Stop Telling Creators To Do More (Just Support Them, And They Will)

I know I usually bounce back and forth between the Craft and Business of writing, but this week I have a business topic that is really clawing at me. For regular readers this may sound like I'm revisiting an old chestnut, but given that the holidays are often a make-or-break time for artists out there, I wanted to plant a flag, clamber up onto my soapbox, and say this one with my full chest.

Stop telling creators to do more things! I promise you, we are up to our eyeballs, we're drowning, and the last thing we need is someone adding one more damn thing to the pile!

Seriously... we need a lifesaver, not an anchor.

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!

I'll Get RIGHT On That (In My COPIOUS Amounts of Free Time)

I'd like to give folks a primary example of what I'm talking about here. For those who don't know, earlier in 2024 my first roleplaying game Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic released after its successful Kickstarter. Now, to help bring some attention to this game, I have done all of the following:

- Regularly promoted it on social media

- Mentioned it often in my creator newsletter

- Started a FB page about the game for players to go for updates

- Featured dozens of articles about it on my fairly popular blogs

- Created supplemental material including Army Men: Medals of Honor and Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps

- Started a video series about it titled Tactical Plastic Report

Now, despite all of the things I just mentioned, it's proven tough to get traction on Army Men as a game. The Kickstarter succeeded pretty well, and there's usually some folks who claim it looks interesting, but it hasn't exactly had the impact that I'd like it to have.

The regular suggestion that keeps cropping up in my comments is that I should make an actual play of my game so that people can watch it. And while I will acknowledge that this strategy could be helpful, it also comes with a lot of obstacles that I don't feel like the people suggesting it completely understand. These include:

- Recording Equipment: I have a personal setup, but I don't have mics, cameras, etc. for the 4-5 people it takes to run a decent RPG.

- Space: I do not have access to a private space that is good for recording.

- Talent: You can't just put whoever in a chair when making this kind of video. Folks need to be engaging, comfortable on-camera, on-task, and willing/able to perform.

- Time: These things don't just happen. There's setup, testing, technical issues, running the actual game, doing multiple takes, and then on top of it there's all the post-editing it would take. This could all range from a dedicated several days of work, to several weeks of work.

Now, to be clear, I could make an actual play of my game, if I either really wanted to, or if I had some reason to believe that it would do really well. However, I'm very aware that the Internet is absolutely glutted with actual plays of various RPGs, most of which barely anyone watches. In order for this to be a good return on investment for my time, my energy, etc., the recorded play session would need to bring in not just thousands, but tens of thousands of views. The most popular video I've ever made is currently sitting at 4,600 views and some change, right now, and that thing was an absolute fluke.

More to the point, though, The Problem With Pentex actually has product placement in it... and despite all of that traffic, it has sold a single product to the audience who watched it. Just one. And even that one I'm not entirely sure about, because it isn't my affiliate links in the video.

Creators Need Support, Not More Tasks!

While the example of people commenting, "Just make an actual play!" is one specific incident, this kind of nonsense happens to creators every day, usually dozens of times a day. Some other forms it takes include:

- "I'd love you to make merch of this!" Not realizing that getting that merch made is likely thousands of dollars in investment, along with several months for an order to be fulfilled.

- "I really want you to write another book in this series!" I'm sure we'd love to do that, too. Books can take a year or more to write, and just as long to publish... most of us don't have two years of savings banked so we can just hope the new release does okay.

- "When are you going to release this in audio?" Audio books take almost as long to make as the original book itself, and even longer if you're doing a full cast, SFX, etc.

- "You should go to X convention!" Conventions cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to attend, and historically, authors do not sell much when they're present. I've only ever made a profit once in something like 12 years of going to cons.

- "You really need to get on this social media platform!" Okay, but building a following takes years on any platform, even if you're already established. This isn't the quick-fix solution so many seem to think it is.

And the list goes on, and on, and on.

Sure, I'll add that to the list...

Creators are struggling. Whether we write novels, make videos on YouTube, run podcasts, paint paintings, create audio dramas, or do any of a thousand other things, all of us are struggling. And what does not help are people coming into our comments and leaving off-the-cuff remarks about what new direction we should take our art, what platforms we should use, or the best new method we should use to improve our audience. Because unless you are a marketing professional, or a fellow creator who has been through the process, chances are you don't know what will work any better than we will. Not only that, but it's likely we have already considered your suggestion, and the reason we aren't doing it isn't because we didn't think of it, but because we simply can't afford to do it (whether that be a cost in time, energy, money, etc.)

