Writers And Money

Being an author leads to many weird situations that involves the critical or just curious eye of people who might consider buying your work. Some of it we, the writers, do a lot to direct as we want it to be seen: Entertaining, ingenious or "something new to this planet". We go from our solitary workplace by the computer, struggling to give life to fictional characters and plots of our own making to go craving for some kind of publicity. Without publicity the book will still be there, but only for our own personal enjoyment and without the stamp of success: Sales that prove that we were right in calling this, our work, our bosom baby.  

A lot of people know that this makes us vulnerable to scams that tear into our finances, robbing us without giving us what we were told that we were buying: Publicity, contracts with good and legitimate publishers or, for instance, screen writers, etc., etc.. A lot of disappointments may be waiting for the hopeful writer and it's not fair to us or the trade as such.

However, the publicity part of the game may be less burdensome moneywise if we involve ourselves in certain measures that we perform ourselves: 

1. I don't believe in listing people who might review our books for free, using emails to incite them to buy the book. To me that's looking unfair to those we approach as writers. However, honest reviews on platforms like e.g. Amazon and Goodreads are a wonderful boost to the sale process. Some writers may build a business partnership with other authors for cross-promotions or guest posts on each other's blogs.

2. Attend book conventions: OK, but that's not cheap. I's been invited to two conventions in Europe, but did not feel tempted to attend ....

3. a) Be a blogger or b) get someone who has a blog to read and review your book.

4. One may utilize platforms like e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to engage with readers. Maybe that strategy may even lead to the building of a community of followers, but that may be pushing one's luck too far ....

5. Some writers participate in book club discussions of various art. 

And what have I done up till now? Not much, even though I, who have a long list of self published works, ought to do something about the actual promotion of my works. Well, sometimes I do sell something, but I wouldn't be able to make a living by writing books which also goes for many other authors: This is not an industry for most of the people who are out to get riches. Some do, but not most of us ....