favorite quote on your FB page, or just talk to your mom and dad over coffee about this fantastic tale you couldn't put down. By doing that, and doing it honestly, you might be the first pebble of an author's own, personal avalanche.


Thanks as always for stopping by the Literary Mercenary. If you'd like to help keep this blog going feel free to donate at the "Shakespeare Gotta Get Paid, Son" button on the upper right hand side, or stop by my Patreon page. Feel free to follow me on Facebook or Tumblr. Interested in some of my books? Check out my Goodreads page.

Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover (Even Though Most People Do)

Wanted to start this week's entry off letting readers know all new followers for the Literary Mercenary, as well as my author Facebook page here, or my Tumblr page here in the month of February will receive a free ebook. Just follow, then contact me to get your free book!

Book Covers Make Your First Impression

How often have you been browsing online or wandering the aisles of a bookstore when something caught your eye? Maybe it was a wizard in a back alley with a glowing staff, or a redhead with a machine gun facing off against a werewolf, but whatever the image was it arrested your attention and stopped you cold. It made you look at the book, and at least half the time (an arbitrary number I'm basing on absolutely nothing) it made you pick up the book to find out what the hell it was about. Maybe you bought the book, and maybe you didn't buy the book, but either way you noticed it. That's a good book cover's job; getting browsers to stop long enough for the author's words to suck them in. If your book cover doesn't do that, then you have a serious problem. That serious problem, of course, is that you'll have a hard time selling books.

Traditionally the publisher takes care of the book cover. It has a vested interest in selling a lot of copies, and as such takes the marketing aspect of book covers quite seriously. For indie publishers, self-published authors, and those who work on the bottom of the food chain though, a poorly made cover is often a dead giveaway. If your cover turns heads though, it doesn't matter who published you; your metaphorical foot is in the door.

What Makes a Good Book Cover?

There's a lot of debate over what a "good" book cover does or doesn't look like. Art is subjective, and it's impossible to guarantee how someone will or won't react to a given book cover. There are certain elements that make a book cover good from a marketing perspective, though.

That got your attention, didn't it?

This cover belongs to the 1950s-themed horror anthology American Nightmare, which is currently available from Kraken Press here (It contains my contribution "Double Feature", which you should definitely check out). The image uses a dark background to bring across the air of danger, and it catches your eye by putting red and white in contrast in the foreground with both the title and the Cadillac. Once the eye has been drawn by the color scheme it notices the tentacles, and the uncanny image slaps the conscious brain with a desire to know just what the holy fuck is happening in this picture.

That's sort of the reaction you're looking for.

What Makes a Bad Book Cover?

Let's take this one step at a time...

Before I begin I would like to state that I mean no disrespect to Jupiter Gardens as a publisher. I had a good, working relationship with them, and it's because of them that many of my stories reached a reading public. With that said though, this design for the cover of my novella "The Unusual Transformation of Abraham Carver" (which you can still read here if you want to) has made selling it very difficult for me for a variety of reasons.

Let's start with the color scheme. The photograph is a gray scale that has both light and dark, which makes it difficult to focus on the foreground. Neither the title of the book nor the author name pop out, which is confusing to the eye since they bleed into the background. The rainbow logo at the top is more eye-catching than anything else, and the two figures have nothing to do with the novella because the cover is one that the company used for a number of projects. All the artist had to do was change the title and author name, and the new cover was ready to go. This cover gives the reader no idea what the book is about, and in this case rather mis-represents the story. The novella is a dark, steampunk erotica that deals with a wife attempting to understand the bizarre changes her husband is going through after being the subject of an experimental medical procedure. What in the cover gives the reader that impression?

Nothing. The correct answer is nothing.

What Your Book Cover Needs to Do

Aside from just being goddamn awesome.

Good book covers convey what will be found in the following pages. They provide an eye-catching, engaging image that meets a certain, professional standard. They put the title, as well as the author's name, front and center. Most importantly, a cover design can be reduced to one-square inch of space as it will be on a website without losing clarity. A cover that's simply too busy, and which has too many elements, may be overlooked as messy or boring by readers who are in a hurry to get their next story fix.

