Why Would You Want Creatives To Work A Day Job?

"There's too much talent trapped by poverty."

- Anonymous

The economy has been doing barrel rolls in the middle of its swan dive over the past year, and as an elder millennial who was living on my own back during the crash that came after the housing bubble burst 15 or so years back, this feels like very familiar territory. People are losing jobs left and right, and it seems like every day I scroll social media and see Go Fund Me campaigns for people who are trying to keep their homes, trying to pay their medical bills, and just trying to keep food on the table.

That said, though, there is another phenomenon that I've seen rear its hideous head over the past year. It's been present, swimming just beneath the surface, but it's been in full-throated roar the past several months; it is people who, in response to the struggles or requests of artists, have responded with vitriol and mockery. And the most common refrain is, of course, that we should all go and get real jobs.

Leaving aside the stupidity of that statement for just a moment... why do you want to take someone who can write, sing, perform, paint, animate, or entertain, and force them to stand behind a cash register, stare at security cameras, or deliver pizza? Why don't you want people with skill, vision, and drive to make things that could entertain you, and add value to your life?

A question that is really worth pondering. Especially if it's uncomfortable for 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!

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!

Seriously, Though... Why?

If someone has a skill, and a desire to put that skill to use, the most logical thing is to let that person do the thing they're made to do. If someone likes to work on cars, we let them become a mechanic. If someone is satisfied hanging drywall, framing walls, etc., we get them onto construction crews. If someone can fix computers and set up networks, we get them into device repair or some form of IT. If someone is good at cooking, they work in a restaurant, if they're a good driver they might work in a cab or driving a bus route, and so on, and so forth.

Because, for some reason, we understand that in these examples you should pair a person's skillset with the job that best utilizes said skillset. However, when the person is a singer, a videographer, a writer, a painter, or really anything artistic, all of a sudden we start looking for reasons they shouldn't be able to make a living using those skills.

To be clear, all the naysayers will still encourage (and in some cases demand) that the creative folks keep making things. They just don't want said creative people to be paid for utilizing their skills.

Yeah... I don't get it either.

Here's a bottom line for folks. People who create, whatever form that takes, generally enjoy the act of creation. And yes, there are always going to be folks who are willing or able to just do things for the love of the game. But if you've ever wondered, "Why don't people make art like they used to anymore?" the answer is always money.

Because if you look at those classic sculptures, the amazing paintings, and so on that fill our museums? If you read books by a lot of classic authors? You're going to rapidly notice that a majority of them either came from money (and their family supported them so they could just be an art goblin without worrying about bills and food), or they had patrons (old-timey sugar daddies who threw money at their art goblins who wanted them to keep making great art instead of getting up to adult fun time when they were in town).

That's it. Period. End of story.

Money is necessary for artists to make art in the world we live in. Because it takes time to write novels. It takes energy to make audio dramas. It takes skill to paint, sculpt, and illustrate. And if someone is spending 8+ hours a day at a job that doesn't engage them (or worse, makes them want to chew their arm off to escape), they aren't going to have those necessary resources when they finally manage to get home.

This leads to the current issue. If you want creatives to be able to keep being creative and making art, they need to be able to focus their skills on doing that. However, if they don't come from a wealthy family, or have rich patrons backing them, how are they supposed to make it happen?

You. The answer is you, the person reading this right now.

We Literally Depend On You

I've said this before, but for anyone who hasn't been present for the sermon, creatives depend on our audiences to support us. And that audience is made up of individuals who are all doing their part to help raise the artist's profile, boost the signal, and to make sure that their pet creatives have the necessary resources they need to buy tacos and pay rent so they can spend their days producing more of the art that their audience wants to see.

And sure, maybe that means you just give an artist you like money. Whether it's as a tip on Ko-Fi, or you have a regular subscription through Patreon, just giving creators money is a great way to just grease the wheels so they can make more stuff. My Patreon and Ko-Fi are here, since we're on the topic.

If you don't want to just give an artist money, however, the next best thing you can do is buy their creations. Whether it's novels, paintings, prints, or just merch for their YouTube channel, this is the second best way to make sure their bills stay paid. After all, haven't you ever wondered why every concert you go to has a merch table at it? It's because the concert itself essentially makes no money once all the costs and ticket sales are tallied.

Seriously... bands make more money off your tee shirt than they do your ticket.

But what if you don't have any money? Well, you can actually make sure that your pet artist gets paid with nothing more than just your time and attention!

Do you like to watch YouTube videos? If you want to support that creator, then watching those videos without your ad block on means that you are actively making sure they get paid by advertisers, which allows them to keep making videos. And if you subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment of at least 7 words, you're also increasing their momentum in the algorithm, and helping more people find them! You can add a similar amount of weight for authors by following them on social media, leaving reviews for their books on places like Amazon and Goodreads, and actually requesting your library to buy copies of their books. This lets you read them for free, but the author still gets paid for the sale, in case you were curious. Hell, even leaving 5-star reviews on a podcast you like will make it more likely to show up in other people's searches and random mixes!

