Writing is Art. Publishing is Business.

There is a constant argument in writing circles that I see almost every day. On the one side of it you have people who are here for the art. These are people concerned with the craft of storytelling, with the work of bringing ideas to life, and with the constant need to keep their skills and words sharp. Then there are those who are concerned with actually selling books. These are people concerned with market share, trends in genres, what strategies actually move copies online versus in-person, and all the minutae of making a living in the trade.

Each of these groups have dug trenches, and set up their defenses, each convinced the other is wrong in important, fundamental ways regarding being a writer. However, there is something that's important to remember... this isn't an either/or situation. If you actually want to succeed in this career, you're going to need both aspects of this discussion.

You should work on writing the best books you can... but writing a good book and believing that's all you have to do is like saying if you talk to the cops then nothing bad will happen to you. It's a nice sentiment, but historically, not true in the least.

There's no way around this. I wish there was, but there isn't.

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!

Two Sides of The Coin (That Rarely Interact With Each Other)

I've said it before, but there is a truth that bears repeating. I want everyone here, if you take nothing else away from this article, to remember these words.

The success or failure of a book, commercially, has NOTHING to do with its quality artistically.

If you read those words, I want you to read them again. And then one more time just for good measure. Because we all have this assumption that good writing will be rewarded, and bad writing will fail, and there is no evidence to support this belief. We just think that's how it should be, because that's what seems fair.

And this industry laughs in the face of fairness.

Seriously, the Invisible Hand of The Market is just giving you the finger. Always.

Publishing is a business. Pure and simple. The publishing industry does not care about art. It does not care about groundbreaking stories, or well-told narratives, or all those things that matter to most of us as writers. Publishing, on the whole, cares what moves copies, and what does numbers on the market.

That is it. Period.

This is why so much of what you see from the mainstream publishing industry is easily digestible, easily slots into genres, and hits the right bullet points for the largest number of people in the audience. Because publishers are, essentially, gambling on every title they put out. And they do not care if a book is barely-disguised vampire fan fiction with the serial numbers sanded off, or the next great American novel that will move readers to tears and give them a new view on life... if the numbers say the former book is a safe bet, that's what they will publish.

Now, are there publishers and editors who try to elevate books they believe have artistic value, or traditionally come from writers who aren't considered the safest of bets? Of course there are. However, in this case, these are the exceptions that prove the rule.

The publishing industry, like any other industry, runs on money. A company has to pay a salary to its editors, to its staffers, to its layout people, artists, and everyone else who turns manuscripts into books. Not only that, but there's the cost of printing books, the cost of shipping books, and the cost of all the marketing that's done to help that book move copies. For a book to be a success, it has to not just cover its costs, but make extra profit for the company so that it can take on new titles, and keep doing what its doing. Books that it doesn't think will sell don't get picked up, and that may not be because they aren't good. It may be that they're niche, or that the author isn't well-known enough, or that they're from a genre or style that has, historically, not turned a profit.

At the same time, factors that have nothing to do with the quality of a story or the skill of the author may be deciding factors for getting it published. For example, is the book written by a celebrity or a public figure? If so, then it will likely be greenlit rapidly, because it comes with a built-in audience. Is the book about a hot button issue, or a major historical event that happened recently that people are engaged with? Is this book from an author who has been successful in the past, regardless of the quality of their work? If so, then it gets published.

Art is Just a Product To Money

Consider, for a moment, the world of gallery art. The idea is that if your art is good enough to show in a gallery, and to be purchased for such obscene prices, then clearly your art must be good quality, yes?

It's the same fallacy at work in a different way.

As Adam Conover points out here, the world of fine art is just a grift for the wealthy. They do not care about the integrity or skill of the artist, or the message or quality of the art. They will, quite literally, sell canvases with hot dog smears on them. Why? Not because, "modern art is stupid and ridiculous," but because it makes them money. The art gallery, the rich patrons, and art appraisers work together to jack up the supposed value of this art, and then that art is used as donations, or other ways to avoid rich people paying taxes.

It's a bait-and-switch, and they'll do it with a blank canvas titled Take The Money and Run as surely as they'll do it with a Rembrandt.