Humans are visual creatures, and it's ironic that in order to sell a book it requires a cover that arrests the wandering attention long enough to make someone pick the book up and take a closer look. As consumers we also tend to associate sleek, engaging covers with professionalism. We know consciously that a terrible story might have a really pretty cover, but it's not something we think about. On the other hand we might admit that a poorly made cover might have an amazing story underneath it, but we rarely check to make sure. Much like people, we often associate a pretty face with a story we really want to be told.

How To Make Money Publishing Your Blog on the Kindle

Making a living as a blogger isn't easy. You need hundreds if not thousands of regular subscribers, and daily hits in the six-digit range. If you're depending on advertising money, then you need people to actually click ads on your page in order to get paid. If you're selling products as an affiliate marketer, then you need to persuade your readers to purchase through your site. If you have merchandise of your own, you need to make a solid case as to why readers should hand over their hard-earned cash.

Wouldn't it just be easier to get paid for writing good articles that provide useful, actionable information?

You want to get paid for doing what now?

Experienced bloggers are currently wiping tears of mirth from their eyes. The reason is because no one pays writers just to put words on a page; writers get paid for selling something. Since blogs are free to read, they need to be used as a vehicle in order to sell something else. No matter how brilliant your writing, or how entertaining your jokes are, they're worthless all by themselves. Unless, that is, you can come up with a way to sell something that doesn't cost anything.

Amazon to the Rescue

As the reigning king of selling people things they don't need, Amazon has begun a service allowing you to publish your blog to the Kindle. This means you get increased exposure, since there are hundreds of thousands of Kindle ereaders on the market, and at least some of those users will be searching for blogs through their machines. Amazon also charges a fee to anyone who subscribes to your blog through an ereader. It doesn't charge much, maybe .99 a month, with the first two weeks coming free of charge. As the author, you're entitled to some of that cash. It's why the Literary Mercenary is now available here, and its sister blog Improved Initiative is available here.

How Do I Publish My Blog With Amazon?

And can I get paid in bananas?

If you already have a blog that's up and running, getting it put up on Amazon takes very little time. Just go to this link and create a new Amazon account. I'm sure you already have a personal one, but that won't fly for this little endeavor. Once you have your new account set up, log in. You'll see a blank window, with an "Add Blog" button on the right hand side. Simply click that button, and then fill in all the details for your blog. This includes a sales description, cover photo, and all of the marketing text you can fit. Once you've filled out all the details, click submit and wait roughly 24 hours for your blog to be available for subscription through Amazon. It's that simple!

How Much Money Can I Make?

Because that's not a loaded question at all.

You can make thousands of dollars a month doing this. You won't. Blog subscriptions are just like anything else in the writing world; the more you sell, the more you make. Just like your blog.

If you get a half a million hits, and every visitor clicks an advertisement on your blog, then you're going to find yourself in a new tax bracket pretty damn fast. The same is true if your novel suddenly starts selling like hot cakes, or if your blog becomes the new "in" thing to subscribe to. You can potentially make a fortune, if you can persuade everyone with a Kindle to subscribe to you. That isn't likely to happen, though. What's more likely is that your blog will pick up a few subscribers, yielding perhaps an extra few bucks a month.

So why publish your blog on the Kindle? Well, on the one hand, it costs you nothing. Even if no one ever hears about you, and you never see a single cent from the endeavor, at worst you've wasted fifteen minutes. Sheer chance says there are at least a few readers out there who will discover you, and decide to subscribe for at least a little while. There's also the outside shot that, for whatever reason, your blog becomes a rolling stone raking in enough cash for you to pay your rent, save up for a vacation, and quit your day job just on the number of subscriptions you get. It isn't likely, but then again a Twilight fan-fiction became a million-dollar industry. The impossible is very, very possible when it comes to writing, for good or ill.


As always, thanks for stopping by the Literary Mercenary. If you'd like to keep this blog going please share your favorite pages with your friends, and feel free to click the "Shakespeare Gotta Get Paid" button in the upper right hand corner. Also, if you're interested in donating on the regular, I currently have a Patreon giveaway going on for the month of January. Simply drop in here and make a donation to receive links to 2 free stories, as well as to receive a free ebook. Lastly, if you want to stay up-to-the-moment with what I'm doing as an author then follow me on Facebook or Tumblr.