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:

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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!

The Balance of Writing Space Marines

The space marine has become an archetype of science fiction. While the term often brings to mind the adeptus astartes from Warhammer 40K, the term has become common enough that it can be used to refer to any kind of elite warrior in a sci fi setting, ranging from the Sardaukar of Dune to the mercilessly-trained troops in the film Soldier. Even characters like Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, or infamous video game protagonist Master Chief fall into this archetype. These warriors may be genetically-engineered terrors from beyond the stars, encased in a hardened layer of powered armor, or they may simply have been trained since birth in the harshest environments and doctrine... but they all represent a unique challenge for us as writers.

Namely that making your space marines work as characters can be a delicate process. So I thought I'd offer some of my insight on this subject today.

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!

My Bona fides

Before I get into the meat of this week's topic, I want to share some of my bona fides on this subject so that people know who it is they're taking advice from. Over the past few years I've penned a number of pretty popular unofficial short stories set in the grim darkness of the far future that heavily feature the adeptus astartes. Not only that, but I also wrote the novel Old Soldiers (which comes back into print today with a fresh new cover, and the original short story that inspired it), which is about a nine-foot-tall genetically engineered shock trooper attempting to integrate back into civilian life before he becomes the target of an insidious conspiracy that he and his former squad mates have to pull out by the roots.

Seriously, check it out today!

So if you want to take a moment and read through the preview on my novel (or check out any of the short stories below), feel free to do so!

- Waking Dogs and Broken Chains: These two stories follow the adventures of the World Eater Crixus. A traitor to the Imperium, he is disgusted by what loyalty turned him into. With his wrath turned on his brothers, he seeks to wipe out the mistake his legion has become once and for all.

- Blackest Knights: The black shields of the Deathwatch have bound themselves to service in exchange for wiping out whatever sins they previously committed. Some squads will have one, or maybe two, but Kill Team Errant is formed entirely of these warriors... and we soon see that their reputation precedes them.

- The Final Lamentation: The Lamenters are famed for their tears... but when a Black Legion ship takes prisoners from this chapter, they soon learn that the only thing more dangerous than a Lamenter with people to protect is one with nothing left to lose.

Firstly, Remember The Inhuman Aspects

As I mentioned above, "space marines" come in a lot of shapes and sizes. However, what sets them apart from standard soldiers or military personnel in a sci fi setting is that they are in some way inhuman. It's what separates the indoctrinated, unfeeling troops of the Soldier program from regular fighters like the colonial marines in Aliens; there's something other about the former that the latter doesn't share.

"Other" can take a lot of forms in this genre.

It's important, from the get-go, that you use this inherent alien aspect to make your space marine stand out. Whether it's mentions of their sheer size, the speed at which they can move, their unerring single-mindedness, or even the way they seem to speak more like machines than humans, anything that marks them out for your audience needs to be front-loaded. Don't hammer on it till it becomes the sole, defining trait of your space marine character, but make sure that it comes up often enough that neither the cast, nor the audience, forgets this character falls into the uncanny, even if they are still technically human.

As a final note, this becomes significantly more important if we're seeing things from your space marine's perspective. They should experience the world in a unique, unusual fashion that might be jarring at first, but which can suck your audience in. As an example, those who read Old Soldiers will find that our protagonist Pollux has an unerring sense of time and distance, as well as seeing things in extremely specific measurements. This is in addition to his body's unique need to absorb and eat certain wavelengths of radiation to maintain itself, on top of being a man of truly colossal size moving through a city that wasn't built with his dimensions in mind.

Secondly, Remember The Human

This seems like a direct contradiction of the first tip, but stick with me for a moment. Because another aspect of the space marine, whatever form it takes, is that they are (or at least were) human. No matter what genetic or cybernetic augmentations they've been given, what indoctrination they've undergone, or what horrors they've witnessed, beneath their gleaming armor and thousand-yard-stares beats the heart (or hearts) of a fellow human.

