#how much do authors make anyway?

[katherine-villyard]

Acquiring My Work

John Scalzi did it over here, so I'm doing it, too. I'm an Indie (self-published), so unlike John, where you buy matters in terms of how much money I make. The absolute best place (for me!) to buy my work is my shop, where I make 92.1% of what you pay for ebooks and audiobooks, and 92.1% of what you pay minus the physical cost of the book for print. Print books are surprisingly expensive, and Indie "print on demand" books are more expensive than traditionally published books printed at scale because offset printing is cheaper (but I don't want to be on the hook for 5000 copies or whatever, or rent a warehouse to store them).If you're not comfortable buying at my shop, pretty much any online vendor will give me 70% of what you pay for ebooks (minus delivery fees for Amazon), which is pretty sweet. (Now you know why Indies love ebooks!) I use Draft2Digital to reach some markets and they take 10% as well, but I'm going direct more places with the upcoming book. (No shade to D2D, I'm happy with them!)For print, Amazon gives me 60% of the profit (what you pay minus the cost of the book to produce). Other retailers likely give me 54% of the profit (what you pay minus the cost of the book to produce). Physical bookstores give me the least money (because I give them a wholesale discount) but you should absolutely buy from them to encourage them to buy my books. This is a calculated tradeoff of reaching customers who would absolutely not find my books because they only shop local. If your local bookstore doesn't carry my book, you can request they order it for you (tell them it's available through Ingram!). By the way, if you really want to support buying local, bookshop.org donates profits to local bookstores. For audio, well. ACX (Audible and Amazon) pays me 25% of what you paid for the credit. Other places, I generally get between 32% and 50%. I'm not going to begrudge anyone buying my work with the credits you bought a year in advance! please buy my audiobook! but also, if you have a choice, my store is lovely... Also, buying my books at the retailers makes the retailers think you like me ;) and they might recommend my book to someone else. It's kind of a double-edged sword for Indies, usually summed up as "bank vs. rank." I'm encouraging you to consider options that give me better bank, but if you prefer your retailer of choice that will give me rank. In other words, it's all good! If you don't like or approve of one of the places that carries my books, you can order them somewhere else. I actively encourage this! Can't afford to buy? I love libraries! In some countries that are not the US I get money when you check out a book. In the US, if lots of people check out my book the library buys more copies, or buys replacement copies when they wear out. Libraries are the best. Used bookstores: I love used bookstores, but I do not receive money if you buy my book there. If you really want to give me money for my used copy (where did you even find it?) I do have a Ko-Fi tip jar, if you're so inclined. John had a section on Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum. Okay, look, I'm not your mom, okay? If you really can't afford it, and your library doesn't carry it, do me a favor and ask your library to carry it. If it's hard to get in your country and you can afford it, my shop will sell you an ebook that you can read on your phone or tablet, but if it's too expensive I'm not going to come after you. But my preference is that I get paid. You don't want to know what I spent. ;) No, really, since I'm an Indie I paid the editors and cover designer and audiobook producer and... yeah, I would love to recoup the money I spent and even make a profit. If you DID Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum and would like to make it up to me because you think my book is worth the money, you can buy a copy and give it to a friend, or your local library. That would honestly be my first choice. I would prefer not to debate Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum in the comments. Sorry. Read the full article

[akitossohma]

if i see one more “you have to be a super special specific unique type of person to enjoy or even slightly understand orv actually” post im gonna start eating dry wall. stop operating under the false pretense that people cannot extract their own meaning and enjoyment from genre and story conventions they have not otherwise been exposed to. its such an anti human take in that it completely undermines the malleability and adaptability of the human imagination/mind and i am So Sick of it.

[kaiserouo]

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yay i gave him a name

[corntired]

Fanfiction is so goated actually

No monetary incentive, just writing in one's free time. Some incentive for like kudos and comments, because who doesn't want to hear that someone else enjoyed what they wrote. Just writing a story that is good and/or enjoyable, no real-life pressure to keep it going because god forbid you and other people are depending on it financially.

Writing a story because you want to write a good story, so you can write what they want the way you want, at a pace that is realistic for you, with exactly the plot pacing you want there to be.

[welcometogrouchland]

I love Steph's origin as told in the Secret Origins 80 page giant- I just overall think it strengthens her character by giving her a lot of pathos and adding to her heroism (which isn't something writers were focused on in her actual intro in detective comics #647 since she was just meant to act as a plot device back then) BUT there is one tiny detail in it i will begrudge, and that is the portrayal of her having a minor love at first sight moment for tim

Secret origins 80 page giant, ID in alt

(or well, technically this was their second meeting in that story (the brick was the first) so...love at second sight?)

