One of the advantages of publishing through Draft2Digital is access to sales reporting from numerous platforms in a single dashboard. But the amount of data combined with the flexibility of being able to generate your own custom reports can sometimes be overwhelming. This primer is meant to help walk you through what D2D’s reporting tools offer and, ways you may be able to use them strategically. ## **The Dashboard: Your First Stop** When you log into D2D and navigate to **My Reports** on the Author Dashboard . . . . . . you’ll find a quick-glance summary designed to answer the questions most authors ask first: How am I doing? The summary shows you three essential figures: #### **Total Books Sold** (Broken into: _overall_ , _last month_ , and _this month_) If you hover over any of these boxes, you’ll see a brief explanation of what each is tracking. But essentially, these numbers include both sales and free downloads (if applicable based on your book pricing) and are estimated sales based on the daily and weekly sales reports Draft2Digital receives from our various retail, subscription, and library partners. #### **Total Royalties Accrued** Royalties accrued in the last month and the current month. **Verified royalties due**. This value indicates money that has been credited to your account and is waiting for payment. Because Draft2Digital endeavors to get these funds to you almost immediately after the payment comes from the vendor, for much of each month this box will show a **$0.00** value. Most of the funds owed to you are usually paid out within a week or two of it being processed from the retailer, library, or subscription platform. That last distinction matters. **Verified** versus **Estimated**. There’s a difference between estimated royalties based on reported sales and verified royalties that have actually cleared from retailers via their finalized monthly report and payment. D2D separates these clearly so you know what’s real versus what’s still in the pipeline. Beyond these **quick-glance summary metrics** , you have numerous options for more specific and even custom detail reporting. To get to those reports, look over onto the left side of that screen and you’ll see a navigation pane that offers a breakdown of various other insights. **My Mailing Lists** tracks the free Books2Read New Release Notification signups that Draft2Digital makes available for you to automatically insert into your ebooks via our automated promotional pages option that appears in the Layout section of ebook setup. Below you’ll see **Charts** which is broken down into **Popular** and **Custom _Charts_**. Let’s look at them in order. **Popular** is a pre-generated suite of charts that you can click to see a variety of the most commonly desired sales results. They include _Sales by Book so far this Month_ , _Sales by Book so far Today_ , _Sales by Contributor so far this Month_ , _Royalties by Sales Channel so far this Year_ , _Royalties by Month so far this Year_ , _Smashwords Sales by Royalties This Month_ , and _Smashwords Sales by Unit This Month_. Here is an example of the chart that appears if you click on _Sales by Book so far this Month_. You might notice that there are two tiny icons that appear in the top right-hand corner of reports. The icon on the left is the _SAVE_ icon. We’ll return to that in a moment. The icon on the right is the _LABEL_ icon. If you click on it, the chart will display the values (as in the screenshot below, where you might notice that the _LABEL_ icon is highlighted) These **Popular** charts are handy. But here is where your reporting can get extremely powerful, allowing you to generate**Custom Charts**. If you look over to the left when displaying a chart (the _Sales by Book so far this Month_) report, for example, you’ll notice a series of data indicators under two tabs that are named **Chart Structure** and **Chart Contents**. Making changes to these values can allow you to modify the data displayed in the chart, and then, once you have a custom report that you like, you can hit the _SAVE_ icon and name that report, and it will show up in an alphabetically sorted list by report name under **Custom Charts**. This can be an overwhelming task, so let’s illustrate. Below is the default look at **Chart Structure** and **Chart Contents** values for the _Sales by Book so far this Month_ chart. You’ll notice that the first option under **Chart Structure** is _Show Values in_ and “Unit Sales” is selected. If you click on the drop-down icon on the right, you’ll see there are two options. Those options are “Estimated Royalties” and “Unit Sales.” If you select “Estimated Royalties” a temporary image of a book with pages turning will appear while the system it is performing calculations and reading data. Then you will see that the chart updates to indicate the estimated royalties instead of unit sales. In this example, two of the books are set with a price of $0.00. This means that no matter how many unit sales they have, the estimated royalties will be $0.00. But they still show to indicate any titles that have had free downloads in the specified period. Notice, also, that the title above the chart updated to “Unsaved Chart.” If you click on the _SAVE_ icon, you can give the report a name and it will be saved into the **Custom Reports** section and you can easily running it with the click of a button. If you go back to the **Chart Structure** and **Chart Contents** you’ll find you have access to a significant number of data sets for taking a look at your estimated sales in a variety of ways. This allows you to dig a little deeper and track the information most important to you. ## **Taking Control and Tracking Insights Important to You** The Charts section is where D2D’s reporting becomes genuinely useful for making decisions. As we’ve seen these aren’t static graphs—they’re configurable tools that let you slice your sales data in multiple ways. As we’ve seen, you can toggle between viewing net unit sales (how many copies moved) or estimated royalties (how much you earned). This distinction becomes important when you’re evaluating pricing strategies, since a higher-priced book might sell fewer copies but generate more revenue. The grouping and sorting options let you organize your data by book title, contributor (useful if you write under pen names or collaborate with co-authors), dates, list prices, sales channels, or series. Each view answers different questions. Grouping by sales channel shows