And that is where we can often lose our balance.

Speaking of the balance of humanity...

There are going to be stories where you may not want to delve too deeply into the human aspects of your space marine characters. If they're meant to act as antagonists, or if they're a huge threat that your lead has to overcome, you might be perfectly comfortable leaving them in Terminator mode. However, as we saw with the sequel to that film, humanizing our unstoppable killing machines can have a huge impact on the story, and it can add some truly poignant moments to a story.

As an example, take my short stories Waking Dogs and Broken Chains. In the former we see Crixus awaken from the haze of rage and pain caused by the Butcher's Nails, and decide he's had enough. He will no longer bow to the will of an uncaring father, or continue to fight for the sake of fighting. He sees, in that awful moment, the terrible, savage things he and his brothers of the World Eaters have become, and he is disgusted. He decides to wipe out as many of his brothers as he can, putting down the rabid dogs they've become. That's compelling enough in and of itself, and it gives us a handle on Crixus as a character. In the sequel we see more of his skill at arms as he faces off in a grudge match with his old sergeant... but we also see glimpses of Crixus's past. We see him among brothers in the early years of the legion. Not only that, but we see him as a child, bruised and bloody, willing to fight for his place on the line. And we're reminded that, deep inside this ancient warrior whose mind has been scrambled by centuries of warfare, and the electric flogging of his cerebral implant, is a child soldier who wanted to stand for something. Who wanted to be strong to protect people who were too small or weak to protect themselves.

Now, you don't have to go that deep into your particular space marine character's history or psychology if it doesn't create the effect you want on the page. But even if it's something like a glimpse beneath their helmet to see the remnants of a human face, or seeing them finally break their programming to do something human instead of something they were trained to do, that can add a lot of depth and poignancy to a character archetype that runs the risk of being too stilted and flat. Even something as simple as just showing fear, or sorrow, can do it if the jab is delivered at the right time.

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!

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 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!

Can Fan Fiction Help You Sell Your Own Books? (Yes... With Some Luck)

Most of us are at least passingly familiar with fan fiction. A lot of people read it, and for a lot of writers it can be a comfort zone, or a project that comes with training wheels before they go out and carve their own worlds from scratch. However, one of the best-known things regarding fan fiction is that you are not allowed to sell it, since we aren't talking about public domain properties, here.

That doesn't mean you can't still use it as a tool to increase your earnings as an author, though.

It's not a guarantee (nothing in this world is), but if you are someone who has been looking for a professional reason to play around in an already-established sandbox, this might be what you've been waiting for.

After all, there's a lot of readers out there waiting to meet you!

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!

Finding Readers in Your Fandom

Fan fiction has a long (and occasionally contentious) history, but these days fan fiction communities tend to be left alone as long as they aren't directly selling/profiting off of the intellectual property in question. While there have been notable exceptions, such as Disney siccing its lawyers on fan artists, or the big blowup with Games Workshop coming after fan animators for projects in their Warhammer 40K setting, incidents like these have become less and less common over time.

So, let's say you wrote a fan fiction piece that got pretty well noticed within the community. Even if your story gets thousands of reads, that doesn't directly put money in your pockets... however, it can act as a billboard for you to try to get those readers interested in some of your other work.

As an example...

One of the better examples that comes to mind are my short stories Waking Dogs: A World Eaters' Tale and Field Test. Both of these are fan stories set in the grim darkness of the far future that is Warhammer 40k, and both of them have been mildly successful in terms of being circulated among the fandom. They even reached the point where someone on Reddit who had no idea I was the author recommended that I read them if I were looking for more good content... which is sort of a surreal situation to be in.

However, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of those stories you'll notice that I have a section that directly links to more of my work. Not only that, but I specifically draw attention to my sci-fi noir thriller Old Soldiers, which is also about gigantic, genetically-engineered super soldiers created to fight a war for survival against unknowable alien entities. So the logic goes that if readers enjoyed my take on Warhammer 40k stories, maybe they'd like to take a side step into a novel that's in the same ballpark, but most definitely in a universe all its own.

