
The Very Rich Indie Writer (2011) - Tomte
http://www.novelr.com/2011/02/27/rich-indie-writer
======
JackFr
It's absolutely astonishing to me how bad these books are. Not simply the weak
plot, two-dimensional characters, and cliched writing, but grammatical and
punctuation errors, continuity errors and logical mistakes.

I really don't think I'm a snob or a pedant. I happily read cliche-drenched
hard science fiction and horror. I don't think it's too much to ask for
subject-verb agreement and proper punctuation. I don't think it's to much to
remember what kind of vehicle the characters are traveling in _within the same
paragraph_.

I suppose it bothers me because when a writer has that little respect for
their own work, I feel like I've been scammed. I've been sold a product the
manufacturer knows is defective and can't be bothered to fix.

~~~
emmanueloga_
> I don't think it's to much to remember what kind of vehicle the characters
> are traveling in within the same paragraph.

I'm reading this and all I can think of is metadata. What kind of books could
people write with the right tools?

I cannot imagine G. R. R. Martin holding all the knowledge of the universe he
designed on his head. I imagine he built a whole on-paper encyclopedia of the
world of GoT. I suspect even with all his notes he sometimes makes mistakes
and introduces inconsistencies.

Are there any world-building tools for writers? (CAW? -- computer-aided-
writing... :-p)

~~~
tiniuclx
World Anvil is what you're looking for.

[https://www.worldanvil.com](https://www.worldanvil.com)

------
evangow
I'm the indie developer of a marketing tool/community
([https://storyoriginapp.com/](https://storyoriginapp.com/)) for self-
published authors like the ones mentioned in this article.

Not necessarily related to the article, but for other interested in the
learning more about the self-publishing world.

Courses and training for authors on how to use Amazon ads, Facebook ads, build
an email list, etc. has become incredibly easy to find. Some of the bigger
names in the space are Mark Dawson, Nick Stephenson, Joanna Penn, Derek
Murphy, and the 20BookTo50K community.

Authors are now essentially internet marketers who also happen to write books.

~~~
GuiA
_> Authors are now essentially internet marketers who also happen to write
books._

For better (anyone can get started from their bedroom with just a laptop and
an internet connection) and worse (less time spent on actual writing, likely
no correlation between being a good marketer and a good artist), isn’t that
true of all creative endeavors nowadays?

~~~
yesenadam
Absolutely not! What an appalling and ridiculous thing to say. Even just to
say it of writers. Let alone "all creative endeavors" (Maybe you didn't mean
to cast such a wide net there. Maybe you just meant to include...the people
who market themselves on the internet.)

That word 'essentially' is vague to the point of unfalsifiability - whatever I
could say against that, you could say, "Yeah, but _essentially_.." \- the word
sounds objective but means 'whatever I think is the most
important/central/defining feature'.

The artists/musicians/writers/etc who are good at getting work for themselves
has always been very different from those who are good at the art. And the
people at the top of whatever charts (pop music etc) would be the first to
admit they're not the greatest.

~~~
Vinnl
Are you not saying a similar thing? Those are the top of whatever charts are
simply good marketers who happen to create whatever media the chart is about.

I think you're primarily appalled at the user of the word "authors" to only
refer to those people. Which I can understand, but in the context of the point
being made I'd argue that's mostly just semantics.

~~~
yesenadam
Sorry for not being clearer, I was just responding to the parent and GP saying
"Authors are now essentially internet marketers who also happen to write
books."

I'm appalled at the use of the word 'authors' to only refer to those people?
um. I didn't realize anyone used 'authors' only meaning that, so, no, it
wasn't that. Or maybe I don't know what they were talking about, who knows.

------
tomcam
She signed a deal with a traditional publisher in 2015, reputedly for several
million dollars. She has the delightfully named website hockingbooks.com

------
point78
7 year old article. You can't say the market is the same at all.

Quick search says indie authors make up 40% of kindle sales.

Couldn't find how many share those numbers but I would assume it's definitely
way more than what it was in 2011!

------
proee
How has the market changed since 2011? Is there a current list of top trending
authors with a way to calculate revenue? Is kindle still a strong ebook
platform to publish on?

~~~
cm2012
It is still _the_ ebook platform. Unless you publish directly in the web like
Worm author Wildbow, but then you'll make money from Patreon (Wildbow makes
$70k a year).

~~~
pure-awesome
As a side-note, I can highly recommend Wildbow's books. I've read both Worm
and Pact. The books are available to read online in full.

E.g. Worm:
[https://parahumans.wordpress.com/](https://parahumans.wordpress.com/)

------
jimmywanger
The article was written and published a while ago.

I've heard stories that the ebook goldrush has ended. Does anybody have
firsthand knowledge?

I know that romance novels always do well generally, or I've read that.
Thoughts?

~~~
evangow
You could probably say that the "goldrush" has ended. To keep the metaphor
going, this is like saying you can't just walk into a river, pan for gold, and
make it rich anymore. Now, it takes serious a serious amount of time and
investment to do well in the self-publishing world. Is there money to be made?
Heck yes! But now, it's also more costly to get it.

~~~
jimmywanger
> Now, it takes serious a serious amount of time and investment to do well in
> the self-publishing world.

Well, that's what I was curious about. Has the investment/profit ration gone
way up? If so, that sucks for Amazon ebook publishers.

------
forkLding
Indie writers are pretty big business in China, a lot of their works turn into
shows. Also when I mean indie, I mean really indie as in they're known
occasionally by internet pen names which resemble your normal Hacker News pen
names.

------
amelius
I would have believed it if she sold her books in her own webstore.

But now I think it could just as well be a way for Amazon to trick more people
into contributing to their platform, of course until they find out that they
can hardly make a living that way.