you which retailers are moving your books. Grouping by series reveals whether your first-in-series is doing its job of pulling readers through. Time intervals range from today and yesterday through the last fourteen days, current month, last month, and full year—plus custom date ranges you define yourself. That last option is essential for evaluating specific promotions or launches. You can filter by paid versus free downloads, by publisher account if you manage multiple imprints, by list price, by contributor, or by series. Once you’ve configured a chart that gives you the view you need, you can save it for future use rather than rebuilding it each time. _One thing to note about the “Interval” options is when it comes to selecting “Today.” Smashwords is the only store that reports sales data to Draft2Digital in near-real time, so that option is only worthwhile if you’re curious to track how your book is performing live on the Smashwords store. Most of the major retailers send a daily sales estimate of the day before._ ### **Downloadable “Raw” Sales Data & Royalty Statements** If you want to build your own spreadsheets, track trends over years, or integrate sales data with reports from other sales platforms that you use, Draft2Digital offers downloadable raw data exports. These monthly CSV files detail each transaction: units sold, list price, retailer or distributor, format, and more. Separate from the raw sales data, D2D provides formal royalty statements once payments have been finalized—after retailers have remitted funds and the money has actually moved. These statements show exactly what was earned and credited. Draft2Digital also maintains a historical archive, so you can pull data from months or years past. This matters for authors evaluating long-term trends, assessing how a backlist title performs over its lifetime, or preparing financial records. Here are the seven different options that provide you with the following information: * **Raw sales data export** — monthly reports (CSV) that detail each sale/transaction: units sold, list price, retailer/distributor, format, etc. This is useful for authors or publishers who want to build their own spreadsheets or integrate sales data with other tools. * **Royalty/Payment Statements** — once royalties are **finalized** and D2D pays out (after the retailers/distributors remit payments), authors get statements showing exactly what’s been earned and credited. * **Historical data archive** — you can access past months/periods to look back over time (for example, tracking growth over years, or evaluating how a series performed over its lifetime) rather than just current-month totals. This is the breakdown of the seven **Statements** options. #### **Downloads** Royalty statements are generated in any month where Draft2Digital pays you. You’ll receive separate royalty statements for each Publisher paid that month. Each statement indicates the amount of money you’ve received, the sales channels where those royalties were generated, and the titles that earned the income. Unlike the data shown on the real-time sales charts, the transactions shown here represent final, official data—the same data that will be used to determine your royalties due. They are generally available sometime mid-month in the month after the sales occurred. #### **Tax Form Downloads** This is where you can find all of your various tax forms. #### **1099-MISC** Draft2Digital files 1099-MISC forms with the IRS for earnings paid to US residents and US citizens. #### **1099-NEC** Draft2Digital files 1099-NEC forms with the IRS for earnings paid for money earned by referrals to US residents and US citizens. #### **1042-S** Draft2Digital files 1042-S forms with the IRS for earnings paid to non-US citizens living outside of the USA. #### **EBook/Print/Audiobook Raw Sales Data** This data is something you can download to a CSV (spreadsheet) file. By default the report shows _Date Range_ , _Title_ , _Primary Author_ , _Sales Channel_ , _Net Unit Sales_ , _List Price_ , _Royalty Rate_ , _Unit Cost_ , _User Share USD_ , and a check-box indicator of whether the data is estimated or final-confirmed. It includes options of selections for _Reporting Period_ , _Sales Channel_ , _Retailer_ , _Sales Model_ , and _Publisher_. If you click onto the **See Details** check-box you will get a more detailed look at the data that uses the following fields: _Start Date, End Date, Title ID, Title, Primary Author, Sales Channel, Sales Model, Retailer, Publisher, Nation, Net Unit Sales, List Price, Royalty Rate, Unit Cost, Publisher Share USD,_ and a check-box indicator of whether the data is estimated or final-confirmed. This raw data + statements option gives full transparency: you can track exactly where, when, and how your books sold, compare across formats or channels, and reconcile earnings precisely. ### **Using This Data Strategically** The point of all this data isn’t to obsess over daily fluctuations—that way lies madness. Instead, use D2D’s reporting to answer specific questions and make informed decisions. 1. **Before a promotion:** Establish a baseline. What are your typical daily or weekly sales for the title you’re promoting? Without knowing your normal, you can’t measure impact. 2. **After a promotion:** Compare against that baseline. Did sales increase? By how much? More importantly, did they stay elevated after the promotion ended, or did they drop back immediately? 3. **When evaluating pricing:** Look at royalties, not just units. A book at $4.99 that sells ten copies earns more than a book at $0.99 that sells thirty. Price testing requires tracking revenue, not volume alone. 4. **When assessing channels:** If a retailer consistently underperforms, consider whether you’re reaching readers there at all. Sometimes the answer is better metadata or categories; sometimes it’s recognizing where your audience actually shops. 5. **For annual planning:** Use historical data to identify your strongest and weakest months. Plan releases and promotions accordingly rather than guessing. ### **The Bottom Line** Draft2Digital offers you access to near real-time visibility into how your books are performing, across multiple retailers and formats, with the ability to drill down into the details or step back for the big picture. The challenge isn’t access to data—it’s developing the discipline to use it thoughtfully rather than reactively. Check your dashboard regularly, but don’t let daily fluctuations drive your decisions. Use the tools to ask specific questions and evaluate specific strategies. Build a baseline understanding of your normal sales patterns so you can recognize when something changes. And remember that the goal isn’t to maximize time spent looking at charts—it’s to make better decisions about your writing business so you can get back to the writing itself.