Capital doesn't care about artistic integrity. It doesn't care about skill, or pain, or the years it took to tell a tale, or the emotional impact it will have on the audience. Capital cares about profits generated. This is why so many companies were throwing together A.I. slop and trying to get people to buy it; because pushing a button to generate a novel costs them nothing, and can only make profits. Doesn't matter if the product is bunk if it made them money. And if they could do it dozens, hundreds, or thousands of times, even if these books were unreadable, nonsensical drek (or, worse, contained inaccurate, harmful information), at the end of the day, if it made money, it was considered a "good" decision.

Do people prefer well-written stories that touch them? Do readers like characters that stay with them long after they close the covers? Absolutely. However, getting your book into the hands of actual people can be hard as hell when you have to ride the roller coaster of figuring out what obscure factors the all-knowing publishing oracle thinks will or won't make your project a horse they should back.

So What Does This Have To Do With All Of You?

Why am I telling you all this? After all, if you've been around here for any length of time, chances are you already knew most of this. And if this is new information to you, well, you may be wondering what you can do to change it. You probably don't work in the publishing industry, and all you can really do is vote with your wallet, right?

Remember how I said that publishers make decisions based on numbers? You are one of those numbers, and all the things you do, and all the activity you generate, is what makes those numbers go up for the authors whose work you love, and whom you want to support.

As an example, take this novel of mine.

Take my novel Marked Territory, a gritty, gangland noir mystery where the entire cast are street beasts from NYC. This book currently has 19 ratings and reviews on Amazon, and it sells a handful of copies every quarter since it's re-release. Its sequel, Painted Cats only has 12 ratings and reviews, and moves about the same volume.

Now, if I were to write more books about Leo, I'm sure my publisher would take them, and publish them. However, if both of the existing books started getting a lot of ratings and reviews, and moving big numbers (hundreds to thousands of copies a quarter, rather than a few dozen), I daresay that my publisher would be calling me up. Firstly to congratulate me, and secondly, to ask me how long it would take me to get another book into their hands so they could ride this train a little further. It's even possible that, if these books developed a large following, that projects like putting out an audio book, or even going into discussions for film adaptation rights might happen.

And you know something? With the money those sales would generate, I could actually focus on writing those books as the main part of my workday, rather than trying to fit in a few hundred words here and a few hundred words there at the end of the work day.

Money talks. Everything else walks.

I happen to think these books are well-written, fun, told with a wry sense of humor, and that they generally leave readers satisfied. However, even if these books weren't good, that wouldn't matter if they were still doing the numbers I mentioned. If the product makes a profit, it gets published, and gets all the bells and whistles. If it doesn't move those numbers, no matter how much care, love, and art went into it, it sits in the bottom of the bin waiting for someone to dig down deep enough to find it.

And that is where a majority of us are, as creators. We don't have baskets of money to buy advertising for the stuff we make. We don't have legions of followers, or huge controversies getting our names in the news. We just have the books we wrote, and a sincere belief in our work.

But that doesn't move copies, or pay the bills.

So remember this. Because if you want that author you like to succeed, you can't trust that the invisible hand of the market is going to recognize their talent. Be the change you want to see. Be the number on their spreadsheet. Buy copies, leave ratings and reviews, follow thier social media, share their stories so other people can see them. Be an active participant in their career. Because the more people that stand around and cheer, the more people are going to wander over, wondering what it is that's gotten you so excited.

And that is what it takes to make us successful in business.

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!

When In Doubt, Make Good Art

There was a commencement speech given by Neil Gaiman titled Make Good Art. I first heard it in the audiobook version of The View From The Cheap Seats, and the speech really stuck with me. This is particularly true when it comes to the refrain which tells us that no matter the challenges you're facing, the frustrations you're dealing with, and whether the tide is rising or trying to drown you, there's only one thing you need to do.

Make good art.

Sounds easy, right?

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!

Making Art Is What It's All About

The short speech from the more-famous-Neil (as he's referred to around my home) talks a little bit about his career. From starting off as a journalist, to writing for comic books, to publishing short stories, novels, screenplays, audio books, to the point where he even wrote a few episodes of Doctor Who, he's had his shares of trials, tribulations, and triumphs. And while he acknowledges all the work he put in, and all the lucky breaks he got, he pointed out some realities that it can be easy to lose sight of.

First, making art is a worthwhile endeavor. It fulfills us in important ways that should not be overlooked, or understated. Even if you don't get paid for it (or you don't get paid what you should be), the very act of creating matters.

