This is kind of just a vent post. I’ve self-published a bunch of novels, and a few years ago a small publisher published three of my science fiction novels. I churn out about two novels per year, and have four or five right now that are ready to be published, I’m just waiting for the voice actor I’m working with to finish recording the audiobook of the second book of a historical-fantasy trilogy I finished writing and editing a year or two ago. I’m thinking of producing my own audiobooks myself.
I’m working on a new novel that I’m really excited about, one that’s been in the back of my head for at least fifteen years, and it’s coming easier to me than anything I’ve worked on in years. Yesterday I wrote seven pages in about an hour in the morning before work, which is a lot, and very fast, even for me, but it’s not an unusual rate with this book. This book is almost three hundred pages long right now, I only started it about six weeks ago, and I’ve written it so fast that when I look back at earlier sections, I barely remember writing them, and can enjoy them almost like a random reader, and they seem pretty good to me, but I’m pretty sure that when I publish this book, no one is going to read it, and no publisher will risk publishing it.
My current projects are:
-
historical-fantasy LitRPG trilogy about four modern American teenagers teleported to 11th century Byzantium (only the first volume has been published, there’s also an audiobook);
-
Imagine if the OG StarCraft was a novel, but more communist (finished but not yet published);
-
Freya McFadden’s The Housemaid, but with a stand-in for Jeffrey Epstein (finished but not yet published);
-
a diary about working as a blue collar worker. I was publishing it online chapter-by-chapter until it got me in trouble with the police, even though I kept everything in the book vague and anonymous. I can’t publish it until I leave the country;
-
What if a planet identical to Earth appeared on the other side of the solar system right now, and we found out that people lived on that planet, except on that planet, it’s the year 1492? (I’m writing the first draft now)
I write these books for fun and out of boredom. Sometimes I’ll get home after a long day of work, I’ll be exhausted, I’ll take care of dinner and my kids and keeping the house clean, I’ll check the news and watch youtube or tiktok for an hour or two, and then there will just be nothing left to do except write and research. I have been immersing myself in the Aztecs and the Maya for a week or two now, for instance.
Still, I’d also like to be a famous writer and pay the bills with my work, but years have gone by, and I would guess that thousands of people have spent money on my books total. For this to be more than a hobby, that needs to be thousands of people per month, not over the course of, like, six years or so, which is how long it’s been since I “went pro” as a writer. I know people are going to tell me that I should advertise and promote my work, and I actually spent a lot of time doing that, and it just drove me nuts and went nowhere. People here can critique or offer advice if they want, I’m just venting. I didn’t post links to my books but if you’re curious about them, you can message me. They were on libgen, but that never works anymore. I’m not sure if they’re on Anna’s Archive.
Who are your books for? A niche audience, or mass market? Who do you want to write for and importantly, who do you like writing for?
My books are for people who enjoy the genres that I write in.
Right but do you know how many people that is? How many books that reach this market? What pathways those books take to actually reach the full potential of the audience?
This research is pointless for a hobbiest, but for someone that actually wants to make it their living it’s essential knowledge. Not just vague ideas but actual precise numbers and a mechanical understanding of whether those pathways are achieved partially through networking or nepotism or just authors randomly spamming out their books to publishers and hoping someone takes notice, etc etc.
You’re a communist. You believe in efficient five year plans based on carefully plotting out all the variables and having a deep mechanical understanding of how others got to where they are (not just the nice stories that are told for the media but the real truth of it).
I can’t speak for writing, I am not a writer, but I do know a little bit about artists and in my experience artists tend to believe that they should just spontaneously succeed as a result of practicing their craft and getting better and better. That it should just happen naturally. The difference I see between those that get ahead and those that do not tends to be a combination of being very good and also taking the time to deeply understand the numbers and mechanics of the industry, building themselves as a brand. I don’t seek to patronise you, you could be in one group or the other for all I know.
Right but do you know how many people that is?
Can’t give you an exact number but Freida McFadden’s books have been at the top of amazon for months. LitRPG has been fairly popular for years (Dungeon Crawler Carl is a somewhat famous example). Science fiction and historical fiction are much harder to sell, however. I wanted to write a book like The Housemaid because I thought McFadden’s novel had a pretty interesting idea (homeless girl working as a live-in maid for a rich family) but that the execution was actually not very good. People are interested in this book, it’s still flying off the shelves after quite a long time, people are interested in Epstein, so why not combine the two and see what happens?
