I want less content released less frequently and I’m not kidding. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
I understand that "leaving a mark on the genre" and "being relevant to the community" are both worthwhile goals, but I'm vaguely curious about how much money a romance writer earns every month to make the "three to five 200k-word books a year" publishing model worthwhile. Even if you're pulling in a gross of $2k a month, you still have to pay income tax + platform fees + whoever you contracted via Fiverr to proofread the manuscript, design the cover, read the audiobook, etc. And even then, making $2k a month (as opposed to maybe $1k total for one moderately successful book on Kindle Unlimited) sounds like a "top three percent" sort of figure.
I know a lot of these people just love writing for the sake of writing, but still. Even if we're all monkeys who can't help but become addicted to playing the "make numbers go up" game on online platforms, it can't be financially sustainable for the vast majority of writers. Aren't they afraid of getting burned out?
And aren't they afraid that their readers will get burned out too?
Sorry, just thinking out loud here. More than anything, I used to love digital indie publishing (especially romances!) and it's a shame to watch it become more of a monoculture with each passing year.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2024-05-25 07:45 pm (UTC)I understand that "leaving a mark on the genre" and "being relevant to the community" are both worthwhile goals, but I'm vaguely curious about how much money a romance writer earns every month to make the "three to five 200k-word books a year" publishing model worthwhile. Even if you're pulling in a gross of $2k a month, you still have to pay income tax + platform fees + whoever you contracted via Fiverr to proofread the manuscript, design the cover, read the audiobook, etc. And even then, making $2k a month (as opposed to maybe $1k total for one moderately successful book on Kindle Unlimited) sounds like a "top three percent" sort of figure.
I know a lot of these people just love writing for the sake of writing, but still. Even if we're all monkeys who can't help but become addicted to playing the "make numbers go up" game on online platforms, it can't be financially sustainable for the vast majority of writers. Aren't they afraid of getting burned out?
And aren't they afraid that their readers will get burned out too?
Sorry, just thinking out loud here. More than anything, I used to love digital indie publishing (especially romances!) and it's a shame to watch it become more of a monoculture with each passing year.