Secondly, though, he points out something that is important to remember for all creators, not just writers. That no writing, no matter the kind, is ever wasted. Whether you wrote a comic, a script, a short story, a novel, that act only makes you better. Much like going to the gym, or putting in a day of training, it keeps you sharp, helps you grow, and improves your skills. And while it's true that not finishing a project means you can't put it out on the market and make money from it, finishing a project is no guarantee of success either.

Everything is a crap shoot. Everything.

You place your bet, and you shoot your shot.

Something that I think we should take from Gaiman's words, though, is that everything is a gamble. Writing that book has no more guarantee of happiness than taking that Serious Job (TM), or going into journalism instead of comic books. However, it is better to do the thing, and to keep doing the thing rain or shine. Because dedication will open doors to opportunities that luck by itself would have missed entirely, and if you're going to be a writer you need the odds to be as in your favor as possible.

But I wanted to take this week to remind folks of this advice. If you're struggling, if you're doubting yourself, if you're wondering if anyone even cares about your work, make good art. And if you're riding high, doing the best you can, or you're hitting your milestones, make good art. To abuse my favorite metaphor, it's like going to the gym. You do it when you're pumped, and feeling strong, and have a lot of energy, and you do it when you're tired, or depressed, or frustrated, or you've had a bad day. You do it because it's part of the process, and you need to keep going.

Because writing, like your body, is an organic thing. Use it, or lose it, and you'll never get any stronger, faster, or more skilled if you don't actually do the thing.

So make good art.

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!

Don't Take Criticism From People You Wouldn't Go To For Advice

It takes a massive amount of energy, drive, vision, and focus in order to translate any work of fiction from the electrical impulses in your skull jelly to words on a page. And after sweating through that slog to make something out of nothing, you'd think that we'd be protective as hell of all that hard work.

But so many of us are willing to put our work into major surgery at the first sign that someone doesn't love it as much as we do... and we honestly need to stop that.

Seriously, you made it, stand by it!

Before we get into it this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! To be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, make sure you check out my Vocal archive for several hundred other articles about geek ephemera, weird history, writing, and more!

Criticism is Everywhere (Don't Take It All Home With You)

If you're a creator, then you're going to get criticism. Art is completely subjective, and even if you have experience, talent, skill, a unique idea, and you polish it to a mirror shine, there's always going to be someone who tells you your work is shit. Sometimes they'll elaborate, and tell you all the things they didn't like about it. Sometimes they'll just yell obscenities in text, and give you a 1 star rating.

There are, however, a few important things you should ask yourself when criticism comes your way. Some of these include:

- Is It Specific?: Anyone can say your book sucks, or they hate your work... but do they know anything about it, or are they just shouting about something they haven't even read?

- Is It In Bounds?: If someone criticizes your book about vampires in a submarine for getting submarine physics and names wrong, that's fair. If they're mad your vampires don't work the same as vampires in a different series, less so.

- Is It In Good Faith?: This can be hard to tell at a glance, but there's a lot of bad faith criticism out there. Learning to recognize this helps a great deal, because people who aren't engaging with you in good faith aren't people you should pay attention to.

Perhaps the most important question you should ask yourself, though, is whether the person offering you criticism is a person you trust. Do you know their bona fides, and do their words carry weight with you? Or are they just some random person who has decided you need to hear their opinion about your work?

You don't know me, but let me tell you all about why you're shit.

You should, generally speaking, be polite to people whenever you can. However, if the criticism is coming from people who aren't in your audience, and who don't have any experience with telling stories or writing books, it's okay not to take their words to heart.

If someone who only reads sci fi doesn't like your sword and sorcery novel, why do you care? They've just told you they aren't in your target audience. If someone tells you they aren't a writer, but then they try to tell you how to write, isn't that like someone with zero knowledge about cars telling their mechanic what to do? It seems obvious, but we often let criticism right past our front gates, and it can make us second-guess so much of our work, and try to change it to satisfy the maximum number of people.

You're never really immune to this, either.

Consider this audio version of my short story Gav and Bob, Part 5: Faith and Martyrs. Going through the comments, there are a lot of folks who really liked it. Some commenters said it made them cry, while others were excited to hear what became of Gav and the other characters afterward. But out of those 731 comments, there were a few who dissented. Some folks claimed this was just fan service, and it was a pointless addition to the story. Some thought it should have had more action, or focused more on Gav and the others fighting the Emperor's foes as they had in previous chapters/installments. However, I made myself back up, and really look at the totality of what I was facing.

