The Catch-22 Capitalism Has Me Caught in as an Author

If you've heard the term Catch-22, you likely know that it comes from a novel about WWII. In short, the military stated that pilots who were not sane would not be allowed to fly combat missions. However, being afraid of death was a perfectly rational feeling, so if you were sane enough to take the out, then the military would deem you sane enough to fly the mission. This put you between a rock and a hard place where there was no real way for you to win short of doing something drastic. In other words, a Catch-22 is a problem where the only solution is denied you because of the conditions of the problem itself.

I bring this up because this is a situation I find myself in as an author the further into 2021 we get. And since I know I'm not alone I wanted to shine some light on this so readers out there might be able to better appreciate why their favorite creators are doing what they're doing.

It will take how long? No, I've got rent to pay.

If you want to help alleviate some of this pressure from the rock and the hard place I'm caught in, please consider becoming a Patreon patron. And if you want to get all my regular updates, all you need to do is sign up for my weekly email!

Why You're Seeing a Lot of Smaller Pieces From Me

For folks who didn't hear, I had to move at the beginning of 2021. My old apartment building had been bought by new landlords, and they were squeezing everyone out in order to renovate the place. In the middle of a pandemic, before vaccines were available. Not a great look. I found a new place that still cost more for me to live in, but which allowed me to save some money by providing amenities my old place didn't. However, at the end of the day, I was still going to need to increase my income to stay one step ahead of the bills and to keep my new landlords happy.

I did this by talking to one of the main companies I work with, Azukail Games, and voluntarily increasing my workload with them. So rather than putting out one RPG supplement a month (stuff like my 100 Random Taverns or 100 Tieflings to Meet in Your Travels) I have been writing two of them a month since about March. I've also been taking occasional side projects from other companies looking for short-term, fast turnaround projects that I can plug into the gaps while I spin those other things out as quickly as I can.

And the spinning is getting pretty fast.

As a result, I'm quickly growing my archive of RPG supplements over on Drive Thru RPG. At time of writing, my name appears in 114 projects, and about 91 of them pay me royalties on sales. And while some of them sell a lot of copies, and some of them sell far less than I'd like, mostly I'm churning out so many of these projects because I need that per-word rate I get up-front in order to cover my bills. Don't get me wrong, royalties are lovely, but I would need to either write another 90 supplements (something that will take quite some time even at 2 per month) or for a piece to go seriously viral for those royalties to buy me some breathing room.

So what does that mean to you?

Well, if you were hoping I'd put out more novels anytime soon (perhaps a third case for my feline heavy Leo to follow up Marked Territory and Painted Cats), that's probably not going to happen for the foreseeable future. If you were interested in me putting together a campaign book, perhaps in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, that's just not going to be possible. If you wanted to see me assemble something like a freehold starter guide for Changeling: The Lost, or put together a supplement book for Hunter: The Vigil (and I really had something special planned for that), those things just aren't going to be feasible for a while.

Because writing things like this takes time, and my landlords, utility provider, etc. aren't going to let me slide for a few months to a year while I assemble those bigger projects and put them out on the market.

The Catch-22

Now, here's the rub. Because bigger, more involved projects usually come with bigger checks and larger royalties to make them worthwhile. So if I had the time to, say, put together an entire campaign where players had to save the dragon eggs stolen from one of the Founders of Hoardreach (an idea I have notes on, should I get to expand on it) there's a good chance that would actually make some serious money. It's a lot easier to sell novels than it is to sell short stories, and even a mildly successful novel could transform my income overnight as new readers dug into my archive to see what else I've written.

But again, that's the Catch-22.

I can't write bigger, longform projects right now because I need money to pay my bills immediately. But there's a good chance I could get the money I need, if only I could get some of those larger releases onto the market.

So What Can You Do?

If you've read this far, and you want to help me get out of this tight spot so I can breathe again and get back to working on longer-form pieces instead of killing myself trying to churn out as many short and snacky things as I can every month, there's a couple of things you can do. The following list isn't complete, but it's a good start for folks who want to make an immediate difference right now!

- Become a Patreon patron. Seriously, no joke, Patreon is the best way to help out me, and creators like me, because it adds up fast. I've had a tough time holding onto patrons for a while now, so every subscription helps. Of course, for those who want to offer a one-time tip, I also have a Ko-Fi page!

- Buy my books, and help spread the word! Whether you want a feline mystery with novels like Marked Territory and Painted Cats, a dystopian thriller starring decommissioned super soldiers in Old Soldiers, or even old-fashioned sword and sorcery in Crier's Knife, I need all the readers I can get. And if you've already gotten your copy, leave a rating and a review... once I make it over 50, that's when the algorithm kicks in and Amazon starts advertising my books to people outside my personal reach.

- Tell your friends and followers. This is a huge deal, and people really don't appreciate how important their voices are. Authors have a generally limited reach unless they're already hugely famous, which is why we depend on people like you to help boost our signal. The algorithm does everything it can to muzzle us to force us to pay for ads, so we need all the help we can in fighting it.

- Follow me on social media. Speaking of algorithms, social media sites give more credence to accounts with larger amounts of followers. Even if you're just taking up a slot and acting as a warm body, you still get counted (though interacting, liking, sharing, etc. is also greatly valued). So help me boost my numbers on Facebook and Twitter so I can reach more people, find more support, and hopefully be able to take my foot off the gas on these shorter projects before I turn 40.

It might seem small and insignificant... but when you're as close to ground level as I am as an author, little gestures make big differences. Thanks in advance to everyone who holds out a helping hand, and remember, creators need your help to be able to keep doing what they're doing.

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!