No... instead it appears to be how famous you can make yourself as an influencer, YouTuber, or TikTok channel, as Matt Wallace points out.
 |
| Yeah... it's like that. |
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!
Writers Don't Get Famous For Writing Anymore
When you think of famous writers, chances are they're famous to you for their books. Whether it's Poe, Lovecraft, King, Gaiman, or dozens upon dozens of others, you know these people's names because of the books they wrote. Period. But even back in the relatively recent days of the 1980s and 1990s, things worked differently than they do now... and the things you need to do to be successful in today's market are getting further and further away from actually writing books.
I talked about this a few years back in I Just Want To Write... but Mr. Wallace really lays it out for all of us. Because 40 or 50 years ago the best advice you could give a writer was, "The best way to move copies of this book is to start working on your next book."
Sadly, that advice is for a world that no longer exists.
Now you have people trying to get seen on TikTok, to start podcasts, to run YouTube channels, and to do anything to get noticed in this media-saturated landscape we find ourselves in... and even when doing that works, and gets you attention, that doesn't mean it's going to actually get you closer to your goal of being a successful author.
Take the above story as an example. I wrote The Final Lamentation as a stand-alone piece of fan fiction set in the Warhammer 40K universe. My text version of the story, no matter how hard I tried to push it, or how many Facebook groups, subreddits, etc., I shared it on barely went anywhere. A few folks read it here and there, but generally speaking it probably hasn't amassed more than a few hundred reads at time of writing.
The audio drama version, though? That has 157,376 views, over 500 comments, and over 7,000 upvotes! Enough people have seen this version of the story that I've had folks recommend it to me, without knowing I'm the guy who wrote it in the first place.
Now, to be clear, I adore this adaptation of my work. I love how it helped more people come across my story, and how it helped boost the signal. I am remarkably touched by some of the very kind things folks said about this story, and how much they enjoyed it. However, making something like this production is both not writing, and it's something that is a far larger undertaking than just putting words on a page. It takes voice talent, recording equipment, sound effects, the right music, and so much more to turn a piece of fiction into an audio drama.
But, even worse, there's no guarantee that the popularity of a piece of media like this will turn into something profitable. Because even if someone enjoys an audio drama, or a video you made, they're not all that likely to go check out your website, or to follow the links you left in the production. They probably aren't going to type your name into a search engine to find more of your work, either. People consume what's in front of them, and then move on to the next thing more often than not.
Which leaves you making more and more content to try to pull in the audience, to let people know about your work, which rarely does anything to sell the books you've already written, but which also eats up all the time you would spend writing new books which you now aren't.
So What Can You Do To Help?
As with all my other diatribes on this subject, it really does come down to you as the audience. I've said this before, but authors are like gladiators in the arena; we could put on the finest show of weapons skill possible, and defeat three dozen opponents, but unless you all make some noise for us we aren't going to get any kind of reward at the end of the day.
We need you to elevate our signal, and make people aware of us. We need you to share links to our books on your social media pages, tell your friends and family, leave reviews, share our posts, follow our pages and our channels... in short, we need you all to raise your voices loudly enoug that the algorithm cannot ignore you, and it becomes impossible to throttle our signal because so many people are talking about what we're making.
And, of course, it always helps if you can donate to help us keep producing more work. Because the further we can keep the wolf from the door, the easier it becomes to put words on the page.
If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!
- 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!
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment