There’s a common misconception among readers—and among authors trying to break into the field—that an author makes good money and is even rich. There’s this image of us sitting in a cabin in the woods, typing away, and all we do is write book after book and send it off to our publishers and let them handle the rest.
This is far from true.
The fact of the matter is that for every Stephen King with homes in two states, there are thousands of us who make time whenever we can to get words down and books out. I get up at 4 a.m. to make time to write. My day job starts at 6:30 and it’s a physical job, so by the time I get home, I’m too tired to do much of anything. And I’m far from alone in this.
Back in the eighties, I was a metal head with dreams of being a professional musician, and I remember there was a video that came out that featured struggling bands called Don’t Quit Your Day Job or something along that line, and it was full of advice for budding musicians that boiled down to just that: keep your main source of income.
It’s more true than ever in this modern world of indie publishing. But even if you go traditional, the publishers expect authors to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to marketing. It’s said that ninety percent of the marketing money goes to ten percent of the authors. And as the number of publishers shrinks, they’ll rely more and more on the big name writers to pull in the money. The rest of us will struggle on.
So what can you, as a reader, do to help?
Buy our books. I know, that’s obvious, but it bears repeating. While we do this because we love writing, getting sales is about more than just money. It’s a metric for how we’re doing, if we’re entertaining people. And it might just help us get that cabin in the woods.
Leave reviews. No matter where you buy your book, whether it be on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or even your local bookstore (support indie bookstores!), write up a review. Many customers use reviews to determine their purchases. Chances are, if you think about your recent purchases, you did exactly that.
Attend events. If you see an author is having an event such as a book signing, go show your support. It’s a lonely job, and we often feel like no one knows who we are or what we’re doing. Sitting there with a pile of books and not seeing anyone is discouraging. Cheer us up, even if you’ve never heard of us.
Tell your friends. The simple fact is, no matter what else we do—Amazon Ads, Facebook Ads, paid review, any of the million things available to us, there’s still nothing that equals word of mouth. It’s the greatest marketing tool out there. If you really like a book, tell someone else about it. Even if they request it at the library (and there’s nothing at all wrong with doing that), it gets buzz going for the book and author, and nothing can beat that. Look at the phenomenon of viral videos—that’s done because of word of mouth. Share that excitement.
For the vast majority of us, writing is a side hustle. We do it because we love it. Believe me, making yourself sit down at the keyboard day after day without knowing if anyone besides family is reading you isn’t easy. The vast majority of us will always have a day job, at least until we can retire, and even then, the writing will hopefully supplement our retirement income.
The real dream is being able to go full time with our writing. We’re not trying to get rich, but if we could walk off our jobs and spend our days writing and editing, that would be a dream come true for us. And while it’s not your responsibility to make that happen for us, we can’t do it without you.
So buy our books. Write reviews. Come see us. And talk about us. Get the word out. If you like (or love) one of us, the best way you can ensure we’ll keep putting out books for you to read is for you to do at least one of these things. And if you can only do one, spread the word so more folks get excited about us.
Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll own a signed book by someone who was struggling when you bought that book from them, but now they’re famous and you can brag to your friends that you were reading us way back then.
And they’ll get excited and support some local author and the process will repeat itself.
