Have ya'll tried writing with the intent to generate income?

[lovecraft68]

Yep.

It's the main reason I don't write for money anymore.

Also because the money is never worth it. Erotic fiction netted me maybe a couple hundred bucks a year, on average, and I was working with a publisher and getting advances. There were times I got more like $500 a year. Which is cool and all, but not worth selling my enjoyment for.

I learned this lesson when I owned the Comic Book store. Started reading comics in the seventies, by the late eighties I was already buying to invest and selling at shows. In 2001 my wife and I opened the store. We were open eight years and closed due to the recession, death of her sister, a myriad of reasons. But by the end, just about all the love I had for the medium was gone. I saw the business side, the greed of Marvel and DC, the BS with the one exclusive dealer we could order from (Diamond Comics) and all the headaches of a brick and mortar business and we also both worked full time while having the store. We had a kid who opened at eleven and I'd get there at 3:30 and my wife would run Saturday's to give me a day off, that I rarely took and ended up there anyway.

It took years for me to start getting back into collecting for myself, and I went back to buying to sell again as well, but only online and back issues.

That example was in my head when I decided to try to sell my writing. Not much at first because I was making a few bucks a month on a couple of titles. Then-as I always do-I went all in and started making decent money. There's been times where the headaches of content on sites changing, Amazon's endless BS, spats with publishers etc had me starting to see it as work. But this time when I caught myself getting there, I knew enough to take a breath and say, okay, this is not my main source of income, if it goes south, so be it. I have nothing financially invested(unlike the store) so just get back to having fun and it all falls as it does.

Last year I made around 15k and that is not anything to live on, just a second job that is all but pure profit, and goes into a slush fund account for vacations, toys, and anything not necessary for actual adult living. That way it helps with it being fun, I'm not paying the mortgage with this, I'm using it for childish cool stuff.

But for anyone thinking "wow, that's a lot for smut" it is, especially seeing most of it is self pubbed, I have someone for my more mainstream stuff, but I also have 225 titles and 14 years of work invested to get to that degree. For a few years I topped just over 20k until amazon really started with the witch hunts and for all I know I could find my account blocked tomorrow for no reason.

If anyone wants to try it to see what happens, and get the thrill of someone paying for your work, go for it. If you think you're earning a living? Hell no.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It appears I'll be attempting to blowup SubStack soonish. I may even toss some Dynamite into Patreon in the future.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I've just dipped my toes into this. My first story is on SmashWords and Amazon and a few other places. I've decided I'm going to spend the next few months repackaging my existing stories into something marketable. We'll see where it goes.

 

[ThanksForAllTheFish]

I sold some stuff on KDP, made a reasonable amount with two books up. Proof reading and formatting are a massive pain so I gave up adding anymore pretty quickly. In the end they took down my account because the AI covers I used had too much nudity even though everything was covered up, just. I was too lazy to fix them in time so that's that for now

 

[MillieDynamite]

Okay, I'm on Substak now. Only one free story so far on the site. I think my publisher/editor is putting up more stories there today.

 

[Belegon]

I like writing and I've been doing it for a long time. My stories on here are pretty good based on scores, comments, and feedback.

Are they going to make money? Maybe. I decided my goal for 2025 was to start writing with the intent to sell on KDP or another platform.

I started experimenting and I wrote something as my first story to publish on KDP. I found, though, I didn't have nearly the fun I do when I write for me. My stories are for me, not for you lovely people. And now that I'm writing for money, so to speak, I'm gearing it more for the audience and not myself.

That makes things less fun. It makes it more work and I don't care for that.

Has anyone else had the same experience? What are your thoughts or observations on what I'm sharing? I'm curious how it looks from others who are doing or trying or have tried to sell works on Kindle or Smashwords or wherever.

Thanks!

It's always a bit of a shock to people who are lucky enough to get their dream job that the word "job" still applies... writing for profit and to a deadline is not nearly as much fun. It's not just writing. I was lucky enough to be paid for my athletic endeavors once upon a time, briefly. And guess what? Playing a game for money is still a JOB. I admire all those who are able to adapt to that and still excel on the field and especially those who seem to thrive under pressure situations, whether that situation is a 3-2 count, down by one with a man on third in the bottom of the ninth or needing to finish edits on two chapters before you dare go to bed despite the fact that you've already been at it since 6 a.m. because the deadline is in the morning.

 

[Belegon]

I like writing and I've been doing it for a long time. My stories on here are pretty good based on scores, comments, and feedback.

Are they going to make money? Maybe. I decided my goal for 2025 was to start writing with the intent to sell on KDP or another platform.

I started experimenting and I wrote something as my first story to publish on KDP. I found, though, I didn't have nearly the fun I do when I write for me. My stories are for me, not for you lovely people. And now that I'm writing for money, so to speak, I'm gearing it more for the audience and not myself.

That makes things less fun. It makes it more work and I don't care for that.

Has anyone else had the same experience? What are your thoughts or observations on what I'm sharing? I'm curious how it looks from others who are doing or trying or have tried to sell works on Kindle or Smashwords or wherever.

Thanks!

It loses something when it becomes a job, no doubt about it. And I've had that same experience in other areas.

 

[Euphony]

Writing for your own enjoyment and writing to please the audience (and to motivate it to buy your stories) are often two opposing concepts. You can't have it both ways unless your own taste happens to coincide with what the audience wants.
But from what I've seen here, writing smut and succeeding commercially is far from easy. It takes a lot of work and dedication and even patience. Being able to write decently goes without saying.
There are easier ways to earn money.

God yes.

And the marketplace has changed so much. With so many entertainment options and our modern, short attention spans, success usually requires voluminous regular output. Even incredible authors are quickly forgotten.

If it suits a natural hunger to constantly output, great, monetize what you are going to do anyway.

But trying to ramp up to that level if it isn't already your nature risks making something you use as escapism into a cinder block around your ankles.

Most writers I've read on the craft basically say the same thing, if you can't help but do it, then *maybe* you can turn that compulsion into something.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

God yes.

And the marketplace has changed so much. With so many entertainment options and our modern, short attention spans, success usually requires voluminous regular output. Even incredible authors are quickly forgotten.

I agree.
There is so, so much "content", for the lack of a better word. It's quantity over quality everywhere, regardless of the medium. There are so many novels coming out each month in all genres. There is sooo much smut being published every day, for free or otherwise. It's impossible to keep up with it, so there is this constant feeling that you might be missing out on something, and that makes you unable to properly appreciate any specific story or book, because in the back of your mind, you know there are tons of stories and novels you haven't even browsed yet.
Only those with a proper mindset and discipline can enjoy themselves properly.

Imagine being hungry and then being brought to a huge table with hundreds, thousands of dishes. What would you do? Would you just pick one and eat it with gusto?
Like hell.
Most of us would go around and try to taste as many dishes as possible, stuffing our bellies but not really enjoying any of it, especially due to the fact that only a tiny fraction would be masterfully prepared dishes. And there is our personal taste on top of it all.

We, as a species, weren't meant to have this much choice in anything.