Mostly because Stephanie showed no interest in her introduction and only showed romantic feelings towards Tim AFTER this moment here:

Robin (1993) #4, ID in alt

Straight up the progression here goes:

The adventure in 'tec where they first meet -> Tim investigating the same crime scene as Steph -> she beats him up not knowing it's him at first, apologizes but says he shouldn't have scared her -> he remembers her/the moniker she goes by -> they talk about plot for a few pages -> Stephanie starts flirting

Robin (1993) #4, ID in alt

Which...is so fascinating to me and says so much about Stephanie. She highlights the fact that Tim "remembered" her. Like. Steph. Girl. This is our bar? It's sweet but kind of speaks to how much Stephanie is ignored at home/how little and sporadically she's shown interacting with her peers (and rarely ever the same kids twice). Her idea of peak romance is just...being on someone's mind even when you're not there.

Kind of also adds layers to Steph's proclivity towards jealousy later on, a manifestation of her insecurity and loneliness (though don't get it twisted, she's not written this way bc Dixon and co think it's an interesting character flaw, they wrote it bc they think it's an inherent character flaw of (particularly young) women/girls, which is very apparent in how he approaches Ariana's character as well from what I've read)

Also the fact that Steph becomes so smitten for Tim almost immediately after this is (a few issues later she aggressively flirts with him during AN ACTIVE HOSTAGE SITUATION. WHERE SHE'S THE HOSTAGE) again is kind of a mixture of kind of funny and sad. One boy is nice to her once and she's fully ready to wife him. Girl you are deranged (affectionate) (concerned)

[tennessoui]

it’s like baby gorl there’s no way I, the author who wrote the fic you’re commenting on and who is the intended audience for this comment, am gonna agree with you 😿🙏 some things can just stay on your chest 🙏

[vinelark]

🫶

[writterings]

the thing they don't tell you about most mlm romance books is that they fucking suck ass

[bayetea]

I don't like the judo flip in moa as much as the next guy but in my eyes it's largely the result of rick not taking female violence half as seriously as male violence (a result of viewing women as weaker and inferior to men such that their acts of violence don't need to be taken as seriously) and not so much anything about annabeth herself. like I do genuinely feel that annabeth is a complex heroine and definitely one of the better ones in the realm of ya action-adventure fiction produced in the past 25 years but she is still a girl being written by a man and all I'm saying is that her writing clearly reflects that sometimes (more in tags)

[doodlejoltik]

my favourite writing device is having an un-Rei-liable narrator

[grandcovenant]

carlo's inherent tragedy as a character means that if he hadn't died young he would've gone through something worse. the horrifying realization that he inherited his father's personality <3

[volfoss]

it is beyond infuriating how anne rice seems to insist on marius being a positive force in anyone's life ever. like she can't fully commit to exploring the fact he groomed armand and has repeatedly taken away his consent for what marius thinks is best (take the end of TVA as an example) and just kind of flatly puts it in the narrative. there's not really much interest in how these horrific events make marius come across as the worst because EVERYONE loves him. for gods sake, lestat learns from armand exactly what marius did to him in TVL and then proceeds to go find marius and be super friendly to him in the same fucking book. even armand and pandora, two of the people who have MORE than enough right to hate him, do not. it doesnt feel like shes trying to explore the toxicity of the abusive dynamic he traps them in, it just is there. and like yeah ofc the toxic vampire romance series but i think that this should be handled with more care. and it is not ever really framed in a way that she is interested in exploring how marius should easily be one of the most horrific characters in this series because it kind of feels like sa/rape/grooming/other things of that sort are just put there to further plot and not to really get the respect that they deserve in a medium.

[nyxi-pixie]

some people hear 'character with strong moral code doesnt like authority' and immediately dismiss all prior knowledge of said character and instead decide to depict them as having some crazy badboy past. good GOD you people will say anything

[mc-critical]

Bonus:

2.22 (46) / 2.24 (48) / 2.25 (49) / 2.35 (59) / 2.39 (63)

[fictionadventurer]

Maybe I need to write Cardinal's Map so there's a contemporary book about the power of literature and reaching for a world beyond the mundane that isn't wall-to-wall inspirational platitudes with vague worldbuilding about the battle between the forces of good vs. evil.

[fiona-fififi]

The way people sometimes refuse to acknowledge that writing choices that clearly go against established canon should mean something is endlessly frustrating to me. We don't have to agree on the interpretation, but these writing choices SHOULD mean something.

Otherwise, it's shitty writing.