"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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| "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!
- 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.
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