/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.20020861]

Imagine being a tradpub author right now, spending hundreds of hours revising a novel based on an agent's recommendations just so you have a *chance* of selling your work to a Big Five publisher for a $7k advance and 0.01% chance of being a megahit. Meanwhile dudes are raking in tens of millions of dollars selfpubbing their shit. Trad is dead. Stick a fork in it.

[Anonymous No.20020883]

Show me a self-published literary author that is making good money.

The fact that some hack can get a million monkeys to clap for him means nothing and only fellow would-be hacks and charlatans give a fuck.

[Anonymous No.20020895]

>>20020883
Woody allen

[Anonymous No.20020920]

>>20020883
Rupi Kaur and Waldun

[Anonymous No.20020951]

>>20020883
The only things that matter are money and attention. Do you think titans like Sanderson have anything but contempt for "literary" authors no one wants to read?

[Anonymous No.20020993]

>>20020951
you just described a prostitute

[Anonymous No.20021068]

Sorely tempted, because lit agents are fucking scum, and querying is depressing.

"Hey, do all my fucking work and, if I like it, I'll take 15% of anything you're worth."

But self-publishing isn't going to get you anywhere unless you already have a following like OP pic rel.

[Anonymous No.20021157]

>>20021068
Don't be dumb and look at the actual stats on self-publishing. They do shockingly well these days. Yes you have to market the books yourself, but you also don't have to deal with some bluehair's pants-on-head-retarded editorial micromanagement.

[Anonymous No.20021208]

>>20021157
Is it really worth it to publish on your own as a literary author?

[Anonymous No.20021210]

>>20020883
>Show me a self-published literary author that is making good money.
>The fact that some hack can get a million monkeys to clap for him means nothing and only fellow would-be hacks and charlatans give a fuck.

As long as the author isn’t buying a million copies to pump his own numbers, lots of people buying your “self published” novel or whatever is probably proof that people may actually want to read it.
If people buy your second or third self published work, after buying your first, and the people who are buying the later works are doing so at a later date, in separate purchases, that means the earlier work was good enough to those people that the first work acted as advertising for the later ones.

[Anonymous No.20021241]

>>20021208
>Is it really worth it to publish on your own as a literary author?

A teacher I had who had at least a few commercially published works said that she earned enough to buy a fancy coffee for each book that got sold.
I don’t remember the teacher’s name, and never bought any of her books, because they sounded boring as fuck to me, and it was some minor side credit I was required to take, so I don’t know who the publisher was.
Basically though, If you publish your own books, you’ll probably earn a similar amount as the teacher did from her publisher, at least if you charge regular book rates, or even half regular book rates.
Then you just need to figure out a way to get people to notice the book.

[Anonymous No.20021257]

>>20021241
You basically just said that I would make the same amount of money. So why would I publish on my own for the same amount of money if I could just get it published traditionally?

[Anonymous No.20021273]

Yep, it's true. Look at the popular authors on royal road, they're running patreons making god only knows how much a month or per chapter. And their writing is objectively mediocre.

Tradpub has been dying since the kindle first came out. You can either get with the times and self publish online, or you can pretend to be a minority and get published traditionally and nobody will read what you write anyway.

[Anonymous No.20021329]

>>20021257
Because you won't get published traditionally.

[Anonymous No.20021335]

i'm in the furry circles and some writers are making 5 figures a month from patreon

[Anonymous No.20021360]

>>20020993
This janny does it for free lmao

[Anonymous No.20021374]

>>20021335
Smut almost always pays out if you target a particular fetish. Then all you have to do is commission a halfway decent artist for your cover art and post an amazon link on your target fetish's subreddit and you'll earn a pretty decent income. It's a nice alternative to whoring yourself out to booktubers on social media hoping they shill your book for you.

[Anonymous No.20021382]

Imagine pouring your soul into a beautiful, expertly-crafted novel that you worked on for years...

only for Reddit Man to roll up with some middle school story he wrote in a week and rake in 30 million dollars in two days HAHAHAHAHAHA GET FUCKING DABBED ON

[Anonymous No.20021393]

Something like this may have been Sanderson's long term plan from the beginning, I don't know. What I do know is that he had the benefit of becoming a leading name in his genre under the patronage of trad publishing (and the whole cross-promotion Mormon genre writer network) and was able to make the pivot because of this.
He would be just one of countless writer's shitting out his high concept, sub-par, novels in to the kindle e-book void otherwise.
It also helps that along with this he has generated a high level of audience engagement, keeping people updated on deadlines and scheduling, in a way very few other writers do. Basically he has built a very strong bond of trust between him and the reader, when he says he is going to do something you can reliably count on him following through.

I think that is the trick in the end, building a community around yourself as a creator. If you can do that then the rest follows.

[Anonymous No.20021601]

>>20021374
Which fetishes pay out the best?

[Anonymous No.20021611]

>>20021393
But what if you do not want to build a community and you just want to be left alone

[Anonymous No.20021632]

>>20021611
Then you do what many artists do and put in the hard work and once the money starts coming in hire a social media manager to do it for you.