* 54 * 0 * 27 * 27 Every year, we ask indie authors about their experiences with writing, publishing, and marketing. We’ve been running this survey since **2016** , and it’s one of my favorite projects of the year. For **2025** , we had **1,346 responses** from authors around the world. * **96%** of respondents are _already published_ * **4%** are not yet published but actively working toward it The survey skews toward **serious, prolific indie authors** (that’s our audience!), and all data is **self-reported** , especially income. As always: **Correlation ≠ causation. When we say “high earners tend to…,” we’re not saying “if you do this one thing, you’ll get rich.” We’re describing patterns, not guarantees.** This year’s survey covered everything from **income** and **catalog size** to **email lists** , **direct sales** , **KU vs wide** , and **author sentiment**. Grab a coffee (or your favorite writing snack) and let’s dig in. ☕️ ## **Table of Contents** 1) How Are Authors Published in 2025? 2) Motivation & Goals 3) Income Breakdown: How Much Are Authors Earning Each Month? 4) Genres 5) Catalog Size 6) Formats 7) Revenue Channels & KU 8) Direct Sales 9) Cover Design 10) Editing 11) Marketing 12) Email Marketing 13) Sentiment & Community ## **1) How Are Authors Published in 2025?** #### The indie author community continues to thrive, with **77%** of respondents identifying as self-published, while **17%** described themselves as hybrid authors, Only 5**%** of authors remain fully in the traditionally published camp. Indie publishing is no longer anyone’s “Plan B.” It’s a **primary, intentional path** that serious authors choose because it lets them: * Control **rights, pricing, and packaging** * Move faster than traditional cycles * Experiment with series, direct sales, and special editions ### 💡What It Means for You If you’re indie (or indie-curious), you’re not on the fringes—you’re part of a **mature, thriving ecosystem**. That means: * You don’t need permission to build a real author career. * You _do_ need to think like a **small business owner** , not just a creator. ## **2) Motivation & Goals** ### Motivation for Publishing: What Drives Indie Authors? When asked about their **primary motivation** for publishing a book, authors offered a range of responses, with less than half focused on financial goals: * **40%** of respondents said, _“I want to make money from my book,”_ highlighting a strong financial drive for many indie authors. * **20%** indicated that _“I want my story to be told,”_ showing a significant portion of authors are motivated by sharing their personal or creative narratives. * **16%** want to become _“a well-known author,”_ indicating a desire for recognition and status within the literary community * **15%** stated that _“writing is a hobby I enjoy,”_ reflecting the passion and enjoyment they find in the writing process itself. * **9%** selected _“other,”_ with a mix of unique or alternative motivations not captured by the main categories. There are two big takeaways around motivation: **– > Not everyone is here for the money. **Many authors are driven by: Expression, Legacy or Joy of the craft. **– > Money-motivated authors _do_ earn more on average.** Authors who checked “I want to make money” are: * More likely to treat their writing as a **business** * More likely to **invest** in covers, editing, and marketing * More likely to **stick with** tactics that move the needle There’s a **strong correlation** between saying “my goal is to make money” and actually landing in the higher-income brackets. ### 💡What It Means for You * If your main goal is **creative fulfillment** → you’re already winning every time you finish a book. * If your main goal is **income** → you’ll want to: * Set **business-style goals** * Invest (within your means) in **packaging and marketing** * Make decisions based on **data** , not vibes Both paths are valid. Just be honest with yourself about which game you’re actually playing. ## **3) Income Breakdown: How Much Are Authors Earning Each Month?** While **44%** of authors earn **$100 or less** , the majority—**56%** —are earning over $100 monthly from their writing. Authors in the **$500 – $5,000** range make up 20**%** of respondents, while authors making over $5,000 per month account for **13%** of respondents. **8%** of authors who answered the survey report making **over $10,000** per month. A few key patterns emerge from the data: * There is a **large “early stage” group** under $100/month. Many of these authors: * Have just a few books * Haven’t built an email list yet * Spend little or nothing on marketing * The **$100–$1,000** group is the “in motion” crowd. They’re: * Publishing more consistently * Experimenting with promo sites and email * Figuring out what works * The **$1,000+** group almost always has: * More books (often **10+** , and very often **series**) * An active **email list** * Regular **marketing spend** * A mindset: “This is a business” ### 💡What It Means for You * If you’re **under $100/month** : you’re not failing; you’re early. * If you’re earning **$100–$1,000/month** , you’ve proven your books can sell—your next lever is scale (more books, better packaging, stronger marketing). * If your dream is **full-time author income** , the survey shows it’s absolutely possible—but the authors doing it are: * Prolific * Strategic * Patient If your primary goal is to make money from your writing, this data confirms that making money from your writing is possible. If you’re already earning over $100 per month from your writing, you’re on the right track – the next step is scaling up. If you’re currently in the lower brackets, remember that it’s common to start small, and that many authors grow their income steadily over time. If your motivation for writing is driven by **creativity** or **personal fulfillment** , don’t be discouraged by lower earnings. Writing for the love of storytelling or as a creative outlet is incredibly rewarding in its own right. ## **4) Genres** Before we look at how different genres perform at various income levels, it’s important to understand **which