I used a similar strategy with my fantasy series The Silver Raven Chronicles, which has been cataloging my RPG group's run through the Hell's Rebels adventure path. Following the events of a pre-written campaign, the series is meant to capture the attention of those who would enjoy stories about leading a rebellion, and punching devil-worshiping fascists in the face... but it also acts as an attention-grabber so that folks will check out my other stories like The Irregulars, or my daggers and witchcraft novel Crier's Knife.

It is worth noting that for this strategy to work, you need to actually get the attention of the fans in the community. Sometimes you can do that with one story, but sometimes it will take more than that. You'll still need to create the best possible piece of fiction you can, and to spread it as far and wide as possible so that it doesn't go under anyone's radars. And even if people see it and react positively to your tale, that's no guarantee that they'll actually read any of your other work, or buy your other books... but they might.

And that is more or less what marketing is about; weighing the odds, and rolling the dice on what your audience might do.

Incidentally, for those who are curious, the Silver Raven Chronicles has 4 installments at time of writing:

- Part One: Devil's Night: A mysterious vigilante prowls the streets of Kintargo.

- Part Two: From The Ashes: A protest becomes a riot as the new "mayor" attempts to establish control.

- Part Three: The Raven's Nest: The burgeoning rebellion establishes a secret base.

- Part Four: Circles in Salt: The Ghost joins the Silver Ravens, striking a blow against Thrune.

Option Two: You Can File Off The Serial Numbers

There is another option you have available, as well. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of energy, but you can make it work for you if you so desire. In short, if you have a popular fan fiction that has a noted number of fans, you can re-work it to remove the intellectual property that isn't yours (while keeping the same core structure of the narrative) and re-release it as a novel that your built-in audience can then support.

As another example...

The books Freya's Baby, Tearing Down The Wall, and Freya's Baby Shattered are all by Alice Liddell, whose work you should definitely check out. While she's published literal dozens of books that cover all sorts of genres and topics, these particular books have their roots in one of her fandoms... namely the Nickelodeon cartoon Hey Arnold!

Alice has been a part of that fandom for years, and back in 2011 she wrote what turned out to be a pretty popular fan fiction. It was available online for years, and as such things go had a pretty decent fan following. However, reading back over it, she realized it could be improved... and if she was going to improve it, then it was also possible to remove the scaffolding of the cartoon's intellectual property at the same time. So she took it down, retooled it, brought it up to standards, and turned it into an original work.

According to the author herself, this garnered some mixed responses. Some readers were excited, eager to pick up copies of their own to see how the story had changed. Others threw a hissy fit that it wasn't free anymore. However, if we're talking about how the sausage is made when it comes to fiction, recycling a project and turning it into something fresh, while also keeping at least a portion of its existing fan base (who are now brought even more deeply into your orbit as a creator) is nothing to turn your nose up at.

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!

The Pros and Cons of Writing Tie-In Fiction

Tie-in fiction is, generally speaking, fiction that is based in an existing universe. Whether it's the Star Wars extended universe novels, the books concerning the adventures of Drizzt Do'urden in the Forgotten Realms, or even video game novels for those who read the series based on Doom in the 90s, all of these are tie-in fiction because even if the characters and plots are unique to the author, the world they take place in is still not their own intellectual property.

It's something I'm passingly familiar with.

While I'm no stranger to writing tie-in fiction with stories like The Irregulars and Devil's Night in Pathfinder's Golarion universe, or my tales Almost and Waking Dogs for Warhammer 40K, it is something I'm considering increasing my efforts on in the future. And for those who are thinking on doing the same, I thought I'd take this week to talk about some of the pros and cons these projects come with... especially for folks thinking about trying their hand at their own.

