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!

The Balance Between The Dramatic and The Believable

There is a weird phenomenon I've come across when average, workaday folks find out that I'm an author. After we get through the usual, "Oh, that must be so interesting!" and "That sounds so exciting!" certain folks will get a gleam in their eyes. That gleam is almost always followed by some variation of the following statement:

You know, you should let me tell you some stories! I bet my life would make a great basis for a book.

I mention this for two reasons. First is to ask anyone who wasn't an undercover operative for the ATF, or an intelligence asset going on dangerous missions, to please stop asking writers to grant you a touch of immortality. But second, and more germaine to this week's topic, is that stories we tell are supposed to be dramatic, tense, and exciting in order to keep our audience hooked. While you need to have internal consistency in your story, you also don't want 200 pages of someone going to work, coming home, doomscrolling on their phone, and then going back to work again.

Unless your commute is off-roading away from gunships, that's not what we're here for.

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!

Are You Not Entertained?!

A while back, in my blog "Why Don't They Call The Cops?" A Question You Always Need To Answer, I provided a short, simple explanation from Alfred Hitchcock on this matter. In the immortal director's words, "It's boring."

We can apply this same logic to so many of our tropes and criticisms of fiction out there that may seem trite, played out, or tiresome. For example, why do we leave James Bond in the clutches of some intricate death trap instead of just shooting him in the head and being done with it? Well, for one thing, we'd lose our protagonist, but it's also boring. Why don't Romeo and Juliet arrange a talk with their families to settle the ongoing dispute so they can be together without pressure and strife? First of all, they're stupid teenagers (which is kind of the whole point of the story), but also because that would be boring. Why doesn't Holmes explain the entire mystery as soon as he deduces the relevant details from the crime scene? Firstly, because all his stories would be three pages long, and secondly because that would be boring!

You may be seeing a pattern, here.

The key with your story is to find that intersection between something that is exciting, but which doesn't challenge the internal consistency of your story (something which is, and I hate to use this word, believable). As an example, take a plot where the protagonist needs to come up with a large, fixed amount of money in a short period of time. Maybe they have to pay for an operation, or they're going to lose their house, or there are a bunch of leg breakers who are going to smash up their knees over a mob loan... whatever it is, there's a definite obstacle that needs to be overcome.

Now, it is believable that this person would contact not-for-profit organizations that help in this specific area to cover some of the cost? That they would host a GoFundMe, or some other kind of fundraiser? Maybe that they'd cash in some life insurance early, get a loan from a bank, or sell off other things of value to raise that money? They might even take that job offer for a position they hate just to get the cash to keep living? Sure, that's more believable. But consider how much more dramatic it would be for the character to enter a sports tournament where they're the underdog, to get involved in an underground poker game, to plot to kill a rich family member who has left a large estate to them in their will, or to pull a bank job with their old crew.

Your job, as the author, is to make that exciting answer (whichever one it is that you choose) seem believable to your audience.

For example, perhaps your protagonist did reach out to local charities, or try to run a fundraiser to handle this issue. Maybe they have reached out to friends and family, or to their job, but they can't get the help they need from the network they have access to. So with the "normal" options exhausted, they have to do something more dramatic to get the results they need, and that is where our story takes place. It's still exciting and dramatic, filled with all the complications that come with a high-stakes answer to a high-stakes problem, and we can read on knowing that those more pedestrian solutions have been explained away, allowing us to really enjoy this version of the story.

It's also important to remember that something doesn't have to be high-stakes to be dramatic. The solution to a simple teenage relationship problem can often be dramatic, whether we're talking about Twilight or we're going back to Shakespeare, even if it isn't high stakes in and of itself. Stories about a personal vendetta between two people may not be high stakes, but if we're invested that is all that matters. And part of what gets people invested is that the story is how exciting it is! Whether it's a meet-cute at a cafe, a man getting involved in the underground cage fighting circuit, or just some guy getting kidnapped by the cartel due to a case of mistaken identity, that drama gets people to keep turning the pages.

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 Craft 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!

A Shout Out For "Joy On Paper Live!" (Author Interviews With PatZi)

Long-time readers (or even short-term ones) have likely heard me lament about how difficult it is to get any kind of visibility when you're an author. Generally speaking, unless you are part of a bigger publisher who has the money and connections to buy ads and get you onto podcasts/TV/radio shows for interviews then you're relying on word of mouth, social media, and the sheer luck of the draw. Which might sound romantic, but in practice it's frustrating as all hell.

Which is why I wanted to give a shout out this week to Patzi Gil, and her attempts to help all of us rise above the noise with her show Joy on Paper Live! which is now on YouTube!

And if you haven't tuned in yet, you definitely should!

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

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

The Saga of Joy on Paper, And How You Can Help!