genres were represented in this year’s survey**. Among the 1,346 authors who responded, the largest primary genres were: Romance – 21% (276 authors), Fantasy – 14% (186 authors), Science Fiction – 8% (101 authors), Thriller – 8% (103 authors), Mystery – 7% (95 authors), Historical Fiction – 6% (73 authors) and Non-Fiction – 6% (79 authors). A number of smaller but important genres also appeared, including: Cozy Mystery, Literary Fiction, Paranormal Romance, Children’s, Women’s Fiction, Young Adult, Horror, and Religious Fiction & Non-fiction. ⚠️ A Note on Bias Because Written Word Media’s audience skews toward **commercial indie fiction** , our genre mix reflects that: * **Romance, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, and genre fiction** are all well-represented. * More niche or traditionally print-focused genres—like **children’s books, literary fiction, and religious nonfiction** —appear in smaller numbers. That means the income patterns below reveal _real signals_ , but they may reflect indie-author ecosystem dynamics more than the entire book market. With that context, here’s what we found. ### **Which Genres Over-Index Among Higher Earners?** Across the entire dataset, a few genres show up **more frequently as income rises**. #### **Romance (All Romance)** * **21% of authors overall** * **~44% of the Over $10k group** * **~38% of $5k–$10k** * **~35% of $1k–$5k** * **Only ~12% of Under $100** 👉 Romance authors are **roughly twice as common** in the top-earning tiers as you would expect from their share of the survey population. #### **Paranormal Romance** * **4% overall** * **~11% of Over $10k authors** * Drops to **~3% in Under $100** Genre takeaway: Paranormal Romance has **one of the strongest correlations with high income** , showing ~2.5× its expected presence in the top tier. #### **Cozy Mystery** * **4% overall** * **6–9%** of authors earning above **$500/month** * Only **~1.7%** in Under $100 Genre takeaway: Cozy authors consistently appear more often in **every income bracket above $500** , and clearly decline toward the bottom. ### **Genres More Common in Lower Income Brackets** A few genres appear **more frequently among authors earning under $100/month** , and far less among high earners. This doesn’t reflect quality or potential—just market realities for indie publishing. #### **Children’s** * 3% overall * **5.5%** in Under $100 * Almost absent among higher earners Reasoning: Children’s books often rely on **illustration cost** , **school channels** , **in-person events** , and **gatekeepers** , which can make indie discoverability harder. #### **Literary Fiction** * 4% overall * **~7%** in Under $100 * Essentially absent from $5k+ brackets Reasoning: Literary fiction often relies more on **prestige, awards, and traditional coverage** than the indie-style marketing tactics that scale. #### **Religious Non-fiction** * 1% overall * **1.7% in Under $100** * Almost none in the higher brackets Reasoning: Smaller audiences, niche channels, and lower digital conversion can all play a role. ### **Genres That Lean Toward Lower/Mid Brackets** These genres are not over-represented at the bottom, but they aren’t common at the very top either. #### **Non-Fiction (General)** * 6% overall * **9–10%** in the $100–$1,000 brackets * Rare among high earners It’s also important to recognize that **non-fiction authors often earn income differently than fiction authors**. For many non-fiction writers, the book itself functions as a **branding asset** —a credibility builder, a calling card, or a **lead magnet** that drives readers into higher-value offerings such as: * speaking engagements * consulting * coaching * courses * workshops or trainings * newsletters or memberships Because their revenue often comes from these **adjacent services** , their book income alone typically sits in the **lower or mid brackets** , even when their _overall business income_ is much higher. In other words, non-fiction authors may appear under-represented in the top royalty tiers, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect the full financial picture of their author business. #### **Young Adult** * 2.5% overall * 3.7% in $100–$500 * 3.6% in Under $100 * Almost no YA authors in the top brackets The YA digital market is smaller than its print/trad counterpart, which shapes indie earning potential. ### 💡 What It Means for You * **Commercial genre fiction** (Romance, Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery) continues to have the **clearest path** to high monthly royalties in the indie ecosystem, driven by: * Read-through from series * High consumption rates * Strong, trope-driven reader communities * Effective digital marketing channels * **Children’s, literary fiction, religious nonfiction** , and similar genres require **different success strategies** , including: * Events * School and library outreach * Speaking, workshops, or services * Local community channels * Alternate definitions of success * **Fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, historical fiction, and mystery** make up a large share of indie authors and have strong mid-range earning potential—with some high earners in each, usually those who: * Write in **series** * Publish consistently * Target clear subgenre niches Above all: 👉 **No genre guarantees income** , but understanding how your genre performs on average helps you plan your strategy, timeline, and expectations—with far more clarity. ## **5) Catalog Size** One of the strongest predictors of earning potential in indie publishing continues to be **catalog size** —the number of books an author has published. The 2025 data shows a clear and consistent pattern: **The more books an author has published, the more they tend to earn.