What we need is support. Because support helps us increase our reach, pay our bills, and it helps us afford to make more art. And, ironically, support would also give us the time and breathing room to make some of those projects you're suggesting, but that we simply can't right now because those things (wait for it) don't have audience support behind them.

Because if I sold a 10,000 copies of both Marked Territory and Painted Cats? As soon as I was done celebrating, I'd be storyboarding Leo's next adventure. If every video I made for Tactical Plastic Report broke 5K views, and there were a hundred or so fans who were begging me for an actual play of the game, I'd start putting a crew together. And if folks demanded Literary Mercenary merch, then supported me when I brought out patches, stickers, pins, or more ambitious things, I would keep doing them. If I could get 5K views on my audio drama for the story Suffer The Children, and folks bought copies of The Rejects while leaving comments that they wanted the rest of the stories in that book dramatized, I would be on that ASAP.

 

If you actually, truly want a creator you follow to succeed, then you have to be part of that success. Because we don't get anywhere by ourselves. We are, in essence, crowdsurfing... and if we don't have people willing to hold us up, we're going to fall on our faces. And when that happens, some of us probably won't get up.

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 (ongoing audio drama series)

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. 

Fan Art, Sponsorships, And Other Goals I Didn't Expect To Have When I Became An Author

For folks who aren't regular readers, I've wanted to be a professional writer basically since I was in 8th grade. It was the first time I wrote a short story that really affected someone (it was a found-journal style short about a giant crocodile in the Amazon where the author suggested the thing stalking them was more than just an animal, which was inspired by Robert R. McCammon's story Lizard Man), and the feeling was intoxicating. I decided I was going to try to recreate that, and so I started writing more short stories, as well as several novel attempts, and I took every creative writing class or assignment I could get my hands on.

Now, over a quarter of a century later, I've at least figured out how to reliably craft a good story. However, the older I've gotten, the more my personal goals for my career have changed. It's sort of caught me off-guard, as well, so I figured I'd take a moment and talk about it this week, since I feel like professional goals are something a lot of us don't really consider beyond, "Get my book published."

I wouldn't say no, but things like this have become less important to me over the years.

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!

When You Realize Your Goals Aren't Realistic

I'll admit, when I was young and had yet to even finish my first novel, I had dreams of becoming one of those Big Name (TM) authors. I wanted to be one of those people who made millions of dollars, whose name topped the bestseller lists, and who would have my work turned into hit movies and TV shows. In my mid-20s I expanded that out into having a shelf of awards in my house, showing off my brilliance.

Over time, most of these have sort of fallen by the wayside. Though I would still love to win a Stoker or an Ennie, those are more in the, "Well, it would be nice," category, rather than something I legitimately expect to happen.

Seriously, look at how goddamn NEAT this thing is!

The reason I've given up on so many of these goals I was once striving for is that the longer I've been an author, the more I recognize both how rare these kinds of successes are, and often how little they have to do with the things you're actually writing. I've said repeatedly on this very blog that making sales is a marketing success, and that in the end it's often divorced from the artistic quality of your book. And with every awards scandal that comes across my feed (I'm looking at you, Sad Puppies) the more it feels like awards winding up in the hands of truly deserving, talented creators is a fluke rather than the process working how it's supposed to.

In short, both the idea of becoming a Rich And Famous author, and a multi-award-winning author felt like I was standing out in a field and waving around a lightning rod. Yes, it's certainly possible that I'll catch lightning in a bottle, but it's also possible for me to win the lottery just by buying a single scratch ticket. In the end it sort of felt like striving to make those things happen was just setting myself up for disappointment, and not focusing on what I should be doing; writing the best books I could.

As a lot of folks out there know, nature abhors a vacuum. So while I didn't consciously choose new goals to replace the ones that I felt were too unrealistic, they showed up anyway. And while some of these still feel like long shots, I'm of the opinion they're more achievable than what I had before.

So What New Goals Made It Onto The List?

While I've more or less given up on the life of fame and fortune (it would be nice, but I'm trying to be realistic here), I do have a couple of goals that I think I could manage. Hopefully in the next 5-10 years, but if they take longer, well, it's not like I was going to stop writing, or something.

Let's not get ridiculous... I've been at this since I was 13. You don't put down a habit like that short of anything but the reaper.

Goal #1: Fan Creations

This is a goal I've technically achieved in a few small ways, but it's something I'd like to be able to do more of. The idea that something I made affected a reader of mine so strongly that they wanted to add their own creativity to what I've made, either through the form of writing their own stories, drawing art, or even painting minis styled after a character I made, is one of the sincerest forms of flattery I've ever received.