In addition to those 731 comments (a few of which were negative), there were 4.3 thousand upvotes on this video! Not only that, but at time of writing it's got over 59,000 views, which for something that involves my work is pretty impressive overall.

Taking the metrics as a whole, that's a pretty overwhelmingly positive response to the story... but even with that many people and factors in favor of the thing I made, the few objections and criticisms still got through. And I had to remind myself that with that many people clearly enjoying the thing I made, I should try to focus on the approval rather than the dissenting voices. Especially since none of those voices came from people who'd written for the Black Library, or even other prominent 40K fan channels. They were just a handful of folks out of thousands who didn't like what I'd made.

And that's just the cost of doing of business.

Support The Literary Mercenary

For folks who just want to do their part to help keep me making more content, please subscribe/follow me in these locations:

- 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, consider checking out my show Tabletop Mercenary if you've ever thought about becoming a TTRPG creator, but you want a glimpse behind the curtain before you just jump into the deep end.

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!

After You Buy Them, I Don't Care What You Do With My Books

As authors, we want people to read our books. We want people to enjoy the stories we tell, and we want them to fall in love with the characters we create. We want to see people drive down the roads we've paved, and we want to know that all of the time, energy, and effort that we put into making these worlds is appreciated by other people who come and play in our mental sandboxes.

There is a bizarre hang-up that a lot of people in the profession have, and this is particularly true for those who romanticize the profession of writing. In short, while it's nice if people enjoy our work, don't get so focused on it that it's all you can think about. As long as you're moving copies, that's all that matters at the end of the day.

Seriously... grab a copy. What you do with it is your business!

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!

Sales Are The Bottom Line

There's a single panel comic that makes the rounds every time there's angry parents trying to get a book banned, or every time a film gets boycotted because it has too few white men for certain vocal parts of the audience. In this comic there's an author sitting at a table, and a clearly irate person confronting them.

Angry Reader: I hate your book so much I bought a copy and burned it!

Author: Why stop there? Buy 10 copies and burn them, that will show me.

Go on, coward. Do it.

While the obvious statement of the piece is that a lot of people don't actually know how boycotts are supposed to work, the point made from the business perspective is equally important. Because if a bunch of angry consumers bought all of the beer that comes in a rainbow can, the company doesn't see their angery; all the company sees is a big, fat uptick in sales. They don't care if you you drank that beer, poured it down the drain, or launched it out of a catapult and fired bird shot at it while playing God Bless The USA on a loudspeaker... they make the same profit regardless of what you did with your purchase.

This is a mindset that I highly recommend you adopt if you don't want to drive yourself to the point of madness as an author.

Do I want people to read my Hardboiled Cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats? I absolutely do! Do I want gamers out there to pick up copies of my recently-released tabletop RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, and the supplemental releases like Army Men: Threat Assessments? Yes, obviously! And I want that because I spent a lot of time, energy, and effort on these things (as well as on all the other novels, games, etc. that I'm not linking here) and I want people to genuinely enjoy them.

But let's say that people buy copies of the things I make, and then they don't get around to actually using them. Maybe they buy a copy of my novels at a convention, but they're pressed for time, and so my books sit on their to-read shelf. Maybe they buy a game I made, and even if they read it, they never find a group to actually play it with. Or maybe they just put it on their shelf of games they think were neat, but they just don't have time for.

We all have one bookshelf of shame. Don't lie.

Is that disappointing in a personal sense? A little bit, sure. But at the end of the day, those people paid their money for the thing I made. What they do with it (or don't do with it) is their business. And while I would like reviews on my books (as that always get the algorithm paying attention to you), and I would love active participants in my work, I'll take people who show up, buy the new thing, and then put it in the, "I'll get around to it," pile over people who don't do that.

Because at the end of the day, what books get sequels and supplements are driven by sales figures. Whether or not I can pay my bills, get a celebratory pizza, or even afford to keep doing convention appearances, is driven by sales. And if there are a thousand people who all line up to buy a book when it drops, or to snatch up a supplement of mine, I will say thank you very much, cash the check, and get back to work on the next thing.

I'd like them to read it. It'd like them to enjoy it, and leave a review of it, and tell all their friends and family about it... but if all they do is put cash in my hand and get a copy for their shelves, I will gladly take that.

So whether you need a pulse-pounding thriller, an alley cat mystery, a tactical TTRPG, or you just want to use my books as a fancy paperweight or doorstop, that's up to you. Hell, I'll still sign it for you, if you want!

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!