Constant online has become a prerequisite for many fields in the arts and entertainment and will only continue to grow in importance. Music seems to the worst for this, but the need to become a personal brand harvesting parasocial engagement to funnel into sales is only going to increase in importance.

[Anonymous No.20021638]

>>20021632
Sadly true. I see this in the art community a lot, too. Most modern "artists" are Instagram-hot chicks who do basic paintings, but make videos of them doing it in basically underwear and with paint all over their bodies.

You can tell they sell a lot of art to guys with money, who really only want to play with their fake tits and lips.

[Anonymous No.20021651]

I have been deeply, sorely tempted to self-publish, just because I've had so much frustration trying to get my big story published traditionally.

I have several short stories and almost a dozen poems published under my real name. But I have yet to achieve real breakout success. This, despite pretty much everyone who reads my stuff saying they love it. I even had a friend of mine whose taste I know is good say that I should be more known as an up-and-coming author.

But I have a big work of somewhat literary sci-fi that I have been working on since 2020, when I started the first book amid the pandemic lockdowns. I now have two books and a short story finished amid the overall story, and I am working on the third book as we speak. I've tried over and over to get agents interested in the first book but I've only had one element of real interest, and THAT guy said to get back to him in the spring, so it's not a firm thing.

I'm really frustrated, so self-publishing has looked more and more like an option. I have a few thousand followers amid all my social media accounts, so I'm capable of doing my own self-promotion to a limited degree.

[Anonymous No.20021662]

>>20020861
i'm a writer, i have friends who are writers. one of them recently got a £50k advance from a well regarded publisher for her latest novel. it has been very well reviewed, but has not sold particularly large numbers.

[Anonymous No.20021668]

>>20020883
the inimitable chuck tingle

[Anonymous No.20021768]

>>20021382
>He emptied a clip
>He might accidentally shoot me

[Anonymous No.20021782]

>>20021241
Wow I think this deserves the #1 Most Useless 4chan Comment Ever award

[Anonymous No.20021787]

>>20021662
where can I find you fren
i will check out your work

[Anonymous No.20021791]

>>20021651
It's like anything else. 1% make millions, 10% make okay money, 50% make a bit, and the rest make an occasional sale.

But your stats are still better than the tradpub swindle. I just love reading all these bozos carefully explaining why it won't work for them though. Self-defeating internal dialogue is fucking hilarious.

[Anonymous No.20021827]

>>20021651
whats your twatter

[Anonymous No.20021836]

>>20021601
That's the secret sauce friend. Got to do your own work. But apply modern AI models to the matter and you can churn out content at breakneck speed.

[Anonymous No.20021846]

>>20021068
>But self-publishing isn't going to get you anywhere unless you already have a following like OP pic rel.

Did you think trad publishing is going to go anywhere if you didn't already have a following? You're some no name loser with maybe a decent book, they're not going to take a risk with their time and money marketing you when they can just spend that money on authors that already have a following, authors that literally are their own brand.

[Anonymous No.20021870]

>>20020861

https://www.creativindie.com/how-much-does-the-average-author-earn-publishing-their-book/

This post goes into depth about the pitfalls of trad publishing and the benefits of selfpublishing along with some cons. Pretty insightful.

[Anonymous No.20021934]

>>20021827
It's a secret that I won't reveal until the time is right.

[Anonymous No.20022179]

>>20021329
If he cuts his dick off and has a kosher last name, there's a chance.

[Anonymous No.20022187]

>>20021662
She got screwed. Underperforming a big advance is one of the worst things that can happen to a breakout author. A death sentence.

[Anonymous No.20022229]

>>20022187
don't worry, she's a woman. I'm sure she'll have a soft landing with her legs spread

[Anonymous No.20022677]

>>20022229
lol

[Anonymous No.20022679]

>>20021382
Is this real?

[Anonymous No.20023441]

>>20021836
>But apply modern AI models to the matter and you can churn out content at breakneck speed.
This explains so much. I've seen some smut authors put out a new 300p book every other week and was floored that the books were still coherent. It all makes sense now.

[Anonymous No.20023455]

>>20021382
>Reddit man
>A mormon a.k.a. homophobe who thinks blacks are spooky
But yeah he is shit. Every industry is like this (see comedy): if you bust your ass long enough, the publishers will advertise you more

[Anonymous No.20023463]

>>20021836
Explain the AI bit and where to procure it

[Anonymous No.20023570]

>>20021846
No, I didn't.

Honestly, all I want is to be able to walk into a bookstore and see even a single copy of my book on the shelves.

Dunno how I'd convince Chapters to stock it if I self-published.

[Anonymous No.20023661]

>>20020861
This only works because he has built up a massive audience for himself through traditional publishing. He then used that presence to build up an online following too.

[Anonymous No.20023941]

>>20023463
novelai.net for a start

[Anonymous No.20023967]

>>20020883