One thing to consider is royalty rate. If you sell 5000 copies for $20 and earn a dollar per copy, you've earned $5,000. (This math is based on 10% royalties on the publisher's portion, which is about half of retail. And no, fiction books don't sell for $20 typically, but I'm using this number to make the math easy.) Now, if you sell 5000 copies of an ebook for $20 and earn 80% royalties, you earn $16 per copy, and e…
Writing books is not really a good idea
331–340 of 630 posts
Re: Writing books is not really a good idea
#332I wonder how serializing a novel would mesh with most author’s work flow. I guess most would want to write it first and release monthly an already finished product?
Re: Writing books is not really a good idea
#333I have one big issue with the book industry... many actually... but related to the article, all this whining is self imposed. Literary books are marketed far heavier than genre. This is the equivalent to arthouse films vs what actually makes money as a movie/show. Let's take one similar plot. A chemistry teacher is diagnosed with cancer, cant get treated and eventually dies. Literary and arthouse will do a discovery…
I don’t really see the evidence backing this claim. Most popular fiction books on Goodreads are not exactly “deep.” Publishers aren’t some stupid ideologues either. It’s far more probable that books simply can’t compete with the addictive, visual, social entertainment that is growing by the day. This isn’t such a big problem either. The minority that does read books are still huge in absolute terms, and we have more…
The thing is, they aren't competing. Those attracted to addictive visual social entertainment weren't likely to read a book anyways. The type that enjoys both does both, and does not consider one to be a replacement of the other.
Re: Writing books is not really a good idea
#334I have one big issue with the book industry... many actually... but related to the article, all this whining is self imposed. Literary books are marketed far heavier than genre. This is the equivalent to arthouse films vs what actually makes money as a movie/show. Let's take one similar plot. A chemistry teacher is diagnosed with cancer, cant get treated and eventually dies. Literary and arthouse will do a discovery…
Tor? DAW? You talk like no one ever thought of publishing science fiction or fantasy books. It's been going on all along!
Re: Writing books is not really a good idea
#335I have one big issue with the book industry... many actually... but related to the article, all this whining is self imposed. Literary books are marketed far heavier than genre. This is the equivalent to arthouse films vs what actually makes money as a movie/show. Let's take one similar plot. A chemistry teacher is diagnosed with cancer, cant get treated and eventually dies. Literary and arthouse will do a discovery…
I think you're spot on. I'm an avid reader but I enjoy all the "low-brow" stuff. Tropey high fantasy, cheesy sci-fi, formulaic legal thrillers, I love it all. If it has "spy" anywhere in the description I'm in. But you're right - the only books I ever hear about from a marketing standpoint are the ones my wife is reading for her book club. So either Oprah talked about it, or it's part of the "book club marketing mach…
However expanding the niche would be a good thing.
Re: Writing books is not really a good idea
#336> As the going wisdom states: it only takes 1,000 true fans spending $100/year for a creator to earn a salary of $100,000/year—and there are 83,397 books every year that have at least 1,000 true fans. Theoretically then, an author could release a new chapter every week, charge subscribers $8 or $9 a month, and earn $100,000 a year—from only 1,000 readers. She's basically proposing an episodic model for books, with ea…
Getting inspired is a part of a job. Here's an example:
"Someone once asked Mr. Faulkner if he wrote by inspiration or habit and he said he wrote by inspiration, but luckily inspiration arrived at 9 every morning."
Re: Writing books is not really a good idea
#337- the restrictions it'll impose on the authors - it means authors will have to know the entire plot up-front and can't redo or rearrange chapters - the pressure to have every chapter end with a cliff-hanger or something else to get the user to buy the next chapter - the effect on the reader (will people finish fewer books?)
Re: Writing books is not really a good idea
#338These numbers are off [1]. There are a few creators who do earn more than that, but don't disclose their earnings, only the number of patrons. But even if we restrict our discussion to only those who disclose their earnings, there's at least 10 people who make more than $5000 a month on patreon in the creative writing category.
Re: Writing books is not really a good idea
#339It would be interesting to have a timeseries plot of this sort of information. Did it used to be easier to make a living as an author? Presumably there was some point at which the ease of making a living as an author peaked. This article suggests that time is in the past, but how far in the past? Has the absolute number of people who can make it as an author decreased, or just the relative fraction of the human popul…
Vonnegut I remember writing somewhere that radio and especially TV had killed the market for short stories in magazines, which were a great way for authors to get started. Here's some other things he said on making a living as a writer: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/vonnegut-writing-i... Note that he got paid $750 for his first short story in 1949! I don't know how many places are paying first time author…
Very few genre magazines will accept more than 10k words. A handful will accept 20k-25k (Asimov's, Analog, Clarkesworld for example, last I checked). Many will prefer much shorter works.
And of course that is before taking into account the competition - the editor of a relatively minor scifi magazine mention on Twitter that their typical slush pile per issue was 1400-1500 stories.
I've submitted a couple of stories, but decided that effort vs. relatively low potential payoff was so low that since I wouldn't really be profitable when factoring in time spent anyway it was better to just put my stories on my website and pay to promote them to relevant twitter followers to pull in readers for my novel and increase my following at the same time.
The few short stories I've published so far has as a result reached a much wider audience than most of the main scifi magazines reach. E.g. even Analog was reportedly down to 27k readers by 2011.
But of course being able to afford to do that is a pretty privileged position to be in.
Re: Writing books is not really a good idea
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
750 dollars in 1949 is about $9,000 in 2021. Vonnegut had to convince at least two gatekeepers: his own agent and the editor at Colliers. I spent a large chunk of time a few years back looking into the questions OP is asking, and the ultimate truth I came to is this: whether you're self publishing or going the traditional route, you're going to need some established gatekeepers to support you if you're going to make…
Yep, in almost every industry it was always been 50% how good you are and 50% who you know. Over time, who you need to know to be successful has changed, and new artists need to adapt, as they always have. Getting an audience is easier than ever in history. That is amazing for hobbyists who just want some readers and recognition, and not great for those who want to earn a living while writing.