Perhaps if we lived in a just and fair universe that would be true. However, something I want to talk about today is that even if something manages to get popular (or at least seen widely in a given community), that is far from a guarantee that the creator made anything off of their efforts.
Which is why I'd like to talk about how the most popular thing I've written to-date, which has been seen by thousands of readers at time of this blog, has basically earned me about .75 for my efforts.
Before I get into the hard numbers, if you want to help me keep the wheels turning so I can keep the lights on while buying an occasional taco, please consider becoming a Patreon patron today! Every little bit really does help.
If You Like a Story, Try To Tip Your Creators
I have written a lot of stories over the years. All you have to do is bop over to my Amazon author page, and you'll see what I'm talking about. From novels like my latest sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, to my cat noir books Marked Territory and Painted Cats, to my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, and even game tie-in tales like The Irregulars from Paizo publishing, I've got all sorts of genres, lengths, and styles for readers out there.
However, the most widely-read piece of fiction I have on the market (that I have hard numbers for, anyway) is actually something I put out fairly recently. It's the short story Waking Dogs- A World Eaters Tale that went up on Vocal about a month or so ago. And in that one month this story has been taken in by thousands of readers.
One could argue that it's more popular than most of my other fiction because it's free, and thus people can read it no matter their current finances. Some might say it's because it's a Warhammer 40K piece, and thus there's already a built-in group of people who are looking for fresh fan content on that subject (I have a future installment about whether you can turn fan stories into a viable career, so rest assured we're going to cover that topic in the near future). However, the real reason this story is such a stand out in terms of audience is because of the YouTube channel A Vox in The Void, who did a phenomenal dramatic reading of it.
Now, to be clear here, this reading was done with my full participation and consent. I worked with the channel, and a link to my original story can be found in the video details for those who want to check out the text. However, if someone has already heard such a great audio rendering, why would they go back to read the text version?
There's 3,738 views on the video at time of writing. There's only 121 reads on the actual text version of the story... which is why it's only given me three shiny quarters worth of traffic in the past month.
Let's Talk Numbers
A lot of folks out there are probable thinking, "3,700 reads? That's not really all that much when you think about how many people there are out there." Hell, that's not even a staggering amount for a YouTube video when you consider the totals some creators rake in. And you'd be right. However, if you compare that to the most popular novel I've written to-date, my sword and sorcery tale Crier's Knife, it's probably moved less than 2k copies since I wrote it several years ago. And that's assuming everyone who got a copy (including the over 1,500 copies that were downloaded during digital giveaways) actually read it instead of just putting it on a shelf, or deleting it when they forgot where they'd snagged their copy.
But what if all 3,700 and change of those views had gone straight to the original story on Vocal? Well, that wouldn't be my most-read Vocal article, but it would be a pretty big splash... and it would generate about $25 worth of earnings instead of .75. Not great, but as anyone who's written short stories for a living can tell you that would actually be pretty par for the course in terms of earnings.
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| But that's not all in terms of numbers. |
However, let's take this thought experiment further... what if those 3,700 people bought the equivalent of one of my smaller RPG supplements like 100 Random Mercenary Companies or 100 Oracular Pronouncements? These things cost like .99 to a dollar and change, and on the low end of those a single sale is worth about .15 to me... which would net me around $555 or so.
Or what if we applied those numbers to book sales for a novel like Old Soldiers? After all, it's also about gigantic bioweapons trained as child soldiers in a grim, dystopian future. Well, let's assume all the copies were digital, and netted about $2 per sale (a low-ball figure, but we'll use it for this example). That would be $7,400 in earnings... which would absolutely floor me as a creator, and make that novel far and away the new top of my heap.
But, end of the day, I have .75. Which is about enough to do half a load of laundry, or thereabouts.
If You Like What People Make, Support Them
Creators need the people who consume their content to support them, but even more importantly we need people to understand how they can support us, and what effect their actions have on us and our ability to keep producing work. Because while I may not have made any real money off that story, with all the folks out there who have Ad Block up, I'd be willing to wager that A Vox in The Void didn't exactly pull down fat cash over their reading either. A few additional subscribers, perhaps, a lot of good comments, and a decent amount of upvotes, but nothing that's going to launch them up into the earnings stratosphere.
So what can you do if you're someone who likes my (or someone else's) work, and wants to see me keep making more of it? Well, you can:
- Read and share posts
- Leave a tip (Vocal has this option, by the by)
- Buy a book (For yourself or someone else)
- Follow us on social media
- Leave reviews
- Become a patron (again, my Patreon link!)
At the end of the day, creators need your help to keep making things. And if they're making things available for free, they need even more support to help turn a profit off of all that time and energy.
But Think of The Exposure!
If you're a regular here, you already know my views on this statement. However, I'm going to expand on it, because this is something that just keeps... cropping... up.
Creators (whether they're authors, animators, dramatic readers, vloggers, or whatever other form it takes) cannot pay their rent with exposure. We cannot buy food with exposure. We cannot fix our cars, keep our lights on, or pay our heating bills with exposure. Because, in case you don't know, exposure is kicking the can down the line and hoping someone else foots the bill. It's rolling the dice on a whisper and a prayer that maybe somebody will take up the challenge of supporting this creator. Somebody other than you.
Be the support you want to see in the world. If you have money to spare, leave a creator a tip, or buy a book. If you don't, like a video, give them a subscription, make a post on social media, or boost their signal. Don't wait for the mythical god of "exposure" to alight on their shoulder and give them a check... creators die of exposure every year. And when they happens they can't make any more cool stuff for you to check out!
Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!
That's all for this week's Business of Writing! If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!
If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!
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