The Satiated Games

In 2008, Suzanne Collins published The Hunger Games and ignited interest in teen-dystopian literature. I read the first book and watched all the movies—and loved them.

When it comes to writing, be it self-publishing or traditional publishing, it is important to realize that publishing is NOT the Hunger Games.

Far too often, authors act as though they’re in competition with each other. They’re not.

Authors are competing in The Satiated Games.

Publishing books is not a zero-sum game like The Hunger Games. More sales for me doesn’t mean fewer sales for you—and vice versa. Look at the projected growth in ebook sales over the next few years—it’s an expanding market. More and more people are reading ebooks! In the past five years, sales have increased by a staggering two billion dollars!!!

As authors, we need to shift our perspective to understand where our competition actually lies. I’m not worried about other authors grabbing a reader’s attention—I’m competing with Xbox, Playstation, Netflix, Disney+, Candy Crush, Twitter and Facebook.

The book market alone accounts for 120 billion dollars. There’s plenty to go around. The real competition comes from gaming and the film industry. Why? Because all three require the most precious and costly resource of all—time. A book’s real cost isn’t in terms of dollars. The five bucks my books cost is paltry. It’s a burger and fries. The actual cost comes in the time it takes someone to read a book. And it’s an opportunity cost. If someone’s reading, they’re not streaming or playing games. So it’s a choice about where they spend their time. The question is, what satisfies people?

Being a person, I think I’m qualified to say people are satisfied with diverse forms of entertainment. It’s not that books, games or streaming services should dominate. All three can provide a balanced, healthy, entertaining mental diet.

Think about the last book you really enjoyed. What did it inspire? What was the impact? I suspect you came away satisfied. Far too often, modern entertainment is predicated on being unsatisfied. Streaming show episodes end on a hook to keep the viewer coming back. The intrigue is often without end (or meaning). Sometimes, the same is true of video games, where the goal is to keep players trapped in that world, selling expansion packs and building online gaming revenue. But a book. A good book satisfies the reader. A great novel leaves them feeling content. And a great book makes someone more likely to go looking for another great read.