Authors Making Bank With Meh Stories/Writing

[LeilaniOtter]

One of the most horribly written books of all time, "50 Shades of Gray", was a multi-level best-seller and spawned two movies. It's not always about the writing anymore, it's who you know. E.L. James' husband is a high-profile marketing genius.

And there you go.

 

[McPhoenixDavid]

By the way, if you really want to make Patreon money, RR has the whales.

"Whales"?! What does that mean? Are there sharks, too? ?

 

[Alski]

"Whales"?! What does that mean? Are there sharks, too? ?

The sharks are there and use their money more wisely, Its harder to make them bite. Theres even the little minnows who will be happy to throw you 1$ if its gets them something.

 

[McPhoenixDavid]

The sharks are there and use their money more wisely, Its harder to make them bite. Theres even the little minnows who will be happy to throw you 1$ if its gets them something.

No good, I must evolve to survive

 

[JayMark]

No good, I must evolve to survive

Just write something really good and after you die a publishing company will make money off it and never have to give you a dime.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Success at any creative endeavor is usually only 25% based on talent, with the rest a varying mix of marketing, luck, and "reading the crowd (producing what "the masses" seem to want)"

This is why successful creators tend to go one of two ways:

• Either they get a dedicated following and THEN do what they want, ticking off their original base, maintaining some success but rarely what they once had or
• They sell out, ticking off those dedicated fans who loved whatever was unique about them but keeping the income stream intact (the REM method).

 

[LeilaniOtter]

The sharks are there and use their money more wisely, Its harder to make them bite. Theres even the little minnows who will be happy to throw you 1$ if its gets them something.

I'd rather be the shark than the whale. ? I wouldn't care if there's people making a ton of money more than I am in the writing game; my aim is to make my mark and stake my own territory. We should all try to be sharks, really.

Just write something really good and after you die a publishing company will make money off it and never have to give you a dime.

Unless you have kids... ?

****

And don't envy those mediocre whales too much; in fact, care nothing at all about anyone making huge fortunes on Patreon these days.

They're essentially slaves - slaves to the mass market, never able to stop, never able to meander, never able to have a normal life again unless they quit - or pass away. What kind of life is that? Thank you, no. No money in the world is a substitute for a normal life that you want. ? No dollar amount should ever take the place of your personal freedoms. ?

 

[JayMark]

I'd rather be the shark than the whale. ? I wouldn't care if there's people making a ton of money more than I am in the writing game; my aim is to make my mark and stake my own territory. We should all try to be sharks, really.

Unless you have kids... ?

****

And don't envy those mediocre whales too much; in fact, care nothing at all about anyone making huge fortunes on Patreon these days.

They're essentially slaves - slaves to the mass market, never able to stop, never able to meander, never able to have a normal life again unless they quit - or pass away. What kind of life is that? Thank you, no. No money in the world is a substitute for a normal life that you want. ? No dollar amount should ever take the place of your personal freedoms. ?

I'd go to webnovel if I really cared. One problem with writing for the markets is if it fails to gain big traction, then I'm stuck with a story I didn't really want to write and no market success for it.

Also: if I went to webnovel, I'd probably have to break my prohibition on using LLMS in order to pump out the required output while still working full time day jobs.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

I'd go to webnovel if I really cared. One problem with writing for the markets is if it fails to gain big traction, then I'm stuck with a story I didn't really want to write and no market success for it.

Also: if I went to webnovel, I'd probably have to break my prohibition on using LLMS in order to pump out the required output while still working full time day jobs.

I think that's what has me a little skittish too, Moo. I'm really excited about starting these two new books, and in the back of my mind I'm thinking, "Is this something I can commit to long-term if it's a smash-hit?" Excitement for a story can wear off so easily, especially with my zany all-directional mind. ?

 

[Corty]

Waaa waaa, they earn more money than me, where's my share, waaaa, waaaa. I want money, too, waaaa.

 

[Envylope]

I'd rather be the shark than the whale. ? I wouldn't care if there's people making a ton of money more than I am in the writing game; my aim is to make my mark and stake my own territory. We should all try to be sharks, really.

Unless you have kids... ?

****

And don't envy those mediocre whales too much; in fact, care nothing at all about anyone making huge fortunes on Patreon these days.

They're essentially slaves - slaves to the mass market, never able to stop, never able to meander, never able to have a normal life again unless they quit - or pass away. What kind of life is that? Thank you, no. No money in the world is a substitute for a normal life that you want. ? No dollar amount should ever take the place of your personal freedoms. ?