Perhaps the most notable thing I've seen folks be that excited about is, ironically, some of my own fan stories titled Waking Dogs and Broken Chains, which are about the trials of a renegade space marine in the Warhammer 40K setting. There are even audio versions of these tales, which still give me a chill to listen to, and I highly recommend checking them out (along with more of my work) on the YouTube channel A Vox in The Void.

Goal #2: Be A Convention Guest Of Honor

I've been to my share of conventions over the years, and while I still enjoy them, they're a lot different when you're there for work than when you're there to play around. And if I'm there I'm usually on panels, running games, holding down a table in the dealer's hall, and sometimes all of these things in a single day. However, it would be a feather in my cap to be invited to a convention as a guest of honor. Additionally, it would just be nice to be recognized for my achievements in that way, whether I'm there as an author, a gaming guest of honor, etc.

Of course, it would also be nice getting the perks that come along with such a position. Realistically, I expect I'll be able to manage this for a smaller, regional convention, but it would still be nice for it to happen at a bigger event if and when the opportunity arises.

 

Goal #3: Become An Institution

In the past I thought about essentially being a stand-alone writer who sold enough books that I could pay all my bills, buy a house, and just sort of live that celebrity lifestyle. However, like I said, I know exactly how rare that kind of success is for most people in my profession. But what I would like to do is to create projects that help keep me afloat financially, but which allow me to give work to other creative people in my circles.

This, for example.

I've had a few, smaller examples of this already. Sales of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, as well as any supplements that use Anonymous Katsodon's art ensure that part of the royalty payment goes right to her. Additionally, Isiah Burt has written two novellas for my fantasy RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age. Legacy of Flames is a story about a hulking lizardfold warrior, and his unusual mission in the Dragonsbreath Mountains, and Blight Bane's Gambit follows an orc mercenary company as they attempt to solve the riddles of a tricksy dragon in the woods beyond Hoardreach, the City of Wyrms.

Honestly, what I'd love to do is for something to get so large in terms of popularity and earnings potential that it allows me to start hiring people on as staff, or giving them positions are regular contributors, so that we can all share in the bounty. I'm not saying that I essentially want to get successful enough where I can form an LLC and give regular, reliable jobs to all my friends so we can work on our projects together while shielding each other from the roving wolves of capitalism... but yeah, I'd love to be able to do that.

On that note, I feel like the next project with that level of potential might be my Chronicles of Darkness audio drama, Windy City Shadows. If you haven't heard about it yet, check out the elevator pitch at Windy City Shadows, A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, and take a look at the Ask Me Anything I put together for it a while back!

Goal #4: Get Sponsorship (And Maybe A Gift Or Two)

This is probably my shallowest, most selfish goal, but we've all got to have one or two of those. However, the idea that things I'm creating are so popular that a company decides that they need to butter me up in order to reach my audience by sending me a free trial of their service, and perhaps a cool present for me to keep in the background of my videos, is something that would be pretty nice, not going to lie.

Whether it's game books, a portable dice tower, an unusual display shelf, filming accessories (I'd love to have a green screen I could break down and store in my closet, as an example), or even something as seemingly random as a cool mini fridge (I like having drinks on hand for when I'm recording), it would just be a mark of pride for me that I was considered well-known, popular, or influential enough to make that happen.

The issue here, of course, is that sponsorship tends to come with a wide reach and a big audience. I don't really command one of those, but every little bit helps. So consider subscribing to the Azukail Games YouTube channel if you haven't yet, and help me keep climbing up that ladder so I can get myself noticed!

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. 

Focus Yourself For Writing With A Slug of Dubby!

Writers, on the whole, have a reputation for consuming all kinds of strange substances while we're in pursuit of our craft. Hard liquor, beer, LSD, absinthe, opium, and even weirder substances have all crossed our desks, even though most of us tend to stick with the caffeinated trio of coffee, tea, and soda.

However, if you're looking for something unique to try to help you focus, and keep writing through the night, I'd recommend that you consider giving Dubby a try!

I'd recommend trying this stack, if you haven't yet!

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!

Energy, Focus, and Word Count

This week's update is a bit of a Word From Our Sponsors, because I am part of the affiliate sales program for Dubby energy. However, I wasn't given a check for this review, nor was I sent any free product... I purchased the sample above, and I'm reporting on it of my own volition. However, after the experience I had, I have every intention of getting more of this to help me along in my own writing endeavors going forward.

And if you want to try some of this stuff for yourself, use the code LITERARYMERCENARY for 10% off of your order!

With that caveat out of the way, though...

So, what is Dubby?

