I need to send the Author’s Guild survey results to the last person who thought I could make bank (she thought $12000 was “fine”) off this. I would write a heavily worded, insulting email to go with it. By US standards, you’re not living above the poverty line, self-published romance does the best, so anyone churning that out on Kindle Unlimited is doing better than some established people. End of the day, the more you end up with in your pocket before everyone else gets theirs is how you survive. It’s less likely to be sustainable without related work or selling your IP to multiple companies. I was surprised people like Tolkien wanted a movie deal at that point, I feel that period is so divorced and distant from modern day when I think of these people in “modern” terms I see them as anti-adaptation, or it’s their estate full of relatives who have no talent needing a big deal to live off. It’s cynical, I know, but it’s how I see rich, famous authors who deserved to be rich and famous.
As a kid, I thought the gatekeepers decided who was worthy of being published. I later discovered Valley of the Dolls was practically forced upon the general public but did exceedingly well regardless for something supposedly “trashy”. And pulp novels were trash. L. Ron Hubbard also inflicted his nonsense onto the general public and got his followers to sell out his books. Even now, the New York Times has to annotate any best sellers who self-inflated their numbers by buying their own shit then selling it on. They monitor self-inflated sales, and are protected under free speech to avoid being accused of mathematical inaccuracy. When you actually do some research into this, which is what they tell any sensible person to do, the facade is wiped away and the ugly truth comes out. But when you present that to the general (naive) public, they still call you pessimistic and somehow can’t let go of this notion of the rich author in their mansion doing nothing but writing books. Oh, you didn’t see Neil Gaiman taking a Masterclass deal, who’s now likely using his money to settle sexual assault allegations out of court, and prior to supported Amanda Palmer financially (who allegedly was also in cahoots with him on trafficking). You’re much better off staying out of the public eye and being reclusive now, and being thankful for the relative anonymity and pittance.
So I can’t say I’d have done “better” with a better deal. I know I wouldn’t have. I knew when I got the original contract this would get me nothing, and it wouldn’t boost me despite people assuming it would, I knew the publisher was so misguided with her SEO plot to flood the internet with blog posts. And she failed to make a good product. I’m glad I got my rights back and did it alone, but realistically, I need to put in so much money and effort to redesign these to be less obvious. I kinda had fun on one hand making my own shit but if I really wanted to be smart about this, I’d be out thousands. Nothing I do stands out in a good way, however I’m owning what I have done in light of me doing something with my talent. I got to pull something off that I couldn’t without the internet, I got to do so much for free or close to free, I got out there and did something. So when I see sad little headlines online that make people sad, I feel a bit better knowing I’m not crazy, I’m not pessimistic, and I’m not wrong.