How many books that reach this market?
Many. There’s a book about this called Write To Market which has some techniques I’ve used for studying genres (understanding tropes and also using amazon to find genres that are popular, among many other things). The author is a rightwing lunatic but his novels definitely sell. I think this book is the answer to a bunch of your questions. I’ve looked at plenty of other books about marketing novels, but this one is the best that I know of. Still, I’ve made mistakes. My LitRPG novels, for instance, focus on four main characters, when novels in this genre almost exclusively follow one main character, a crucial detail that I only found out about after I had finished writing the entire trilogy.
artists tend to believe that they should just spontaneously succeed as a result of practicing their craft and getting better and better
Very true. I try not to do this. There’s always a compromise you have to make between what you want to create and what large numbers of people want to consume.
Can’t give you an exact number but Freida McFadden’s books have been at the top of amazon for months. LitRPG has been fairly popular for years (Dungeon Crawler Carl is a somewhat famous example). Science fiction and historical fiction are much harder to sell, however. I wanted to write a book like The Housemaid because I thought McFadden’s novel had a pretty interesting idea (homeless girl working as a live-in maid for a rich family) but that the execution was actually not very good. People are interested in this book, it’s still flying off the shelves after quite a long time, people are interested in Epstein, so why not combine the two and see what happens?
She self published on amazon originally and wrote for 9 years before this “breakthrough” book. The question is was her breakthrough luck, unique premise that captures people’s imaginations, genuine writing skill, or did it come through knowing the right people and making the right friends? If it’s the latter, then the real planning work is how to make those right friends and connections.
My LitRPG novels, for instance, focus on four main characters, when novels in this genre almost exclusively follow one main character, a crucial detail that I only found out about after I had finished writing the entire trilogy.
Personal escapism where the readers are placing themselves in the role of protagonist? Sounds a lot like shonen and isekai writing.
As fun as just sitting and imagining scenarios is, I find there’s a transformative process when you actually put it down into words. You gotta actually stop and think through details the imagination can otherwise just gloss over with a vague impression.
Forget about paying your life with books. That era is long over. The few cases you see are the exceptions, for each one there’s a thousand strugglers and ten thousand failures, and the few successes there are already cap out the demand of the market: people don’t have that spare money or time to begin with.
Write because you like what you write or because it will get the plot Nidos out of your head. Write because of spite - because they said it could not be done. But don’t write for money. Not in a world that is going to the hell of AIs. That way lies madness.
tl;dr: the difference(s) between writing books and staring at the wall is 1.- which one you like doing more and 2.- only one of those two produces a tangible output that someone may use. But whether they do or they even can, is not your call, and it’s better to accept that.
If it’s any consolation, I read your Space Corp books and enjoyed them.
Thank you!
If you stare at the wall no one will know, if you write a book no one reads someone might read it down the line, or maybe it will be of historical/ anthropological use in the future, or maybe you’ll even gain a cult following years after you’re gone
You never know
Plus if you write a book then you get to say that and I think that’s cool
I’ve written 3 novels, I have a WIP and probably double that in terms of potential storylines that I mapped out. I’ve had an easier time getting strangers to say “I love you” (and back again) than I have getting someone to read 15 pages of what I’ve written. It’s like there’s an unbreakable wall between me thinking something is cool and getting someone to consider it.
But, for what it’s worth, my interest in fantasy novels ignited in me the ability to read novels written by others. It’s something I cheated my way through in school to my own deficit. It’s also gotten me one (1) friend who I regularly hang out with. It got me into a writer’s critique group which has taught me about the craft of authorship as opposed to writing aimlessly without consideration for prose, pacing, and narrative. I’m lying if I tell you that I don’t hope to use the skill of narrative structure to get people to give a shit about things.
So while I never expect to do more than touch the butt and say that I’ve sold a book and thereby call myself “a published author,” making a friend or two and reading is more than nothing.
I enjoy writing, but I don’t like it when I do it alone.
That’s why I have my own private group of people I like to mutually worldbuild with, my specific niche is essentially dead outside our group so you’ll have a better chance as a DnD DM, though DnD requires different execution and you may not like it as much
On a separate note, if you’re curious about my group please send me a DM
