You Only Have 24 Hours In A Day To Create With (Use Them Wisely)

This is the time of year when artists and writers make their lists of projects and goals they want to achieve in the coming year, but even more than that, it's the time when many of us sit down and mourn how little we got done in the past 12 months. We didn't finish our book, we didn't get our RPG to market, we didn't get as many paintings, or videos, or audio projects completed. Whatever it is, though, all of us ask ourselves the same question...

"Where does the time go?"

And the answer is you have the same 24 hours you always have... but chances are good that either you didn't have as much time to make art, or the art you're making now is taking a lot more time than the art you were making way back when.

These are the only two answers to the question.

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!

What Else Did You Do This Year?

Let's address the first answer to the question, because this is the one that is honestly a much more common situation.

Review your past year, and ask yourself what else you had to do that stopped you from getting your writing done. Did you have to pick up more hours for work, or get a new job entirely? Did you have a child, or have to take on additional duties at home? Did you start a new fitness routine that ate up an hour or two a day you were previously using to write with? Did you get sick, have to start a commute to work when you were previously a remote employee, or go back to school?

You only have 24 hours in a day, and if something demands more time, then you have less time for your work. It's basic math.

Alternatively... your art might be taking more time now than it used to.

Consider the above video. This is something I made 3 months ago talking about my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic. And while the setup I had for it wasn't bad, precisely, it was pretty basic. Because of this, the editing process for this video only took about 15 minutes, and that's including the watch time to make sure everything I filmed showed up the way I wanted it to.

However, compare that to something I made 3 weeks ago.

This video took me 3 hours to edit. The obvious reason is because there's a lot more going on in it (thanks in large part due to the new editing software I acquired), and the whole point is to give the viewer something to watch to go along with my narration.

However, it's not just that it takes me more time and energy to make these videos. It's also that I now have an additional two hours and forty-five minutes that I would otherwise have used to work on other projects like blog entries, RPG supplements, short stories, novels, etc. And given that I make one of these videos every week, that's a lot of extra hours that get used up when you add them all together... especially because some videos are more complicated and time intensive than this one!

So while I am keeping my video releases on-schedule, that means I'm using time that was previously allocated to other things to make that happen. So whether it's my fiction projects that take a back seat, or a blog entry that doesn't always get done on time, or only getting 1 TTRPG supplement instead of 2 turned in by the end of the month, I didn't lose that time; I allocated it differently because I made a change to something I'm creating.

Chances Are You Aren't Lazy

At the end of the day, both the answers I gave are technically the same. You only have 24 hours in a day, and only so many of those hours are going to be usable for you to get work done. So unless you have the time available, and you also have the energy available, but you choose not to actually create more art you probably shouldn't call yourself lazy.

Now, this might be cold comfort, but it is important to examine your life with a critical eye before you insist that you are solely responsible for what you have (or haven't) accomplished with your days. Because only by taking stock can you understand where your time and energy are going before you make changes. Be kind to yourself, and make sure you have realistic expectations when it comes to your output this year.

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 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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Art Is A Job. Period.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Support Is Where The Money Comes From

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

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

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

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

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

#1: Give Directly

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

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

#2: Buy Their Art

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It Won't Happen Without You

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

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

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

Support The Literary Mercenary

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

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

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

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

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

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

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

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

 

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

The Point of Writing is Doing The Work (Giving The Middle Finger To A.I.)

I remember several years ago I was sitting in a stylist's chair getting my hair trimmed. As folks in this profession so often do, she started making small talk with me. When she found out I was a professional writer, though, it was like I'd opened a floodgate. Apparently she'd had this idea rolling around in her head for years that she thought would make a really good book. I can't remember most of it now, but it somehow involved a cartel drug dealer who got romantically entangled with his stylist, and the two of them had to go on the run from both gangsters and the ATF, trying to find some way to cut a deal so they could live happily ever after.

Could I have made that into a decent action romantic comedy? Sure... but what stuck with me even more than the idea was the serious tone in her voice when she looked in the mirror and said, "If you want to go in on this with me, we can split the take 50/50."

And this, I think, is what really gets to the heart of why so many people have fallen down the generative A.I. rabbit hole.

Chuck really puts it into simple words.

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 Writing Is The Point

Before we get lost in the weeds, I want to make a clear distinction. "Generative A.I." refers to software programs that are trained off of data that are fed into them until they can recognize patterns, and produce something similar to what they've seen before. They also allow users to enter prompts, such as telling it to paint a portrait of a barbarian king holding an ax in the style of Frank Frazetta. Or telling it to write a short story about a secret, cannibal family in the style of H.P. Lovecraft. The main problem with these softwares is that they're thieves; the data they are fed is based on stolen work, taken from people who did not consent for their work to be used in training the software, so everything it creates is fruit from the poisoned tree. It doesn't matter how amazing the thing it made it, it's all tainted by that initial plagiarism.

