this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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Ah yes, "Your inner fish, the video game". I can see it now. "Debt: the first 5000 years the Netflix series" rivetting viewing.
Margins on books are awful, authors are largely paid a lump sum for publishing because they need food and sales on a book are often quite small. Like a few thousand small. Keep in mind you also need money while you are writing a book before it's being sold.
Patreon models and self publishing only works for smut and pulp.
Patreon, as I said, only works for things being published in small chunks regularly. Smut and pulp are definitely within that category (and there's nothing wrong with either style of writing!), but it can also work for certain types of non-fiction writing where you might be publishing your research process as you go.
Self-publishing can work for any style of writing. It's difficult to get noticed, and most of the more successful self-publishers became so because they also have followings on other platforms like YouTube, but it is a viable option.
I'm not suggesting that any of these ideas are panaceae. Like I said, I basically agree with you that it's difficult to be commercially successful in writing. I just wanted to point out that it's not quite as black and white as to suggest that you can't monetise it any way other than sales. 15 years ago people probably would have said the same thing about movies, and it's still mostly true about video games.
I think you're focusing on mass market stuff too much and you're tech-brained. Publishers are basically necessary for non fiction as you need fact checkers, legal cover if making claims about humans that might sue you and research access and assistance.
Marketing help is needed for anything that isn't already popular, income is needed while you work, editing is an extremely hard job that is a profession for a reason. Relying on something like patreon or YouTube where you have no real rights is an extremely precarious way to live open only to people with extremely specific skills around self promotion.
There are reasons beyond authors being dumbshits why Australian authors struggle and every author ever will tell you it's a terrible way to make bread.
I'm gonna be honest, I'm here trying to have a civil and interesting conversation, and the vibe I'm getting back is just way more hostile than I'm willing to put up with.