** Here’s how the **average number of published books** breaks down across income brackets: #### ### 2025 Patterns: Catalog Size vs Income From the 2025 survey: * Authors with **1–3 books** : About **80%** fall into the **under $100/month** band. * Authors with **5–9 books** : * Median income jumps to around **$50/month** * Many more enter the **$100–$1,000** band. * Authors with **10+ books** : This is where we start to see a **steeper income ramp**. * Authors with **25+ books** : * **Median income ≈ $3,000/month** * **40%+** of them earn **$5,000+/month** #### The Series Effect For the **very high earners** , it’s not just “lots of books.” It’s: * Lots of books * **In series** Why that matters: * If you spend $100 on a promo and only have **one book** , the reader can only buy… that one book. * If Book 1 leads into a **7- or 10-book series** , that same $100 can turn into: * Multiple full-price sales * A long-term fan Marketing spend gets **amortized across the whole series**. That’s where you start to see exponential, not incremental, returns. ### 💡What It Means for You Building a backlist takes time, but it’s one of the most important strategies for long-term success in indie publishing. Your **next best marketing move** might simply be: _write the next book_. If you love standalones, consider **loose series** (shared world, shared characters) so you can still benefit from series read-through. Backlist is power. The authors making $5k, $10k, $20k+ per month almost always have: * Deep series * A consistent release history Every book you add to your backlist: * Expands your digital footprint * Gives readers another entry point into your world * Boosts your chances of read-through * Creates more opportunities for promotions, box sets, and bundles Whether you’re at 1 book or 21, the path forward is the same: **keep writing, keep publishing, and think long-term.** ## **6) Formats** Indie authors continue to diversify the formats they publish in, but one thing hasn’t changed: **eBooks and paperbacks remain the backbone of indie publishing.** Here’s the breakdown of which formats authors currently offer: A few clear trends emerge from this year’s data: #### **1. eBooks and paperbacks are essentially universal.** Nearly every author surveyed publishes in **both eBook and paperback** —the two formats that remain the most accessible, most affordable to produce, and most in-demand on major retail platforms. * **eBooks (98%)** : Still the format where indie authors rely most heavily for discoverability and global distribution. * **Paperbacks (97%)** : Almost universally adopted, thanks largely to streamlined POD solutions through KDP and IngramSpark. #### **2. Audiobooks continue strong growth.** Over **half of authors (51%)** now have at least one audiobook—an impressive number given that: * Audiobooks are more expensive to produce * They typically require separate distribution channels * They can take longer to break even But demand remains high, and indie authors are increasingly viewing audio as a **long-term investment** that deepens reader engagement and increases lifetime value. #### **3. Hardbacks are becoming more common.** With **36%** of authors offering hardcover editions, the format has moved from “nice-to-have” to **a meaningful part of the indie toolkit** , especially for: * Collectible editions * Library distribution * Direct sales * Authors in fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction, where premium formats perform well The rise of new POD hardback options has clearly made this format more accessible. #### **4. Collector’s Editions remain niche but strategic.** Only **8%** of authors offer a collector’s edition, but this small segment ties directly into two major industry trends: * **Special editions with sprayed edges, foil stamping, or custom art** * **Higher-margin direct sales** at events or via Shopify/WooCommerce stores Collectors’ editions are especially popular in fantasy, romance, and fan-driven genres where superfans want physical books that feel special. ### 💡What It Means for You As you’re planning your publishing strategy for 2026: * **eBook + paperback is the essential baseline** for indie authors. * **Adding audio or hardback** can expand your reach and credibility—but they are better positioned as **Phase 2** investments unless you already have strong reader demand. * **Collector’s editions** are best for authors with: * An established fanbase * A strong direct-sales strategy * High engagement in reader communities * Genres with a collector culture (fantasy, romance, sci-fi) As production tools improve and direct sales gain traction, expect more authors to explore **premium formats** in the coming years. ## **7) Revenue Channels & Kindle Unlimited (KU) ** When it comes to generating revenue, Amazon is still the dominant platform for indie authors, with 83% of respondents naming it as their top revenue source. The percentage of authors who named Amazon as their top revenue source dropped for a second year – from 91% in 2023 to 87% in 2024 and 83% this year. When looking at which sources generated the 2nd most revenue for authors, Amazon still topped the list, but in-person sales, Apple, Kobo, and direct sales were much more visible in that #2 slot. ### KDP Select vs Wide in 2025 We also asked authors how they use **KDP Select (KU)** and the answers were as follows: * **38%** of authors– “ _All_ my books are in KDP Select” * **30%** of authors – “ _None_ of my books are in KDP Select” (fully wide) * **The rest** – A mix (some titles in KU, some wide) When we looked at **income brackets** : * Among authors earning **over $5,000/month** : * **43%** had **all** their books in Select * **15%** had **none** in Select (fully wide) * The rest had **mixed catalogs** Many high earners are **in KU** , but not all. There are successful authors: * Fully **wide** * Fully **KU** * And a big chunk doing **both** ### Important: Correlation vs Causation This data does **not** mean: “To make $5k+/month, you must be in KU.” It _does_ mean: * Many high earners **choose KU** because: * Discoverability is often easier * Page reads provide a separate revenue stream But there is a meaningful group of **high-income, fully wide authors** too. ### 💡What It Means for You * There is **no single correct path** : * Fully KU can work * Fully wide can work * A mix can work * You _can_ experiment: * Put a series in KU for 90 days * Try taking it wide for the next 90 * Compare real numbers Pick a strategy that: * Matches your **values** (e.g., not wanting exclusivity) * Fits your **stage** (KU is often easier for discoverability early on) * And that you’re willing to **execute on consistently** ## **8) Direct Sales** ### 2025 Direct Sales Adoption From the 2025 survey: * About **30%** of authors are **already selling direct** (from their own site or store). * Among those who _aren’t_ selling direct yet, about **30%** say they plan to start in the next **12 months**. So we have: * A **solid minority** currently selling direct * A **large pipeline** of authors who want to add direct as a channel When we slice by income: * Among authors earning **$10,000+/month** , roughly **half** sell direct. * Among lower earners, direct