How To Be An Author In Current Markets?

This is an odd post I have wanted to write for a long time. As you know, I’m a self-published author, and I consciously chose to be one. It was a decision I made when I listened to world-class authors on a WorldCon seven years ago. Publishing is a cut-throat business, and while there’s a potential for brilliance, success, and liberty, rarely anyone will get that, even the ones we thought who “made it.” It was eye-opening to hear authors speak honestly about how they are treated in the book market and how they have to rely on Patreon to be able to live and write. This odd balance exists between money and creativity, selling out, and ethics with being an author.

All of us need money to survive, but money as a source of creativity and expressing oneself is a lousy base. I read a book about markets. The writer proposed that consumers look for authenticity. They want passion. That is mainly given with writing, yet the need for money for living can’t be escaped. Our modern lives come with many demands for what a good life looks like: most useless but hard to ignore in a consumer society where every advertisement sells perfect images to make the consumer feel inadequate. If I’m to be authentic and ethical, I feel like I’m failing in that. I’m pushing my books on Amazon, an entity that is against my morals, paying them for each book I sell and the ads I set. My books are there because what other choice do I have? Amazon has the widest audience, and people can read my books on Kindle “free.” I even buy books through them because I can’t get them anywhere else, especially self-published books. I have written my books without compromising my morals. There’s that. But sometimes I lay awake at night, thinking about other choices.

I don’t know what to do or where to start. I want to share my thoughts. That’s why I do it. I have these stories that need to be written, and then they need to be let out into the world, despite they being kind of heavy and odd compared to what the markets want; who the heck wants to read satirical fantasy books with a heavy tone of political and social issues set in an undead world with ghouls, gargoyles, witches, undead, and necromancers? That’s another thing that keeps me up at night. But that’s not what I want to write about here. What I need to figure out is how to share my work. Should I head to YouTube and read my books one chapter at a time? And here we are again; YouTube isn’t some salvation or any better than Amazon. Should I give them away for free, but where and how would people find them in the hope that they will give me money on Patreon to pay my editor to polish my future books with fancy covers? It seems like there’s no escaping the need for money. It’s part of how we construct our relations with each other and the work we put into things.

I wish I had answers about what would align with my morals and views about the world, what a good life is for both of us and what the right way to do business is. Doing business is part of how we interact with each other, and it’s not going away, how much some think it should. However, the ethics of doing business and what we strive for with it are what we should pay attention to rather than wish to abolish in its entirety. Producing things just for the sake of production and money is an inherently stupid waste of resources and energy. I have seen artists solve the dilemma in so many ways. They sell their products on different platforms and get either direct money from the customers or sell through third-party retailers. All that needs advertisement. One way or another, it has to be done so that people know that there is something to be obtained. It means time and knowledge from the artist to get advertisements out there. The internet is full of how-to blog posts and other guides on advertising your books. Yet, I resist. I’m searching for that glimpse of a fairy light that will either ruin or liberate me, giving me the possibility of sitting late at night on your porch, watching fireflies against the darkened forest, drinking tea, and planning what to write next morning, knowing that after that, I can spend my day climbing outdoors until I return to that porch. A forever loop that my restless mind could handle.

Sometimes, I entertain that fairy light to be a community of like-minded writers wishing to share their work communally on the internet. It seems to be that, as one, it’s easy to get lost in the sea, but if there’s a group, there’s a possibility of floating together. I haven’t figured out what that would mean and how. It would likely limit the markets to ebooks and audiobooks, but it would give a possibility for direct payment for the author/artist. I’m not entirely sure if that’s a way to go. Or should I use services like Draft2Digital to go wider and not rely on Amazon?

I wish I could write a killer ending to this post to give clarity to all of us. I can’t. There’s no clarity in this head of mine—just questions and dreams.

Thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you know where to find the fairy light ❤ Now I will head to find some wine and watch as the snow falls.