As I've said before, if you don't like a particular artist or a particular creator, you are under no obligation to support them in any way. However, if you do like a given artist, and you want to help them keep creating, then that burden is on you to help in whatever way you can. If you want them to make more art, then you (and everyone else in the potential audience) needs to help turn the crank to make sure they get their needs met.

Because the spark of creativity dies in the wet, grinding misery of being forced to spend all the resources you need to make art on scanning items, bagging groceries, or making phone calls when that isn't what you were called to do. And if you genuinely want your pet artist to keep making art, then do what you can to make sure they can nurture and grow that spark into many, many future projects!

Actually, Speaking of Future Projects (That Are Free)

The A.L.I.C.E. Files is a YouTube channel I launched in partnership with Alice Liddell, and it's an ongoing audio drama narrative that will also have other dramatized stories from both our bodies of work, as well as various other authors over time. So if you want to support a free project that takes just the click of a button, as well as your eyes and ears, then please watch this trailer, give it an upvote, leave a comment, and subscribe to the channel to help us out!

YouTube requires you to get 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours before they share ad revenue with you... and we definitely need all the help we can get on this one.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (where many dramatized versions of my stories can be heard for free)

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 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.

Don't Let AI Rot Your Brain (Why You Should Never Use ChatGPT As A Writing Tool)

When you first start a workout regimen, it can be equal parts hard but invigorating. You're moving your muscles in new ways, you're getting used to new poses, new lifts, new everything. You might even be changing your diet, if you're going really hard. But pretty soon, you'll feel that shiny new exterior start to wear thin. You'll start dragging yourself to the gym, and grumbling under your breath between sets that you wish you didn't have to do this. You wished there was some other way... some magic shortcut you could take to just get trim, strong, and firm without all this sweating and straining.

And there are a thousand and one scams promising to give you that. A special diet that will melt away pounds of fat without any extra work. A little device that will shock your stomach into a six pack. A simple routine found only among a secret sect of monks who are all absolutely ripped. A little pill that will give you the get-up-and-go you need to make your gains.

This isn't about crash diets and exercise scams. This is about ChatGPT.

It's like fake diet pills, but for your writing.

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!

The Only Person You're Cheating Is Yourself

We've all seen companies and individuals jamming generative AI programs into everything. They've infected our search engines, they're all over social media, and they're infesting the marketplace as scammers offer entire novels "written" by these programs in hopes of making a quick buck. And if you're the sort of writer who wants to skip the hard work and fast-forward to the story being done, these plagiarism programs offer you the siren's song you want to hear. They promise you complete stories, unique stories, and then you'll be done in a record amount of time. They swear they're just going to take the work out of writing, handling the grunt work that's dragging you down.

They're promising that you'll get rippling, six-pack abs while laying on the couch and pounding chips by the family-sized bag. All the results, and none of the fuss.

Don't you want those gains already, bruh?

If you've ever been on a crash diet, or used a fitness gimmick, then you already know what the problem is. Because sure, it might get you some short-term losses around your waist, or give you some temporary feelings of health, but if you use these things long-term they're going to do serious harm to your body.

And that's what ChatGPT does to your brain.

Because for all the hype around this program and what it can supposedly do to mimic human thought and speech, there are stories out there of people who used it as a mental crutch until their academic legs atrophied under them. There are stories of high school and college students who had it write their papers, but then found that when it came time to take their final exams they have no actual knowledge or learned skill to call upon. There have been people who tried to use it to write legal briefs, and found that it was quoting cases that never happened, attempting to sound smart when the machine is just guessing. There are people who've used it to try to get ahead at work, and people who've used it for regular socialization who suddenly flounder when they no longer have a program telling them what to say or do.

It's the equivalent of sending a robot to the gym to lift weights and run on the treadmill for you. Yeah, the work is technically being done, but you aren't getting any stronger from doing it. In fact, if all you do is sit at home on the couch, you're getting weaker while letting the robot go through your routine for you.

That's what generative AI is doing to you. Because it's hard putting words on the page day after day, honing your skills, and finding just the right turns of phrase. But if the Internet goes down and someone hands you a pen, you can still write a story... and probably a pretty good story, if you've been putting in the work to really build your skills. But if you've been letting the computer do all the heavy lifting for you, and someone asks you to pick up the 250 lbs. you keep saying you're capable of bench pressing, it's going to crush you.

Git Gud... You Won't Regret It!

Writing is not just about putting together a short story, a novella, or a novel. It's also about honing the craft, finding your voice, and becoming more accomplished as a creator. For this reason, it's important to remember that even failed attempts are worthwhile. There is something to be learned with every assignment, every story, and every experiment... but you have to do it yourself. Otherwise you're never going to make any progress as a writer.

So yes, it's going to suck. You're going to tear out notebook paper, wad it up, and toss it in the garbage. You're going to reread something, sigh, and hold down the Delete key until it's all gone. And you're going to have those moments where you know something is wrong with your narrative, but you just can't quite put your finger on it.

Stick with it. It's going to be valuable when you realize you can shred your way through stories that once would have given you serious trouble, or that even on days where you're phoning it in you turn in Grade A work by most people's standards.

Don't take the easy way out... it's a lie. It's always been a lie.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- 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 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!

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!