sales are much less common. ### Why High Earners Use Direct Sales Direct sales let you: * Keep a **larger percentage** of each sale * Build a **customer list** you control * Offer: * Special editions * Signed copies * Bundles & upsells But they also come with: * **More logistics** (customer service, fulfillment) * A need for **traffic** (you still have to do marketing!) ### When Direct Sales Are _Too_ Early We’re also seeing a pattern of: * Early-stage authors going hard into direct * Ending up with boxes of books in the garage and very few buyers The missing ingredient is usually: * An established **audience** (often via email) * Proven **demand** for your existing books ### 💡What It Means for You Direct sales are powerful, but they’re not “easy mode.” Consider: * If you already have: * A **meaningful email list** * Readers asking for signed copies / special editions → Direct might be a great next step. * If you’re early and mostly unknown: * Focus first on **discoverability** on big retailers * Build your **email list** * Then layer in direct when you have people to send there Tools like **BookFunnel** , **Shopify** , and others make direct sales more accessible—but they’re multipliers, not magic. ## **9) Cover Design** 2025 reinforced something we love to see: Authors overwhelmingly agree that **cover design is the #1 factor** in selling a book. Across experience levels and income tiers, book cover came out on top when we asked what matters most for selling books. ### How Much Are Authors Spending on Covers * **Low earners (≤ $100/month)** * Over **half** spend **$0–$100** on covers. * Many DIY using Canva, templates, or a helpful friend. * **Mid-range earners ($100–$1,000+/month)** * Typically invest **$100–$499** per cover. * Often working with **freelance designers** who specialize in their genre. * **High earners ($5,000+/month)** * Most spend at least **$250** , and often **$250–$1,000** per cover. * Very few spend **$0**. * A small fraction spend **$2,000+** , but: > There’s **no clear correlation** between spending $2k+ and higher income. The importance of a high-quality cover can’t be overstated. However, it’s not “the more you spend, the more you earn.” It’s: * “Spend **something** to get a **professional, on-genre cover** , and you give your book a fighting chance.” OR * “Spend nothing but **make sure that you get objective feedback** on whether your cover is good. #### Genre Signaling vs Plot Art One of the most important mindset shifts: Your cover’s job is to signal **genre** , not summarize **plot**. Readers scan for visual shorthand: * Dark background + bold serif text + spaceship → Sci-Fi * Pastel illustration + cute fonts → Rom-com * Moody figure + city skyline → Urban fantasy / thriller If your cover doesn’t “fit” when dropped into the Top 10 of your category, you’re making it harder for readers to say yes. ### 💡What It Means for You * If your budget is tight: * DIY is okay, **as long as** you get **objective feedback** and compare against genre bestsellers. * As revenue grows: * Move into the **$250–$500** range for covers if you can. That seems to be a sweet spot for many high earners. * Be ruthless (kindly!) about changing a cover that isn’t working. Emotional attachment to a DIY cover is one of the biggest blockers we see. ## **10) Editing** Editing remains one of the most important components of a strong, professional book—but indie authors take a wide range of approaches when it comes to how much they invest. The 2025 data shows a **broad spread in editing spend** , with a surprisingly large number of authors still spending nothing at all. #### A few strong trends emerge when we look at _both_ spend levels and income brackets together. #### **1. High earners almost always invest — but not necessarily at premium levels** Authors earning **over $10,000/month** fall overwhelmingly into the **$250–$999** and **$1,000–$1,999** editing tiers. Only **11 high earners** reported spending nothing. Top earners invest consistently in editing — but the _majority_ spend between **$250 and $1,999** , not $2,000+ #### **2. The lowest earners are heavily over-represented in the “Nothing” category** Among authors earning **under $100/month** : * **214** (the largest group) spend **nothing** on editing * Another **53** spend only $100–$249 * Only a small fraction invest $500+ Newer or lower-earning authors overwhelmingly choose DIY, beta readers, or no editing at all — which may directly affect reviews, read-through, and sales. #### **3. Spending more is _not_ the magic bullet** The **More than $2,000** tier is particularly revealing: * Only **4** high earners (Over $10k) invest at that level * **38** authors spending $2,000+ are earning **under $100/month** High-priced editing does not guarantee high income. Many lower-income authors overspend early, before they’ve built: * an audience * a consistent writing cadence * a clear genre strategy * a backlist Smart, strategic investment — not _maximum_ investment — is what correlates with earnings. #### **4. Mid-range spend ($250–$999) is the “sweet spot” for upward mobility** When we look at authors earning **$500–$10k/month** , the bulk are clustered in the mid-range: * $250–$499: strong representation across $500–$10k * $500–$999: even stronger correlation * $1,000–$1,999: solid, but slightly fewer Far fewer mid-range earners are found in: * “Nothing” * Under $100 * Over $2,000 Investing **something** , consistently, between **$250 and $999** , appears to be a meaningful milestone on the path to higher earnings. #### **Summary: Editing Spending by Income Bracket** The 2025 survey showed **very similar patterns** to prior years: * **Low earners** are much more likely to spend **$0** on editing. * **High earners** almost always spend **something** , but **not usually $2,000+**. Roughly: * Many authors across tiers are spending **$100–$999** per book on editing. * Only a **small minority** spend more than **$2,000**. * There is **no strong income advantage** to going way above that range. #### Why Editing Still Matters (a Lot) Editing matters less for the **click** and more for the **relationship** : * The **cover** sells the book. * **Editing** keeps the reader reading: * Fewer typos * Clean structure * Satisfying pacing and payoffs Poor editing often shows up as: * 1–3★ reviews mentioning “typos,” “clunky writing,” or “needs an editor” * Weak read-through to your other books * Fewer true fans #### **What It Means for You 💡** Editing is critical — but the data makes an important point: **You don’t need to spend thousands to succeed; you just need to invest enough to produce a clean, professional read.