But let's say, for the sake of argument, that someone produced an "ethical" generative A.I. program for writers. Let's say that it was trained only on work that was given freely by writers, or that it used only works in the public domain. So you could just push a button and get a private detective story in the style of Agatha Christie, or perhaps a war story in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle (we'll assume his estate went along with this in the scenario I'm painting). You could do that.

But what's the point?

As Mr. Wendig said in the picture in the introduction, and as I said a while ago on my show Tabletop Mercenary over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, ideas are barely worth a weak piss in a stiff breeze. The idea isn't what's worth something... it's the execution of that idea that is worth something. It's the skill it takes to realize that idea, and to turn it into something that actually exists.

Consider any invention throughout history. From the telephone, to the automobile, to the locomotive, the ideas of those things aren't valuable. The execution of those things is. Saying, "It would be jolly convenient to be able to have a conversation with my friend on the other coast whenever I wished!" is not an inherently valuable thing. That idea is, on its own, worthless. The people who built the telegraph lines, and then the telephone lines, and the machinery that allowed voices to travel instantaneously over long distances are the ones that created something of value.

This is where the disconnect happens with so many people. Because we have this stereotype of The Visionary (TM) whose ideas are so powerful they can change the world. But as we've seen with Thomas Edison (who was only responsible for a fraction of the things he claimed credit for) and Elon Musk (who is responsible for nothing he's claimed credit for), vision is worthless. Vision is nothing without an engine to drive it, and to create actual momentum to make it into a reality... and if you aren't the one creating that momentum, then you weren't a meaningful part of the process.

Consider, for example, works of art that the church commissioned from the artist Michaelangelo. Sure, the church might have told him what they wanted the art to be (which figures from the bible it should feature, the general vibe the piece should give off, and so on), but when we study those art pieces, is the particular clergyman mentioned as anything other than a patron or sponsor? No, because the person who made the art is what matters. They are the one who turned vision into reality, not the patron who fed them the prompts. As such, they're the ones who deserve the credit.

If you want to be an artist, you have to make art. If you want to be a writer, you have to write. If you turned to a writer, gave them the basic pitch of a book idea, and then they wrote the book, you are not an author. The same is true if you type a bunch of prompts into an engine, and then see what it spits out.

What I Am (And Am Not) Saying

That was a lot to take in, so I want to reiterate some points for folks who made it this far.

First of all, yes, there are tools you can use as a writer that involve you just pushing a button. From character name generators to automatic writing prompts, we have had access to generative tools for decades now. Hell, when I was in high school and just starting my journey as a writer, there was a website that held weekly contest for short stories written using the automated short story prompt generator.

However, before claiming something is a tool, you need to ask yourself several questions:

- Does it use stolen material to create what you are using?

- How much of the finished project does it create for you?

If something just creates a prompt, or gives you a character name, or even throws out a theme or plot synopsis for you, and it wasn't made using stolen text, that is a tool you can use as a writer. If you just feed in some prompts, and the thing in question writes a short story or a book for you, that is not a tool; that is an artificially-written story. You didn't make that happen any more than the clergyman who told the Renaissance artists what characters to sculpt or what scenes to paint is the artist of those works.

The whole point of writing is that we're telling a story. The point of reading is because we want to be told a story. Yes, writing is hard. Yes there will be stumbling blocks along the way, and things that give you trouble, and lessons you have to learn. But the work is not some obstacle to be overcome by outsourcing it to a machine. The work is the point.

Put another way, if you had a robot go to the gym for you, and do an entire fitness routine, it wouldn't make you any faster, stronger, or better. You're just wasting time and electricity avoiding the work you need to do to actually get good.

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 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!

Stop Telling Creators To Do More (Just Support Them, And They Will)

I know I usually bounce back and forth between the Craft and Business of writing, but this week I have a business topic that is really clawing at me. For regular readers this may sound like I'm revisiting an old chestnut, but given that the holidays are often a make-or-break time for artists out there, I wanted to plant a flag, clamber up onto my soapbox, and say this one with my full chest.

Stop telling creators to do more things! I promise you, we are up to our eyeballs, we're drowning, and the last thing we need is someone adding one more damn thing to the pile!

Seriously... we need a lifesaver, not an anchor.

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!