For those who haven't come across the show before, Joy on Paper started off as a radio program out of Sarasota, Florida hosted by PatZi Gil. She would have on a variety of authors, ranging from the very well known with folks like Clive Cussler, to independent authors and unknowns... which is how I found my way onto the program! PatZi first had me on as a guest several years ago, before most of my current novels were on the market. And it was actually this very blog that first caught her attention, and it's the reason she invited me on.

Which is why I wanted to take a moment, and help her in her current endeavor!

PatZi has been in the game for a long time, but this year she stepped away from running her program for the radio station, and she's now trying to make it on YouTube! However, as anyone who's been following my own struggle on the platform as I try to get the Azukail Games YouTube channel monetized, you know that PatZi is definitely struggling with an uphill battle.

While I outlined the changes to YouTube's platform in the video above, the short version is that you need to have 500 subscribers to your channel, and at least 3,000 hours of watched content in a 365-day span before YouTube agrees to share the ad revenue with you. Until you manage to do that, the only person making any money off of your content is them! Unfortunately, at time of writing, PatZi only has 52 subscribers on the channel, and none of the current interview streams have even broken 100 views... which is saying something, given there's no small amount of name recognition for some of the guests she's had on!

So I wanted to ask folks who read my blog to take a moment, go subscribe to Joy on Paper Live!, watch some of the interviews, and while you're there leave an upvote and a comment! PatZi has a great ability to find authors who deserve a little time in the spotlight, and she's doing her best to bring them to all of our collective attention... but you know what they say about trees that fall in the forest with no one around to see them or hear them. So let's help her get the recognition she deserves, get her channel the subs and hours it needs, and maybe even check out the works of some of the authors she's had on as guests while we're at it!

For more information about Joy on Paper's journey, check out the show's homepage, and make sure you follow Joy on Paper on Facebook as well!

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!

Your Best Looks Different From One Day To Another

We've all had those days where we go into the gym, and we just aren't satisfied with our performance. Maybe we couldn't get all of our reps in, or we had to go down in weight, or we just couldn't last as long as we did last time and we had to slacken our pace on the treadmill. And when that happens, we often beat ourselves up over it. We ask why we didn't do as well as we did last time, or why we're so weak, or why we just didn't do what we know we're capable of?

And there are usually answers. For instance, maybe you didn't hydrate properly, you didn't get a good night's sleep, or both. Maybe you didn't use your preworkout today, so you don't have that NOS unit on your output. Maybe you're stressed, or distracted, or an old injury is flaring up, and working around all of that is causing you problems. Maybe you're coming down with a cold, or just getting over one. Whatever it is, though, there's usually factors involved if you take a moment and look. But the point is, at the end of the day, the best you can do on any given day is not always going to look like the best you can do on any other day.

Writing is the same way.

Some days you fly, and some days you swim. The key is not to drown.

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!

"Black Marks" On My Record

Regular readers of this blog have likely seen me talk about my daily output when it comes to fiction before, but for new folks, I try to shoot for 500 words a day whenever I'm working on any kind of novel or story. Some days I manage to do a little more than that because I really get rolling on an idea, and some days I just don't have the hours in the day to hammer away on a project because other things are a priority... but generally speaking, that's the output I shoot for.

For my short story Black Marks, though, I just couldn't make that happen.

And if you haven't checked it out yet, go give it a read!

If you haven't come across this story before, it's a Dead Space fan story that I put together at the behest of Paul over on the YouTube channel A Vox in The Void (and you should subscribe to his channel to make sure you don't miss the upcoming audio version of this story). We follow an agent known as Lazarus as he's deployed to deal with the activities of a Unitologist Church who has begun to assemble too many of the shards, and it's on the verge of an event horizon if something isn't done to stop it.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how this story came out, and it seems to have been pretty popular as far as short stories I've posted to Vocal end up being. But the more I tried to push for 500 words a session on this thing, the harder and harder it was for me to hit that counter. Part of it was that I was working in a setting I wasn't that familiar with, so I had a lot of checking to do in between paragraphs to make sure I had all the right terms, descriptions, etc. in place. However, there was also the fact that I had so many other projects to work on, and so many other plates spinning, that it was just tough to find time to hammer away on this story.

However, reducing the word count I was working on to 250 meant that I could do things without too much strain and stress.

At the time, I felt really silly that this solution took me so long to come up with. And it was a little embarrassing that I couldn't keep up my regular word count. But at the end of the day it was better to have a regular, consistent word count, even if it was smaller than I'd liked. I didn't lose anything by going a little gentler on myself, and it still let me get the story done in an acceptable amount of time.

So I wanted to use this as a lesson for folks this week. If you're struggling with your word count, with the amount of time you can spend on a project, or any of the other aspect of the task, consider making it a little easier on yourself. There's no shame in lifting a little lighter, or doing fewer reps, or slackening your pace a little bit... especially if you're not on anyone's time table.

Regular, steady progress is better than jamming the pedal to the metal and overheating your engine. Remember that, and be kind to yourself.

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!