** Here’s how to interpret your stage: * **If you’re early / low-income:** Beta readers + light professional editing is fine for now, but skipping editing entirely makes it hard to retain readers or build reviews. * **If you’re growing:** Target the **$250–$999 range** , where the majority of rising earners cluster. * **If you’re established:** You may not need the $2,000+ tier — most high earners don’t use it — but you _should_ be working with trusted, consistent editors. Ultimately: **Editing is less about price, and more about clarity, quality, and reader trust.** A well-edited book boosts reviews, improves read-through, strengthens your brand, and helps every marketing dollar work harder — which is why the authors earning the most treat editing as a non-negotiable investment. ## **11) Marketing** If there’s one place where authors are loudly on the same page, it’s this: **Marketing is the hardest part.** In the 2025 survey, a strong majority (well over 80%) named **marketing** as the most challenging aspect of being an author—more than writing or production. #### This is an overview of how authors rated the following tactics, on average, on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 = least effective and 5 = most effective: ### ### What’s Working Best (The Winners) From the 2025 data + podcast discussion, here’s how things shake out qualitatively: **Most effective (especially for high earners):** * **Your own email list** * **Promo sites** (like Freebooksy, Bargain Booksy, BookBub Featured Deals) * Facebook Ads (for those who learn the system) * **Lead magnets / reader magnets** to grow email lists ### **Mixed / challenging but can work:** * Amazon Ads * **BookBub Ads** Many authors find these ad platforms hard to optimize, time-consuming and it’s easy to overspend on without clear ROI. ### **Most polarizing:** * **Kickstarter** * For some: a huge success * For many: a lot of work for little return * Very “all or nothing” ### **Trending down in perceived effectiveness:** * **Newsletter swaps** * Still used * But rated less effective than in previous years, possibly due to: * Overuse * Less engaged lists ### Stacking Tactics: What High Earners Actually Do One of the biggest 2025 insights: High earners don’t rely on _one_ marketing tactic. They **stack** them. Common patterns among authors earning **$5,000–$20,000+/month** : * Strong **email list** * Regular use of **promo sites** * Strategic Facebook Ads * Thoughtful **pricing & series strategy** * For some: **direct sales** layered on top It’s very rare to see a high earner who is: * Doing _no_ email * Spending _nothing_ on marketing * And relying _only_ on organic retailer traffic ### How Much Are Authors Spending on Marketing? We also asked authors how much they spend on marketing each month. Across all respondents, the **average monthly spend was $636** — but that average hides a big spread. On average, authors in each income bracket reported spending: * **Over $10,000/month in income:** spend about **$4,500/month** * **$5,000–$10,000:** spend about **$1,362/month** * **$1,000–$5,000:** spend about **$478/month** * **$500–$1,000:** spend about **$275/month** * **$100–$500:** spend about **$152/month** * **Under $100:** spend about **$81/month** A few things stand out: * **Higher earners invest more.** The authors making over $10k/month are typically reinvesting thousands of dollars each month into marketing. * **Investment tends to rise with income.** As authors move from “earning a little” to “earning a living,” their marketing spend increases steadily at each bracket. * **You don’t have to start big.** Authors in the lower income brackets are often spending under $200/month, then scaling up as their catalog and readership grow. This doesn’t prove that “spend = success,” but it _does_ show a clear pattern: authors who are earning more are usually treating marketing as an ongoing business investment, not a one-time experiment. ### 💡What It Means for You If marketing feels overwhelming, that’s normal. Almost everyone says that. **You don’t need to spend like a high earner to _become_ a high earner.** Most authors start small. As income grows, spend grows. It’s an evolution, not a leap. Here’s a simple way to approach it: **Start with the foundations (low or no cost):** * Optimize your packaging (cover, blurb, Look Inside) * Build your email list * Test one promo site These alone can move you meaningfully up the income brackets. **Then scale your investment as your results improve:** Authors earning more tend to **intentionally reinvest** in marketing — not all at once, but gradually. The data shows a steady climb in monthly spend from about **$80/month** on the low end to **$4,500/month** for top earners. Think of it as a ladder: * Start with what you can comfortably invest * Track what’s working * Increase spend on the tactics that clearly move the needle **As you grow, consider layering in:** * Facebook Ads * Promo stacks * Direct sales (for those ready to diversify) The key is to **experiment, measure, and double down on what works for _your_ genre and readers.** Marketing isn’t about doing everything — it’s about building, step by step, toward the strategy that fits your goals and your stage of the author journey. ## **12) Email Marketing** If there’s one metric that consistently predicts higher author income, it’s the size—and use—of an author’s email list. The 2025 data shows a dramatic spread in list size across income brackets: **Average Email List Size by Income Bracket** * **Over $10k/month:** 18,327 subscribers * **$5k–$10k:** 7,488 subscribers * **$1k–$5k:** 3,986 subscribers * **$500–$1k:** 2,743 subscribers * **$100–$500:** 1,405 subscribers * **Under $100:** 902 subscribers This is one of the sharpest correlations in the entire survey: **the more an author earns, the larger their email list tends to be.** ### **Email List = Income: The Numbers Behind It** Among published authors: * Authors **with** an email list earn a median of **~$300/month** * Authors **without** a list earn a median of **~$15/month** That’s a **20x difference**. When we asked about _perceived_ effectiveness: * **High earners ( > $10k/month)** rated their own newsletters **4.3/5** * **Low earners** rated newsletters **~2.7/5** So the authors who: * make the most money, * have the biggest lists, and * believe most strongly in email …are exactly the same group. 