Well, I had intended to make this a short post, and yet, I wrote an entire book on the topic. (You can’t get me to shut up sometimes.) At least I created a video to go with it so you can listen to it instead of reading it.

Years ago, I made a post on a different blog where I mentioned the fact that writing income doesn’t always remain steady, nor does it always go up. I don’t have this post on hand anymore. I don’t remember the year I made this post, but it was at the point when my income peaked. There was a tipping point for me. Do all authors have this? My bet is no. We are all going to have different experiences. But what stuck out to me was how quick a couple of authors were to blame me for the fact that I was seeing a decline in income.

One said that I should get on Kindle boards where other authors hang out and mention my books to them. Because writers are readers, too. Yes, I understand that writers are also readers, but you can’t just market your book to anyone and expect you book to please everyone. Your best bet is to reach people who read the kind of books you write. For example, a science fiction lover probably won’t enjoy a romance. I know I don’t enjoy reading science fiction. And besides, there are divisions within a genre that narrows down the specific type of book the person will want to read. For example, if you’re thinking of marketing your historical western romance book to a person who loves contemporary billionaire romances, that person probably won’t enjoy it. There are also other factors that play into a person’s enjoyment for a book. Some people want a literary style of writing. They want flowery, poetic words. Some people want a lot of description so they feel more immersed in the world these characters are moving around in. Then there are people like me who would rather get to the dialogue and action. That’s why some books resonate more with certain people instead of others. That doesn’t mean the book is bad. It just means the book targets a different audience. There are so many nuances within the fabric of storytelling that makes it challenging to find the right kind of reader for your books. However, I do stand by my point that other writers not buying your books is not the reason you’re not making the kind of money you want to make. So I would not suggest hitting up other writers to buy your books.

Another author said I wasn’t writing good books, and therefore, I wasn’t selling. That’s fair. My books are not good to everyone. I have enough 1 and 2-star reviews proving that. The reasons I mentioned above help to point out why. I do believe there is a book for everyone. I think that whatever an author writes has an audience waiting for it. I don’t think we should think of our books as something that will appeal to everyone. I like the idea of niche marketing. This is where you narrow your focus. But to do a general marketing approach where you figure “there is something in my book for everyone, and that means everyone will enjoy it if they just give it a chance” is flawed. My suggestion, for what it’s worth, is to not worry about the people who don’t like your books. Instead, connect with people who do like your books. Find out why those people like the books. Then you can better fine-tune your storytelling to pleasing them.

Now back to the income side of things…

A lot changes in the publishing industry, and these changes can impact your income. For example, back in 2009 when I started publishing books on Amazon and Smashwords, there were very few ebooks out there. Kindle had just come onto the scene. People were buying Kindles and needed content. I put up books that were $0.99, and I didn’t have to do anything else to get noticed. I mean, I had a website, a blog, and a social media presence. I uploaded some of my books available for free on some “free ebook” websites. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever make money but still wanted to share my work with the world. But the money came. And it didn’t just come for me. There were other authors I knew who made some pretty good money back then. Then word got out across the writing community that self-publishing wasn’t where books went to die, and even traditionally published authors jumped onto the self-publishing back wagon. That meant more books. That meant lower visibility. And that’s fine. I think the more books, the better because when I was a teenager, I got upset in bookstores and libraries for not having the specific book I wanted to read. I don’t have that problem today. You can find just about anything these days. Kindle Unlimited came along in 2014, and that is an industry change that did shift income around for a lot of authors. Some did very well with it. Some didn’t. Two of my friends who were making a living at it, no longer made a living with their writing. I still made a living, but in the subsequent years, my income did steadily decline. I had some years where it would go back up, but then it dropped again. So it’s been like a rollercoaster, but I will say it never has been what it used to be.

As the industry changes, the way we promote the books is also changing. There are a lot of places where authors can run ads. Then there are the one-and-done ads, which is where you pay for the ads to run on a certain day (or days) and that’s it. Then there are keyword ads that you have to constantly adjust and watch every day. There are videos you can make. There are graphics you can create. There are podcasts, blogs, etc, etc. Really, there is no end in sight to all the different marketing strategies available to authors these days, and it would be too exhausting to go through them. Quite frankly, my strength (and my interest) isn’t in this area. I am the wrong person to look to for this stuff. If I enjoy it, I do it. If I don’t, I avoid it. Life is too short for me to spend time doing stuff I dread. I get enough of that when I have to manage my bookkeeping for tax season.

And now we are being told that no matter how much we do, it’s not enough. I’ll tackle this in other posts (and I already have tackled it before, really), but I’ll say something about it here since it does coincide with the topic. Rapid release of books used to mean getting something out once a month. Then it became twice a month. Last I heard, some author was putting out a book every week. Then I listened to an audiobook last month where the man said to make social media posts and videos all the time. Like several times a day every single day. And another author was saying if you want to make money on YouTube, you should upload one audiobook a week. Let that sink one. One complete audiobook. Every single week. I mean, all of this is crazy. When are authors supposed to have time to relax?

But I guess we aren’t supposed to relax. We’re supposed to put out more and more content because the income has to either be steady all the time or the income has to go up.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on someone. Maybe you can get by with hiring help, but the moment you hire help, you have to make more money so you can pay them and make a profit. To me, that ends up spinning the hamster wheel as much as doing everything yourself. Because when you have help, you’ll probably want to do more. And the more we do, the more we feel like we have to do. More means money. And when we’re in the mindset that we need to make money in order to be successful, we can’t afford to stop.

I hit burnout back in 2018-2019 or so because of this “more and more” mentality. I wrote through some of that burnout, but the day came when I couldn’t write anything else. My entire creative well had dried up. I had no choice but to stop. I didn’t get the ability to write with enthusiasm again until Spring 2024. I am still recovering from burnout. My income has significantly dropped, and I have had to let it drop. I don’t have it in me to fight this slide down. I’m doing good just to write again.

If you haven’t ever hit burnout, I hope you never do. It’s the worst. Seriously, nothing is worse for a writer to hate the one thing they used to be most passionate about. You feel like you lose a part of yourself when that happens. My advice is to let go of this belief that you always have to make more money in order to be worth something as a writer. Once you do that, you’re able to relax and enjoy the process of creating stories.