The short version is that it's a powdered energy drink that you scoop out and put into your water, shake up, and drink at your leisure. It's got some vitamins, but mostly it's just a way for you to wake your system up, and focus your mind with some fast energy.

The Good

For the past week or so, I've been testing my 3 pack sample of Dubby. The flavors I got were watermelon guava, pink lemonade, and white peach, all of which were pretty tasty on their own. I did half doses of the packets, rather than the full dose, so I had more of a slow drip for the energy that comes with this product. However, even with a half dose, there was still plenty of energy in what I had. More importantly, though, the focus it provides isn't just a promise on the pouch. If you've got your manuscript in front of you, and it just needs you to put your fingers on the keys, this is definitely a solid jumpstart to your evening.

The energy hit (for me, at least) lasts about two hours or so, during which time I can focus well enough to get quite a lot of progress done on a piece. And, at least during my use of the product, the claim of no crash definitely appeared to be true. There was a point where I wasn't revved anymore, but I went back to my baseline standard, rather than dipping down into the negatives thanks to a crash.

The Bad

While there are a lot of good aspects for this product, there are some drawbacks that are definitely worth mentioning, as well.

First of all, while the taste is good, it was a little weak. At least part of that is likely because I was taking half doses of the product, rather than the full pouch. My way of getting around that was to mix it with a non-caffeinated soda like Squirt or Sprite rather than water, which helped fill in the taste gaps. You do have to take it stirred rather than shaken if you do it that way, though, as no one wants to shake up soda, and deal with the consequences (even if the Dubby shakers do work quite well).

The second drawback of Dubby, as a substance, is that there's always a little bit of powder silt left at the bottom of the glass. As a habitual coffee drinker I'm used to getting to the bottom of my cup and dealing with some of the grounds that snuck in, though, so this is just something that I've come to expect at the end of my caffeination experience.

Overall, Recommended

At the end of the day, Dubby won't make you a better writer, any more than it will make you a better gamer, a faster runner, etc. It's not some kind of miracle health drink, either... it's a mix-it-yourself energy drink. But it delivers on its promise of energy, it keeps you sharp, and it doesn't have a crash. It has a bit of a problem with dregs at the bottom of the cup, but other than that, I'd definitely recommend it.

As to which flavor... well, I'd recommend the Dragonade over the other two I tried, but I'm planning on getting my hands on some of the Dubsludge if I have my way!

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!

Audience Demand, "Sandman," And The Impossible Pressures Put on Creators

If you're a comic book fan, then you know about Sandman. This series, written by acclaimed author Neil Gaiman, has stood the test of time as one of the most celebrated examples of the medium. When word came out that Netflix was going to make a series putting it to film, even people who were sick and tired of superhero movies and shows sat up and took notice. The show garnered a huge amount of views, a lot of audience praise, and enthusiasm from a large percentage of people who wanted to see more.

And despite all of that, Gaiman and the cast basically had to beg everyone to binge watch the whole series again so that Netflix didn't cancel them after only one season because the company wasn't convinced people wanted a second season badly enough.

While I'd like to say this is only something that heavy hitters making big budget productions have to deal with, this is unfortunately something that affects all creators out there. Namely that if we can't muster a massive audience willing to bang down the doors demanding more of our work then we may not get greenlit by our publishers, or we may not get paid enough money by the platforms we use to actually keep writing new novels, short stories, screenplays, etc. for our fans to consume.

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!

The Numbers Game Is Awful

Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about from the independent side of things. A little while back I started listening to Old Gods of Appalachia (go check out their podcast if you haven't yet, and support them if you can afford to), and I really enjoyed everything about it. Capitalism strained through the lens of cosmic horror and its effects on rural and poor areas is right up my alley. However, it was during one of the in-between episodes where the creators were answering questions and casually talking to their fans that I started noting numbers.

According to what I heard, the show had 5 million plays through Spotify in its first two years. Given the wide exposure they'd had, and their supportive audience, I wasn't surprised by that number, and I agree with the team that it can be mind-boggling contemplating that many people consuming something you made. However, if you break it down using the numbers I referenced in Youtube, Dailymotion, and Spotify... Challenges and Payoffs, you get into some pretty bleak profits. When all the calculations are done, that averages out to somewhere around $10,000 per year of traffic, if you assign 2,500,000 downloads/listens per year.

That's what it should have been according to the math, anyway. Seems that I got it wrong, and it's even bleaker than that!

When I reached out to the show to check my facts, Cam Collins was good enough to set me straight, and provide me some more accurate numbers. According to what Cam said, the show makes literally nothing from Spotify directly, and only a tiny fraction of their income from advertising. 90% of their income comes directly from their audience providing support.

