This makes these internships impossible to participate in unless you already have money in the bank, rich parents who can support you, or you're working another job to pay your bills.
For a lot of professional creatives, this is an experience we understand all too well. Because even if we have the skill, the drive, the vision, and the will to make things, what defeats us is often the long stretches of time where we aren't being paid even if we're working our asses off. And sure, there's a promise of payment down the line, maybe, if the market allows it, but it's not a guarantee in the slightest.
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| Starting to feel like the deck is stacked against us, huh? |
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!
A Concrete Example of What I'm Talking About
I realize that intro paragraph can seem a little vague, so let me give you an example from my own experience.
For several years I've had people ask me why I wasn't making YouTube videos. It's a big platform, and it would be one more way for me to earn some extra income. While this is technically true, YouTube requires you to have 1,000 subscribers on your channel, as well as 4,000 hours of watched content in the past year before they'll even review you for monetization. That translates to 11.5 hours of watched content per day for 365 days, in case you were curious.
Now, if I already had a loyal following of thousands of people who would subscribe to my channel and watch my videos, that would be a speed bump I could easily deal with. However, I knew from experience that trying to reach those goal posts would mean I would be making hundreds of videos, potentially for years just for the platform to maybe allow me to monetize my traffic.
I did not have years of time and energy to put into something that sized (to say nothing of buying a good mic, buying a camera, learning the ins and outs of editing programs, lighting, etc.) when the problem was that I needed money in my hand before next month's utility statement came due.
So why am I making YouTube videos like the above audio drama Fine Print? Simple... someone actually funded me to make it happen.
Adrian Kennelly, the fellow behind Azukail Games, wanted more video content for the company's YouTube page. It had primarily been used for making preview videos for various tabletop RPG supplements, which would then be linked on their Drive Thru RPG sales page as a way to let browsers take a closer look at what they were thinking about spending their money on. Since he wanted more varied content, he offered me a fee for every video I could make to add to the channel.
If you go to the Azukail Games YouTube channel (which you should subscribe to while you're there), you'll see that over the past year or so I've been improving what I make. I've gotten a good mic, a better camera, I've gotten more comfortable with the editing process, and I like to fancy that the sound effects I add to the audio dramas really make them pop. But I was only able to justify the time, resources, learning, and effort because there was a fee attached to these projects. Not a big fee, mind you, but one that made it a viable project that would pay some of my bills.
If I'd been trying to do this all on my own, grinding away until I eventually got monetized, and then until I had $100 banked (the minimum payout for YouTube to send you a payment)? I never would have done any of this because the only people making a profit would have been YouTube.
A Promise of Future Payment Doesn't Help Right Now
That seems like a pretty specific example, but honestly, most of the publishing industry is run on shoestrings and spitballs when it comes to people getting paid. If you write short stories, you have to send them to an open call, hope they get picked out of the submission pile, and then you'll get paid when the collection is published (assuming there is a payment attached to the story, and that the book actually comes out instead of being cancelled before your check arrives). If you write a novel then you have to get it accepted by a publisher, wait till it comes out, and hope people buy copies of it. Writing the damn thing can take months to years, and publishing can add more months to another few years, and unless you got in tight with Penguin or Random House, you aren't getting an advance on your potential earnings. Making videos, as you see, can come with years of working for nothing, and making a podcast isn't much better in terms of earning potential.
You can opt to do all the publishing yourself, but that means you need the skills, the time, the energy, and then you have to also do all the marketing yourself. And it's possible you could spend several months to several years getting your book, show, etc. ready, only to have no one (or almost no one) actually buy the thing.
So how do writers make a living? Well, real talk, most of us don't.
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| There's no punchline here. Just facts. |
Those of us who do make a living require luck, privilege, security, or some combination of all these things.
Most creators I know can't live off their earnings alone. These folks often depend on a spouse's income, health insurance, or sometimes both. A lot of creators also live with their parents, or with an extended network of friends and partners so they can afford to live off of what little they do make. Some have lucrative day jobs, choosing to write in their spare time. A surprising number have retired from other careers, giving them a foundation to build on. Some folks inherited money from family members who passed away, allowing them to keep the lights on while they get a project made, and build their audience.
Then there's the lucky folks. People who managed to get a book onto the market that just happened to hit the right nerve at the right time for whatever reason. Maybe they make a video that goes viral, their podcast hits an audience that can't get enough, or they gain notoriety because of something they do or say in their story. Maybe they get a cease and desist letter in a public way that causes a lot of curiosity about what their book is about.
And even if you get stuff out on the market? Well, like I said in If 90,000 People Read This Article I Can Pay My Bills This Month, we all require an absolutely ridiculous amount of backing from an audience just to make ends meet if there aren't sponsors covering our living costs while we make our art.
What You Can Do To Help
I felt the need to put this topic together today because I've reached a point, professionally, where I have a lot of publishers who are interested in bigger projects from me (novels mostly, but also TTRPG campaigns), in addition to struggling with some big ideas of my own (particularly a long-form serial in the form of a podcast). And while I want to work on all of these things, the reality is that I live in government-subsidized housing, and I need to have checks ready to go every month. Because when all of your energy is spent making things to help you survive, you simply don't have the luxury of doing bigger, longer pieces... no matter how much passion you might have for them.
If you made it this far and you'd like to help me, specifically, here's some things you can do!
- Subscribe to The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)
- Subscribe to My Daily Motion Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)
And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!
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 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!
