What makes them different?

[doravg]

First, I would like to make it clear, that the published authors have struggled a lot to get the book deals and so on that they have. I respect them, and this is by no means a case of: Waaaah, why is he picked on the cool kids' table, and not me?

What do you think makes the published authors different from those who can't make money out of their writing? Because hobby authors can produce good books as well, and I have seen it happen on this site. I remember Fleabag, an evolution story which brought me to tears. And also a dungeon core story I read on RR which was unfortunately dropped, but had an interesting context, and the author made a point of making tea into something that was important to the story.

So, my question is: What do the published authors have, that a hobby author doesn't have?

 

[beast_regards]

So, my question is: What do the published authors have, that a hobby author doesn't have?

Money.

 

[doravg]

Money.

I am speaking of skills. Of course, they have money. XD

 

[foxes]

That's one point, I'm sure there are many other obstacles besides talent and advertisement. I think there is a threshold when you can write and get paid for it to solve everyday problems. Some people overcome it purposefully, and some just write one-time for their own pleasure and not for the hype. For some people, worldly problems outweigh the moment when you can get off the main income needle and do only writing without caring about the wealth from the outside.

 

[SailusGebel]

What kind of published authors? No name authors, or extremely popular ones?

 

[doravg]

What kind of published authors? No name authors, or extremely popular ones?

Popular. The no name ones are like hobby authors. I am a no name author, who went back to being a hobby author.

 

[SailusGebel]

Popular. The no name ones are like hobby authors. I am a no name author, who went back to being a hobby author.

Luck.

 

[beast_regards]

I am speaking of skills. Of course, they have money. XD

Marketing. But it is rarely a skill the professional writers do have, rather a skill their publisher have.

 

[doravg]

Luck.

It can't be that simple, can it? I mean, look at J.K. Rowling. She got denied tons of times before Harry Potter was picked up.

 

[ArchlordZero]

Connections.

 

[doravg]

Connections.

Good job on writing 5 novels. Are they finished? Neat covers!

 

[SailusGebel]

It can't be that simple, can it? I mean, look at J.K. Rowling. She got denied tons of times before Harry Potter was picked up.

I will ask you a couple of simple questions. First question. How many hours we have in a day. Second, is there any person in this world who has more hours than other. Third. Do you really think Stepehn King is the only super productive author who writes a lot? For every author that got popular, there are so many authors who did not, yet they worked just as hard.

Why is Song of Ice and Fire is super popular, but the Earthsea cycle is mostly unknown to people who are not fan of reading? Is Ursula a worse author than Martin? I didn't even mention a noname author. Ursula is still fairly popular. How many authors are there who are as good as Martin, or Ursula, or King, or Rowling, yet no one heard of them?

 

[doravg]

I will ask you a couple of simple questions. First question. How many hours we have in a day. Second, is there any person in this world who has more hours than other. Third. Do you really think Stepehn King is the only super productive author who writes a lot? For every author that got popular, there are so many authors who did not, yet they worked just as hard.

Why is Song of Ice and Fire is super popular, but the Earthsea cycle is mostly unknown to people who are not fan of reading? Is Ursula a worse author than Martin? I didn't even mention a noname author. Ursula is still fairly popular. How many authors are there who are as good as Martin, or Ursula, or King, or Rowling, yet no one heard of them?

24, no, Stephen King writes just 1k words per day, it takes him 8 whole hours. I won't call that super productive. I do that in 30 minutes with a day job, proofreading included. So, what you mean to say is: the world is not fair?

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Okay, first the ones who became traditionally established did it at a better time to do so, or they knew someone in the business. Most people are getting established through Amazon now.

The ones that makes webnovels and get published on Amazon (making a good amount of money) are rare. But they wrote the popular genres of isekai/LitRPG.

You can make between 1-5k on patreon with SH by simply writing GL and isekai. The authors that did it here make advanced chapters on patreon 5-15. You can do other genres, too, but it would be harder.

 

[QuercusMalus]

Effort- if you aggressively market yourself, build a fan base, it makes it easier to attract a publisher. Researching agents and publishers and tailoring your presentation to appeal to them takes time.

 

[LilRora]

I think most of the cases it's confidence, initiative, and persistence. Though it's far, far easier to do anything if you have a head start, for example you know someone in the business, and a number of unpredictable factors can make a huge impact.

 

[SailusGebel]

24, no, Stephen King writes just 1k words per day, it takes him 8 whole hours. I won't call that super productive. I do that in 30 minutes with a day job, proofreading included. So, what you mean to say is: the world is not fair?

This is not something debatable. Hard work will always pay off. HOWEVER, after a certain point, hard work does not matter, and everything comes down to what is most commonly known as luck. Luck can be anything, and it happens everywhere.

Can you earn, let's say 10000 dollars a month through your writing? Absolutely. Almost anyone can do it, but you have to work HARD. Really HARD. And I mean work hard, not write hard.

Can you earn millions, and make Hollywood want to adapt your work through hard work? Fuck no.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

This is not something debatable. Hard work will always pay off. HOWEVER, after a certain point, hard work does not matter, and everything comes down to what is most commonly known as luck. Luck can be anything, and it happens everywhere.

Can you earn, let's say 10000 dollars a month through your writing? Absolutely. Almost anyone can do it, but you have to work HARD. Really HARD. And by I mean work hard, not write hard.

Can you earn millions, and make Hollywood want to adapt your work through hard work? Fuck no.

And writing 5k words a day doesn't count if you understand none of the other stuff. Some people had to sacrifice their soul to get in. By that, I mean they threw their ideologies away.

 

[SailusGebel]

And writing 5k words a day doesn't count if you understand none of the other stuff. Some people had to sacrifice their soul to get in. By that, I mean they threw their ideologies away.

Yes.

 

[Vnator]

First you have to get your writing skill up to a high enough level. Keep writing, revisit your old work, and keep looking for what you could have done better and practice that whether or be how you write things or set up the story. I did that, and the quality of my work heavily differs between my first story here (Isekai Police) and my best story (Born Different).

Born Different was actually good enough that Podium Audio reached out to me to publish it!

You could also submit your own stories like this to such publishers to see if they'd be interested in publishing it, or self publish on Kindle.

Just keep writing and looking into how you can do better and you'll soon get there! Also look into the book Elements of Style, that gave me a huge boost in writing quality. And post on RR too and take their harsher (yet constructive) criticisms to heart to improve too. Or also find a buddy writing group where you all review each other's short stories. That also helped me.