Yeah, except money would give me the freedom to do anything I want.

Waaa waaa, they earn more money than me, where's my share, waaaa, waaaa. I want money, too, waaaa.

I love how everyone that writes for themselves also wants money usually. But they can mask that feeling as if it's not true.

 

[Sylver]

Am I the only one who comes across writers who are killing it on Patreon with an alright story and alright writing (not trying to diss anyone).

Jessica spent years worldbuilding, really laying down the ground work. Timmy’s writing doesn’t land quite right.

Timmy is making something like $3000 monthly on Patreon, while Jessica, publishing fully polished works, is struggling.

I'm living by paycheck wondering the same thing! Now some authors deserve it, scratch that, they all earned it. Call me naive but I don't think you reach that amount of Patreon money without putting in effort to meet the demand (supply and demand, heh).

Not all of them are smut! I've seen a few that are isekai, litrpg, and Girls Love. Those seem to be the common trends, I'm guess they're the popular trends on Scribblehub.

Oh oh, I did notice that often they share their work on multiple sites, not just here! Some marketing helps as well x)

I plan to dip my toe in the water on this stuff..I've been writing for nearly 10 years, I think I can pull it off. I have 8 stories with an overarching narrative in mind, so I've got plenty of content! Just need to find that audience first.

 

[greyblob]

Am I the only one who comes across writers who are killing it on Patreon with an alright story and alright writing (not trying to diss anyone).

Jessica spent years worldbuilding, really laying down the ground work. Timmy’s writing doesn’t land quite right.

Timmy is making something like $3000 monthly on Patreon, while Jessica, publishing fully polished works, is struggling.

if youre spending years on worldbuilding you're a pretty shit commercial author.

 

[Sylver]

One of the most horribly written books of all time, "50 Shades of Gray", was a multi-level best-seller and spawned two movies. It's not always about the writing anymore, it's who you know. E.L. James' husband is a high-profile marketing genius.

And there you go.

Marketing is severely overlooked x) I think for some stories it does the heavy lifting. I've read a few books that have the New York Times best seller mark, and they suck

if youre spending years on worldbuilding you're a pretty shit commercial author.

How would you suggest working on wolrd building? Just curious to hear your thoughts. I would think spending years on world building shows commitment to expanding this fictional world to really immerse the readers into. But maybe you have a different perspective you wouldn't mind sharing?

Not being sarcastic btw, sorry if I sound sarcastic x)

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Marketing is severely overlooked x) I think for some stories it does the heavy lifting. I've read a few books that have the New York Times best seller mark, and they suck

It's actually extremely easy to get on the NY Times best-seller list. Write a book, and then get some clueless shmoo to front you the money to buy approximately 20,000 copies of the book immediately - presto, you're on the list. I'm not kidding. ? ?

 

[Maelstrom556]

One of the most horribly written books of all time, "50 Shades of Gray", was a multi-level best-seller and spawned two movies. It's not always about the writing anymore, it's who you know. E.L. James' husband is a high-profile marketing genius.

And there you go.

Hey, at the very least new authors look at it and are very inspired to get into writing because they now have the confidence that they can write a better book.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Hey, at the very least new authors look at it and are very inspired to get into writing because they now have the confidence that they can write a better book.

good point. *^^*

I SHOULD point out E.L.James got her start writing successful "Twilight" fan-fiction, then tried to pass off "50 Shades" as "Twilight" fan-fiction, when "Twilight" was all anyone talked about. (another crappy novel, BTW).

 

[PancakesWitch]

Timmy just knows how to write what an audience wants
Jessica in the other case, writes only for her own enjoyment
That's the reason, to be successful you have to write for an audience, good authors will find a middle ground where they write what they love while also targeting an audience
You have to combine what you want with what the audience wants, if you cannot really compromise then just don't bother

 

[Sylver]

Anyone know if cat girls are still a hot topic for fantasy stories? Or stories driven by characters and plot that include smut, but not driven by smut?

 

[PancakesWitch]

Honestly, I think the cheat code is to just find something really popular, and write that with a slightly different setting and character names, change a few irrelevent details like making an elve a fairy, plus one twist theme in the plot or ability to make it slightly different while having a hook.

I told myself I was going to do this last time. I didn't do that. I have to go and be too different from the meta always.

You could also write your completely original story that has nothing to do with these popular tropes and then modify it by adding the popular trpes on top of that to find some kind of balance