I've been lurking here now and then. I finally decided to sign up.
I'm a married guy with a toddler currently self-employed as a fiction writer. I spent a long time in academia, got fed up with it, dabbled in some website development/affiliate marketing (the typical...), and settled into writing fiction for about a year now.
I make a decent amount from my books, more than I ever did in academia, but it's a constant grind. It's far from an ideal long-term financial strategy.
I've been thinking more lately about developing a business that makes financial "CENTS". I've been reading UNSCRIPTED lately and got into thinking about value creation as it applies to writing.
The challenge with fiction is that it has a very limited scope. Or to put it another way, each book I write only provides a little bit of value to a narrow group of people. I think there are some ways to increase the scope and serve more people - for example, audiobooks, foreign translations, and so on. At the end of the day, though, it's hard for me to envision my books providing far superior value than the myriad of other entertainment options out there.
The value proposition is a bit different for entertainment than most other businesses. Consumers want a constant flux of large quantities of novel entertainment. You can dip into this giant stream of consumption for short-term gains.
When I break it down, I believe that the value I'm really delivering is novelty. The reason someone who read George Martin also reads my books is because George Martin can't provide a steady supply of new material. I'm filling that gap. If, in some other universe, George Martin could write a new book every day, very few people would read my books.
Once I identify the real value I am delivering, I have to ask, can I deliver even MORE value? Can I deliver even more NOVELTY? The answer, in my efforts, has been no, not much more.
I've tried to increase my production rate with ghostwriters, voice dictation, editors, the whole shebang. I haven't had much success in providing significantly more value. That is, I don't think my production level would increase by more than a factor of two, ever. Someone like James Patterson has been able to succeed via this route, but I don't think I can.
So that's disappointing.
Of course, fiction can provide value in ways other than novelty. I believe that fiction books can change lives. You could argue that the Harry Potter books profoundly changed the lives of many young and adult readers.
But I have to be honest with myself and admit that I doubt any story I tell will change lives. Even if I devoted myself to writing a story offering this kind of value, I don't know if I can succeed. The market is brutal.
Because of this conclusion, I've been wondering whether I should pursue nonfiction writing instead. Nonfiction can change lives; this forum's namesake is a prime example. More importantly, I believe that I have a much better chance of providing life-changing value from nonfiction than fiction. It will be quite difficult, no doubt, but I think it's much more within reach than with fiction.
I have a decent thing going with my fiction writing, but I would be wiling to drop it if I think there's a better path. Most aspiring authors would probably kill to have my sales figures, but I believe that's only because the general perception of success in fiction is a very low bar.
I'll probably continue to write some fiction, treating it like a day job, while trying to transition to a better business opportunity.
I expect that building a platform and generating visibility for nonfiction will be much more difficult than for fiction. A small part of me hopes that if I succeed in writing a book that can change lives, its audience should grow on its own. In that case, the challenge is whether I can actually write a book that can deliver this much value.
There's a lot of hot-air that succeeds based on marketing, but I don't think I have the marketing chops to pull that off. So I really need to write a good book.
It's kind of a crazy, yet at the same time, mundane, challenge: can I change someone's life with mere words, especially in today's age of media saturation? There are a lot of obvious me-too topics or approaches that won't work.
I'd prefer to solve a very difficult problem like this rather than continually grind away at churning out novelty (violates TIME commandment). So these day I'm thinking... who's life can I change, and how?
I'm a married guy with a toddler currently self-employed as a fiction writer. I spent a long time in academia, got fed up with it, dabbled in some website development/affiliate marketing (the typical...), and settled into writing fiction for about a year now.
I make a decent amount from my books, more than I ever did in academia, but it's a constant grind. It's far from an ideal long-term financial strategy.
I've been thinking more lately about developing a business that makes financial "CENTS". I've been reading UNSCRIPTED lately and got into thinking about value creation as it applies to writing.
The challenge with fiction is that it has a very limited scope. Or to put it another way, each book I write only provides a little bit of value to a narrow group of people. I think there are some ways to increase the scope and serve more people - for example, audiobooks, foreign translations, and so on. At the end of the day, though, it's hard for me to envision my books providing far superior value than the myriad of other entertainment options out there.
The value proposition is a bit different for entertainment than most other businesses. Consumers want a constant flux of large quantities of novel entertainment. You can dip into this giant stream of consumption for short-term gains.
When I break it down, I believe that the value I'm really delivering is novelty. The reason someone who read George Martin also reads my books is because George Martin can't provide a steady supply of new material. I'm filling that gap. If, in some other universe, George Martin could write a new book every day, very few people would read my books.
Once I identify the real value I am delivering, I have to ask, can I deliver even MORE value? Can I deliver even more NOVELTY? The answer, in my efforts, has been no, not much more.
I've tried to increase my production rate with ghostwriters, voice dictation, editors, the whole shebang. I haven't had much success in providing significantly more value. That is, I don't think my production level would increase by more than a factor of two, ever. Someone like James Patterson has been able to succeed via this route, but I don't think I can.
So that's disappointing.
Of course, fiction can provide value in ways other than novelty. I believe that fiction books can change lives. You could argue that the Harry Potter books profoundly changed the lives of many young and adult readers.
But I have to be honest with myself and admit that I doubt any story I tell will change lives. Even if I devoted myself to writing a story offering this kind of value, I don't know if I can succeed. The market is brutal.
Because of this conclusion, I've been wondering whether I should pursue nonfiction writing instead. Nonfiction can change lives; this forum's namesake is a prime example. More importantly, I believe that I have a much better chance of providing life-changing value from nonfiction than fiction. It will be quite difficult, no doubt, but I think it's much more within reach than with fiction.
I have a decent thing going with my fiction writing, but I would be wiling to drop it if I think there's a better path. Most aspiring authors would probably kill to have my sales figures, but I believe that's only because the general perception of success in fiction is a very low bar.
I'll probably continue to write some fiction, treating it like a day job, while trying to transition to a better business opportunity.
I expect that building a platform and generating visibility for nonfiction will be much more difficult than for fiction. A small part of me hopes that if I succeed in writing a book that can change lives, its audience should grow on its own. In that case, the challenge is whether I can actually write a book that can deliver this much value.
There's a lot of hot-air that succeeds based on marketing, but I don't think I have the marketing chops to pull that off. So I really need to write a good book.
It's kind of a crazy, yet at the same time, mundane, challenge: can I change someone's life with mere words, especially in today's age of media saturation? There are a lot of obvious me-too topics or approaches that won't work.
I'd prefer to solve a very difficult problem like this rather than continually grind away at churning out novelty (violates TIME commandment). So these day I'm thinking... who's life can I change, and how?
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum:
Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.