Tom –

Let’s put this into perspective.

Yes, it’s difficult to sit across the table from your friend and be exposed to his success while you struggle. Hearing how much he pays for editors and the travel he’s able to do is difficult. But your friend didn’t start off hiring line editors for $7,000 when he entered the business. You are not at his level. And you have to think about why you are writing.

Yes, the world is crazily glutted with books. Self-publishing and Amazon upset the apple cart and upended the entire business. Competition is incredibly difficult and keeps getting worse. Thinking about being a writer isn’t enough. You have to hunger for it.

It used to be that one could write a book as a hobby and post it out there, maybe with a blog or mediocre online presence, and make a few thousand dollars with minimal effort. Now it’s a very feast or famine environment. Platform is everything. There are too many writers and not enough readers, and the writers themselves hardly ever read.

Self-publishing pioneers are eating their young, in my opinion. Literary agents are snobbier than before. And publishers are running in circles wondering what the hell to do with the number of readers diminishing and Amazon and self-publishing eroding their livelihoods.

In my humble opinion, for what it’s worth, after watching and participating in this mess for 20 years, I believe there will continue to be room for the self-published and the traditional. But both fall under four categories:

1) The brilliant writers. Not the good, but the brilliant born with exceptional talent who will find their spot. An agent will snatch them up in a heartbeat and find them a home. The odds are in their favor.

2) The seniors. Those who found an agent and publisher before this messy publishing environment, and they’ve been able to ride those laurels above it all. Not that they don’t continue to write and publish and do well. They just were able to break into the business differently, way back when, which could’ve been no more than 15 years ago.

3) The hobbyists. Regardless of how loudly they proclaim themselves, they are doing this for a hobby. They would like to make money, but they aren’t willing to go all the way in terms of understanding the market, investing in editors, finding the best agent, developing a brand, finding a platform. They read about it, but do not do it.

4) The blood and sweat authors. They work hard to seek a tribe, and they cater to that tribe. Writers making any sort of reliable income from writing fall into this category. They are grooming their readership, making appearances, and keeping more work in production. They could be bringing home $10,000 a year or $200,000 a year. They aren’t trying to be nationally-ranked, NYTimes authors, but if they land an agent or publicist that gets them there, they’ll take it. On the other hand they might be self-published, and are so geek connected that they adore algorithms and advertising research, spending as much time managing data as they do writing.

The blood and sweat authors find their niche and groom it, making it their world. I am not making big money from my novels. A chunk of my income comes from FundsforWriters advertising and affiliates. My name gains me access to speaking and conferences. BUT. . .I have a tribe that loves my stories. And with each new book release, they tell others, and those new people suddenly want to read all I’ve written. I was told by a very wise publisher a long long time ago that that’s how the mid-list author makes a living. The long-tail approach.

Now, your friend chose audiobooks. He’s apparently made enough to afford $7,000 line edits. Kudos for him. But if there’s anything I’ve learned in this industry, it’s that no two authors are the same. They don’t write the same, market the same, edit the same, do anything the same. And we don’t all start off with top-tier agents and $7,000 editors. I’ll bet your friend has changed agents. And I bet he’s opened his own doors, and he’s had some slammed in his face. But how did he start? Probably not unlike you. (And I truly wonder how much he’s making from his books since he’s traditional with an agent.)

And I would ask him if he was having fun and enjoying himself, bringing me around to my opening to you. You have to think about why you are writing.

I love my stories and my characters, and I hope I never have to stop writing. What are you hoping to gain from your writing?

Don’t let the neon of other writers blind you, my friend. When all is said and done, what do you wish to take away from your writing. And it all starts with setting your own goal of what body of work you’d like to be remembered by. That you also enjoyed producing.

Ask him for advice. I hope you did. But make sure you don’t get lost in someone else’s world in an attempt to build your own.

Sorry I got all philosophical, but I see this so very much. We have to find our place. That’s a human being’s burning desire. Too many people think it has to be equal to someone else’s instead of carving out their own.

Love,
Hope