Before I get too deep into the details, though, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter if you want to get all my updates sent right to your inbox. And if you want to help me keep the wheels turning and the content fresh, consider becoming a Patreon patron... every little bit really does help!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Because everything has pros and cons to it.

Let's start with the good things, shall we?

First and foremost, one of the biggest benefits of writing tie-in fiction is that a lot of the major aspects of the world and setting are already taken care of for you. Everything from how magic works (or doesn't), to what species exist, to what important world events have happened on the timeline are already part of the world structure. As a creator you don't have to wrack your brain doing all that heavy lifting and world building because it has, for the most part, already been handled for you. All you need to do is take this big bucket of ideas and setting, and tell a story using the tools provided.

As someone who has been doing so much professional world building this year that I wrote 5 Tips For Creating Fantasy Towns and Cities just to share some of my insights, I can appreciate projects that have the foundation laid for me.

The other major benefit of tie-in fiction is that it comes with a pre-selected audience of readers. Whether the story is set in a comic book universe, features a video game tie-in, or it's based in an RPG setting, fans of that universe/property are more likely to check it out. People love the familiar, and it is a lot easier to get people to read something in a familiar setting, or even with familiar characters, than it is to get them to invest time, energy, and cost into an untested universe.

But what about the downsides?

There are downsides to tie-in fiction, too.

Because large aspects of the world are already set in stone, it can limit your options as a storyteller. You often can't change too much in the way of a setting's magic or technology, for instance, and you have to respect the timeline and world events as they're established. This can make certain kinds of stories impossible to write in a given setting, and it may discourage you from certain tones and genre notes as well, which can be frustrating.

Perhaps an even bigger frustration, though, is when it comes to who is allowed to write tie-in fiction, who isn't, and under what circumstances.

For example, you can usually write fiction for established settings as long as you aren't directly making a profit off of it. I say usually because companies can still sweep in and hit you with a Cease & Desist any time you use their intellectual property without permission, though this often becomes a matter of optics and practicality rather than finances when creators are doing things just for fun, or when their work is increasing engagement with a property. This isn't an issue with properties in the public domain (things like Norse mythology, Arthurian legend, and characters like the Scarlet Pimpernel or the Phantom of The Opera), which is why you see so many different takes on those older works. Lastly, if a setting has a community content program then anyone who follows the established rules can write stories in that setting and get paid for them.

I wrote more about those in Community Content Programs For RPGs Are Another Avenue For Authors to Get Paid, for those who want a more in-depth look at how they work.

Will It Work For You?

The real question, at the end of the day, is whether writing tie-in fiction is going to be a net plus for you as a creator. And the answer unfortunately is... it depends on your goals?

Whether you want to use free tie-in fiction to draw attention to yourself as a creator in hopes that readers check out your original content, or you want to use the pre-built audience in order to sell copies of something made through a community content platform, the specifics are going to vary based on what you're trying to do, how active the community is, and just how big the desire for your particular type of tie-in is.

At the end of the day, it's a roll of the die. And while that die might come up a one, it could also come up a 20... you won't know if you don't try!

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!

The Ship of Theseus, Homage, and Inspiration in Writing

Thanks to the success of Wandavision, most of us are pretty familiar with the idea of the Ship of Theseus by now. Perhaps the simplest version of it is to suggest you have an ax. You kill someone with this ax, remove the head, melt it down, and throw it away. You replace that head with a fresh head. Then, years later, the haft snaps, so you replace it with a new haft.

This begs the question... is this the same ax you killed that man with? Even if it's made of entirely new components now than it was when you committed the murder? And if it's not the same ax, then at what point did it become something new? When the head was replaced? When the haft was? What was the essential change that gave it a new identity?

Now, there's no actual answer to this question. It's a philosophical exploration of identity, after all. However, I started thinking about the Ship of Theseus again because of a story I heard from a friend of mine about a writing group they're in. It also reminded me of another (mostly) facetious quote.