I'll Get RIGHT On That (In My COPIOUS Amounts of Free Time)

I'd like to give folks a primary example of what I'm talking about here. For those who don't know, earlier in 2024 my first roleplaying game Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic released after its successful Kickstarter. Now, to help bring some attention to this game, I have done all of the following:

- Regularly promoted it on social media

- Mentioned it often in my creator newsletter

- Started a FB page about the game for players to go for updates

- Featured dozens of articles about it on my fairly popular blogs

- Created supplemental material including Army Men: Medals of Honor and Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps

- Started a video series about it titled Tactical Plastic Report

Now, despite all of the things I just mentioned, it's proven tough to get traction on Army Men as a game. The Kickstarter succeeded pretty well, and there's usually some folks who claim it looks interesting, but it hasn't exactly had the impact that I'd like it to have.

The regular suggestion that keeps cropping up in my comments is that I should make an actual play of my game so that people can watch it. And while I will acknowledge that this strategy could be helpful, it also comes with a lot of obstacles that I don't feel like the people suggesting it completely understand. These include:

- Recording Equipment: I have a personal setup, but I don't have mics, cameras, etc. for the 4-5 people it takes to run a decent RPG.

- Space: I do not have access to a private space that is good for recording.

- Talent: You can't just put whoever in a chair when making this kind of video. Folks need to be engaging, comfortable on-camera, on-task, and willing/able to perform.

- Time: These things don't just happen. There's setup, testing, technical issues, running the actual game, doing multiple takes, and then on top of it there's all the post-editing it would take. This could all range from a dedicated several days of work, to several weeks of work.

Now, to be clear, I could make an actual play of my game, if I either really wanted to, or if I had some reason to believe that it would do really well. However, I'm very aware that the Internet is absolutely glutted with actual plays of various RPGs, most of which barely anyone watches. In order for this to be a good return on investment for my time, my energy, etc., the recorded play session would need to bring in not just thousands, but tens of thousands of views. The most popular video I've ever made is currently sitting at 4,600 views and some change, right now, and that thing was an absolute fluke.

More to the point, though, The Problem With Pentex actually has product placement in it... and despite all of that traffic, it has sold a single product to the audience who watched it. Just one. And even that one I'm not entirely sure about, because it isn't my affiliate links in the video.

Creators Need Support, Not More Tasks!

While the example of people commenting, "Just make an actual play!" is one specific incident, this kind of nonsense happens to creators every day, usually dozens of times a day. Some other forms it takes include:

- "I'd love you to make merch of this!" Not realizing that getting that merch made is likely thousands of dollars in investment, along with several months for an order to be fulfilled.

- "I really want you to write another book in this series!" I'm sure we'd love to do that, too. Books can take a year or more to write, and just as long to publish... most of us don't have two years of savings banked so we can just hope the new release does okay.

- "When are you going to release this in audio?" Audio books take almost as long to make as the original book itself, and even longer if you're doing a full cast, SFX, etc.

- "You should go to X convention!" Conventions cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to attend, and historically, authors do not sell much when they're present. I've only ever made a profit once in something like 12 years of going to cons.

- "You really need to get on this social media platform!" Okay, but building a following takes years on any platform, even if you're already established. This isn't the quick-fix solution so many seem to think it is.

And the list goes on, and on, and on.

Sure, I'll add that to the list...

Creators are struggling. Whether we write novels, make videos on YouTube, run podcasts, paint paintings, create audio dramas, or do any of a thousand other things, all of us are struggling. And what does not help are people coming into our comments and leaving off-the-cuff remarks about what new direction we should take our art, what platforms we should use, or the best new method we should use to improve our audience. Because unless you are a marketing professional, or a fellow creator who has been through the process, chances are you don't know what will work any better than we will. Not only that, but it's likely we have already considered your suggestion, and the reason we aren't doing it isn't because we didn't think of it, but because we simply can't afford to do it (whether that be a cost in time, energy, money, etc.)

What we need is support. Because support helps us increase our reach, pay our bills, and it helps us afford to make more art. And, ironically, support would also give us the time and breathing room to make some of those projects you're suggesting, but that we simply can't right now because those things (wait for it) don't have audience support behind them.

Because if I sold a 10,000 copies of both Marked Territory and Painted Cats? As soon as I was done celebrating, I'd be storyboarding Leo's next adventure. If every video I made for Tactical Plastic Report broke 5K views, and there were a hundred or so fans who were begging me for an actual play of the game, I'd start putting a crew together. And if folks demanded Literary Mercenary merch, then supported me when I brought out patches, stickers, pins, or more ambitious things, I would keep doing them. If I could get 5K views on my audio drama for the story Suffer The Children, and folks bought copies of The Rejects while leaving comments that they wanted the rest of the stories in that book dramatized, I would be on that ASAP.

If you actually, truly want a creator you follow to succeed, then you have to be part of that success. Because we don't get anywhere by ourselves. We are, in essence, crowdsurfing... and if we don't have people willing to hold us up, we're going to fall on our faces. And when that happens, some of us probably won't get up.

Support The Literary Mercenary

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

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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.