To reiterate, this is a show that people could not shut up about for months during the pandemic. It's been given top marks, its cast and crew are truly talented people, they've had write ups in major media like the New York Times, and there's a goddamn tabletop RPG for Old Gods of Appalachia... and the only thing keeping it going is the direct support of folks who enjoy their work, and who want to help them keep the lights on so they can keep the show going.

A lot of us have this idea that when someone makes popular art, that art pays for itself just through the sheer force of its popularity. However, that perception is often the reverse of reality. Because as I mentioned back in Unfortunate Facts: Without Sponsorship, Most Authors Can't Eat, the things we as an audience think of as secondary items (creator merch, fan pledges, etc.) are actually the main source of income for most people for the simple reason that it takes an absolutely absurd number of views/listens on any platform to make enough money to pay your bills.

In the end, it creates this weird Catch-22. Because when your audience is small, or your numbers are below a certain threshold, a cut of the small amount of traffic you generate is all you'll be offered by a platform. As such, you need every view you can possibly get in order to scrape by. But if you generate the numbers necessary to make bank off of your traffic alone, that also means your audience is big enough (and that you probably have enough sponsorship deals and independent support) that the check from your views is just the icing on your cupcake... if, as it turns out, you even get that.

What Does One Example Have To Do With The Other?

Some readers are no doubt wondering what a major streaming platform that can afford millions of dollars to produce a high-budget fantasy series, and the impressive success of an indie horror podcast, have to do with one another. The answer is that in order for creators to be successful, big or small, it takes an absolutely ridiculous tide of raw numbers.

But this is, sadly, nothing new. It's just capitalism as usual.

This will do you, I'm sure.

Think back to before music streaming, when we listened to our music on the radio. A lot of folks might not know this, but the band didn't actually get paid for their music being on the airwaves. The idea was that people listening to the music on the radio would lead to increased sales of merchandise (recordings, band tee shirts, concert tickets, etc.), so even if you were burning up the charts you didn't get paid until folks actually bought something from you. The reason there are so many singer/songwriters, interestingly enough, is that the writers did get paid for those radio plays, so a lot of artists made sure they did both as a way to ensure they weren't left out in the cold.

Everything old is new again, eh?

In decades past it was record labels trying to keep the lion's share of money, while paying their singers a pittance. Now it's the streaming platforms doing the same thing by demanding that channels earn their monetization (also known as "working for free" while the company reaps the benefits), or making backroom deals to ensure they have access to large libraries of content while the folks who were previously depending on royalties end up with a handful of pennies. And publishers... well, publishing hasn't really changed much in the past century and change.

And that often includes freelance writers not getting a pay raise since the days of H.P. Lovecraft when it comes to our by-word rate.

We Need Numbers (And Can't Get Them On Our Own)

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, all of that nonsense up above is the reason that creators end every production asking listeners to like, subscribe, support, and share links to our work. Because it takes literal millions of reads/listens/hits/etc. for us to make a poverty wage.

I know that as listeners we grow deadened to that constant request. It's the equivalent of an unskippable ad, and we either tune out, look away, or just skip past the text if it's in an article. But without audience help, whether it's funding our work directly or helping us build our brand by sharing our content for others to see, we're going to lose our grip and fall. Either our publishers will stop greenlighting projects that don't get an appropriate amount of attention and sales, or we just won't be able to pay our rent with what we're bringing in every month.

So if you have a creator whose work you enjoy, big or small, please do your part to make sure they can keep making art. Follow their socials, read their articles, share their posts to draw attention to them, and if they've got a playlist consider leaving it on while you're out and about just to give them a few extra hours of listen time a week.

It all adds up, and it all makes a difference, even if you feel like it doesn't.

I Could Also Use A Little Help (If You Can Spare It)

If you made it this far and you'd like to help me, specifically, here's some things you can do!

- Follow My Facebook

- Check Out My LinkTree

- Subscribe to My Weekly Newsletter

- 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!

To help The Literary Mercenary keep making content like this, consider leaving a tip, or becoming a patron:

- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theliterarymercenary
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Follow the author's social media for the latest updates:

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/nlitherl
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Thanks to Gretchen VanHeeren for providing the voice of the lamia!

Background music from Tabletop Audio:

- The Long Rain
- Dark and Stormy
- Dark Continent

Additional Background Music

- The Introvert by Michael Kobrin (https://pixabay.com/users/21039285-21039285/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=10959)

- Cold Mind Enigma by Gioele Fazzeri (https://pixabay.com/users/gioelefazzeri-16466931/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=13553)

- Chasing a Killer by Gioele Fazzeri" />

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!