"Stealing from one source is plagiarism. Stealing from many sources is research."

Before we get into the meat of this week's blog, remember to subscribe to my weekly newsletter if you want to get all my latest updates. Also, if you want to help me keep the wheels turning, then I'd ask you to consider becoming a Patreon patron... it helps more than you know!

So How Do I Write a Story Like "Avatar: The Last Airbender"?

If you've been in any writing group of notable size for any length of time, you've likely heard a question like this before. The property may change, going from Lord of The Rings, to Dragonball Z, to The Avengers, but the heart of the query is always the same: How do I make something like this property, but which isn't just this property with the serial numbers filed off?

Something I feel I can speak about reliably at this point.

If you've ever had that moment where you felt really inspired by a particular property, and you wanted to try something similar in your own work, you should totally do that. However, if you want to still publish the story as your own creation rather than as a piece of fan work (or a derivative work, if you prefer that title), then you need to ask yourself about the Ship of Theseus, and when the source material for your inspiration becomes a whole new story.

What I find helps in this scenario is to break a story down to its disparate elements, and to look at which ones are wholly unique to this setting, and which ones are things you can safely use without worrying about lawyers banging on your door.

For example, let's look at Avatar and break down that desire this person had to recreate it. What are the elements of that story that make it what it is? Is it a child of prophecy come back to save the world in a time of darkness? Probably not, there are hundreds of stories that have that in them. Is it different nations that are based around the 4 elements of earth, air, fire, and water? Well, this series isn't the only one to do that, but it would likely be a good idea to give them different names in your story, even if the theme was kept intact. And probably to change up the cultures so it doesn't look like you just traced them over. Is it the elemental arts of bending? Well even that unique form of elemental control is something we've seen in a wide variety of fantasy stories... but the name for the art would likely need to be changed in the tale you're telling.

One thing that you need to consider as a writer, though, is not just the exterior components of a story (the boards of the ship, if we're following the thought experiment). Because you can swap the palate, change the names, and generally create something that's aesthetically unique with relatively little issue. But you also need to come up with a unique take on the tale it tells, and to tell it in such a way that it feels new and unique rather than a made-for-TV version of a beloved film.

A story about going to different locations to acquire the necessary skills/upgrades so you can fight a dangerous enemy at the conclusion of the story/series is not unique by any stretch of the imagination. In many ways that's as much The Legend of Zelda as it is Avatar. The question you have to answer is what makes the path your characters are taking, and the world they're exploring, similar to that other property, but unique enough that fans of it are going to want to step sideways into this new domain with you?

You Can't Be Unique, But You Must Be Different

I've said several times on this blog that there are no new stories under the sun, just different ways of telling the same old tales. Because at their core, every property we love, every game we enjoy, and every movie that we adore, has a relatively simple core story that we can recognize. A Man Tries To Get Home is as much a story about Quantum Leap as it is The Odyssey. A Hero Proves His Worth could be A Knight's Tale, Aladdin, or any of a hundred other stories of protagonists who come from humble beginnings to step up when they're needed.

The list goes on.

That central column that the story's conflict is hung on, though, is not the whole of the story. The story, and what brings your readers in, is made up of the details. The unique traits of your characters, the curious quirks of the world they exist in, or how you present the fantastical elements of their setting. No story is truly unique in and of itself, but the difference that makes them stand out is in the details.

Lastly, if you haven't gotten your copy of Old Soldiers yet, pick it up and give it a read!

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 cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel 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!

The Most Widely Read Thing I've Ever Written Has Earned Me Basically No Money

When we think of authors who make a lot of money (or at least a living wage) from their craft we tend to think of those who are most popular. After all, if you have a lot of eyeballs on your stories then you have to be making money out of that deal somewhere, right? I mean unless everyone is checking out your books from a library or something, you've got to be getting a piece of that action somehow?

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.

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!