Random Thoughts about Writing and Publishing

ID 107388860 | Different Paths © Marek Uliasz | Dreamstime.com

I need to find a way of lowering my non-writing tasks so that I can do more of what I really want to do: write. I have been in this writing sphere since 2009. Back then, you could only publish your books on Amazon and Smashwords. Sadly, I only know three authors from those days who are still actively writing and publishing. I have met a lot of authors along the way. Most authors have disappeared from the writing world, and I wonder if they’re doing okay.

It’s been sad to see so many vanish. I suspect it has to do with the stress of trying to make money. It’s not easy being a writer. I doubt it’s ever been easy for most writers to stick it out in the past. But in this day, we have come to expect that we’ll make money at this. In 2009, we didn’t think about making money because we didn’t think it was possible. I spoke with traditionally published authors who said the most they made was enough to buy a purse. Of course, you always had your big time authors who had movies made from their books, and so on. I don’t know if they were making big money. I assume they were, but I have not studied this. What I have found is that most authors didn’t make much, if anything.

The gold rush of self-publishing really was a gold rush. I still can’t believe how easy it was to make money back then. I also can’t believe I made the kind of money I did. There are authors who do still make good money with their writing. Not all of us still do. Some of us saw a drop in the sales that never recovered. Could those of us who lost income have done something to avoid it? I guess you could make the case for it, but can we ever know for sure? No. We can’t know for sure because that’s an unknown variable. When I first came out and said my income was going down, I was criticized by a couple of writers for not doing enough marketing. Sometimes I think income just drops, and it’s not the authors’ fault. Sometimes things just change. It’s not personal. It’s just the way things happen.

It can be easy for authors to blame themselves when income drops. It can be easy to chase after some new marketing strategy that has worked for someone else. If that new strategy doesn’t work out for them, they blame themselves and maybe even get blamed for not doing it right. Maybe those authors did do it right. Maybe it just didn’t work. Luck and timing are factors at play. It takes more than talent and hard work to make authors succeed in a financial way. Luck and timing were the two things that I stumbled upon in the gold rush era. But the gold rush ended, and that was that. I have made peace with this aspect of my past. It was painful, but striving to keep earning money burned me out, and I lost my joy in writing. Sometimes writers do lose their joy because they aren’t earning money. When we are used to hearing about writers making “six figures”, we believe this is the norm. When we believe it’s the norm, we are disappointed (and understandably so) when it doesn’t happen for us. That’s why we latch on to different marketing strategies so much. But the reality is someone can’t guarantee that their marketing idea will work for you. You can try it if you want. There’s no harm in trying if it’s something you truly want to do.

An author friend and I were emailing recently, and this was a topic that popped up. She and I have both seen so many writers come and go. She thinks some took on new names. Maybe that’s where some of them went to. I wonder how many got burned out and walked away because they had nothing left in them. She and I both agreed that writing books is not easy to keep doing year after year. It’s rewarding. I have never regretted a book I wrote, even ones that sold very little. There are some books I reread from time to time, and I’m reminded of how much satisfaction there is in having written something I wanted to read. You can tell when an author loves what they’re doing. There’s a spark in their work. I wish I could say that spark was in every one of my books, but I can tell when I was suffering because the business end got to me too much.

I guess with all of this rambling, I have come to the conclusion that if I want to have the spark in all of my work, I need to cut out the stuff that distracts me from my writing. If what I really want to do is write, then I need to write. I need to let go of the business. I will still have to keep track of expenses and any income I bring in, of course. The government wants to know how much you owe in taxes. If you aren’t keeping track of those things, you could end up paying too much (by not factoring in your expenses) or paying too little (and ending up with some fines and a letter in the mail like I did in the past). As a quick note, the IRS NEVER calls or emails. They only send physical snail mail. I know there are some scams out there, and I don’t want anyone to fall for them. When in doubt, go to an accountant.

Back to the topic…

Now, I do think if an author is making good money and has a system in place where they can keep doing so, then that’s something they should do. There’s nothing wrong with treating this as a business. Each author is going to have their own path. You have to figure out the path that works best for you. If you want to make money, you should try for it. There’s nothing worse than looking back on your life and having regrets because you didn’t pursue your goals. Even if you don’t meet those goals, at least you tried. It’s better to have failed than to have never tried at all.

For anyone who is exhausted from focusing on the marketing and the money angle of writing, it’s okay to cut back on things you don’t enjoy doing. You have the freedom to decide you’re not going to pursue the marketing stuff that’s out there. It doesn’t make you any less of a writer than someone who has made this their “six figure” business. There is nothing inherently good or bad about “why” someone writes. I’m not a fan of the way the writing community looks down on authors who aren’t “taking this seriously” by endeavoring to make a living at this. Some of those authors who used to preach about writing to market burned out and stopped writing. I’m thinking of one in particular who was quite vocal about how silly it was to write for passion because there was very little money to be made in it. Yes, his attitude was upsetting to me. I didn’t like it. I don’t like any writer who treats other writers like they are wrong for doing what they want. Even if you choose to write for passion, that does not mean you’re a hobby writer. Being a “hobby writer” implies that you don’t care about the quality of your work. This simply is not true. Plenty of writers who write for passion care a great deal about their books. We want to make good, polished stories. We want good covers. We want good book descriptions. We like having a website, a blog, and/or other forms of social media presence. We can write for pleasure and be professional writers. Why is it that we’re in a culture that tells people it’s okay to be whatever they want, but when we don’t all agree that we are writing for the same reason, we are somehow frowned upon? That doesn’t make any sense to me.

Enough rambling for now.