👉 **Top earners don’t just “have” a list—they actively build it and email it.** ### **Why Email Works So Well for Authors** Your email list is: * a **direct line** to your readers, * immune to retailer or social media algorithms, * one of the highest-ROI ways to: * launch new books * run promos * drive direct sales * nurture superfans And unlike ads, which get more expensive every year, email has **near-zero marginal cost**. This is why high-income authors rely so heavily on it—and why newer authors underestimate it. ### **What Effective List-Builders Do** Across both 2024 and 2025, the same habits show up again and again among authors with strong lists: * Use **reader magnets** (free novellas, prequels, bonus scenes) to attract subscribers * Place **email signup links in their backmatter** * Join **multi-author promotions** via BookFunnel, StoryOrigin, Prolific Works * Email consistently—not just at launch time * Treat their newsletter like a key business asset, not an afterthought The math is simple: > **More subscribers = more reliable launches = more consistent monthly income.** ### 💡What It Means for You If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this: > **Start your email list now.** * Even if you have **one book** * Even if you’re still writing your **first book** Simple starting point: 1. Choose a beginner-friendly ESP (MailerLite, Mailchimp, etc.) 2. Create a **reader magnet** (short story, bonus epilogue, sample) 3. Put the signup link: * On your website * In the backmatter of your books * On your social profiles Over time, this list becomes the **engine** of your author business. ## **13) Sentiment & Community** We also asked open-ended questions about how authors are _feeling_ and where they’re finding community. ### The 2025 Emotional Snapshot After reading hundreds of responses, here’s the vibe: **Hopeful but tired. Motivated but overwhelmed. Committed, but facing a lot of uncertainty.** Common themes: * **Marketing fatigue** (“It’s hard, it’s expensive, I’m not sure what works.”) * **Algorithm + platform fatigue** (“Things change constantly; it’s hard to keep up.”) * **Loneliness** (“It feels like it’s just me and my keyboard.”) * **But also… optimism** * Authors are proud of their books * Many _are_ seeing results * There’s a strong desire to keep going ### “It’s Not Just You” One of the most important takeaways: * The struggles you’re facing—discoverability, ads, burnout, doubt—are **extremely common**. * You’re not uniquely failing. You’re **doing author life in 2025**. ### Who’s Serving Authors Well? When we asked who is supporting them, authors frequently mentioned: * **Written Word Media** (thank you, truly 🧡) * **Joanna Penn** * **Becca Syme** * **ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors)** * **Author Nation** * **James Blatch / Self Publishing Show** * **Dale Roberts** And on the community side: * **Facebook groups** are still the #1 place authors log in weekly. * Many authors are active in: * Genre-specific groups * 20Books-style strategy groups * Wide-publishing communities * Smaller, invite-only mastermind groups ### Burnout & Community Fatigue Alongside the positives: * Some authors reported **stepping back** from groups due to: * Drama * Information overload * Time suck Others have found a healthier balance by: * Choosing **1–2 core communities** * Muting the rest * Protecting their **writing time** ### What It Means for You 💡 * If you’re feeling discouraged, you are **very far from alone**. * Plug into **one or two caring, practical communities** —not twenty. * When it all feels like too much, it can help to come back to: “Why did I start writing in the first place?” ## **Conclusion: What We Learned in 2025** Looking across the 2025 survey, a few big themes stand out: 1. #### **Email is the engine.** Authors with lists earn far more and feel more in control. 2. #### **Catalog size + series = leverage.** The more (and more connected) books you have, the more each marketing dollar can do. 3. #### **Packaging matters.** Professional, on-genre **covers** and solid **editing** are still non-negotiable for serious income. 4. #### **There’s no one true path (KU vs wide vs direct).** High earners exist in every camp; what matters is **strategy + execution** , not dogma. 5. #### **Direct sales are growing—but best as a “Phase 2” move.** They shine when layered on top of an existing **audience** and **email list**. 6. #### **Marketing is hard for almost everyone.** The difference is that high earners: * Invest _something_ in marketing * Stack effective tactics * Keep experimenting 7. #### **You’re not alone.** The fatigue, the hope, the grind—it’s shared by thousands of authors walking this same road. As you look ahead: * Take one or two insights from this survey and **apply them** —even in a tiny way. * Maybe that’s: * Starting your email list * Investing in your next cover * Planning your first series instead of another standalone * Testing a promo site you’ve been curious about There’s no single formula, but there _are_ clear patterns. And every year, more authors are quietly, steadily building the writing life they dreamed about. We can’t wait to see what you create—and what the data will show us in 2026. 🚀

* 0 * 0 * 0 * 0 Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube ### About the Episode: In this essential PSA-style episode, Ricci and Ferol break down the growing wave of scams targeting authors — and how to protect yourself. From “too good to be true” book club invitations to fake Amazon warnings designed to spark panic, today’s scammers are using AI to craft convincing, personalized outreach. Ricci and Ferol walk through the psychology behind these tactics, why even savvy authors can get caught off guard, and a simple checklist to help you identify red flags before you click or pay. They also share reputable resources authors can use to stay safe and stay informed. Whether you’ve received a suspicious email or simply want to prepare yourself, this conversation will help you trust your gut, slow down, and safeguard your work. ### Topics Discussed: * Why and how author-targeted scams have become more sophisticated * The emotional psychology scammers use — joy vs. fear and the hooks/emotional techniques to look out for * How AI enables scammers to reference your characters, themes, reviews, and social content convincingly * The most important red flags to watch for and what to do if you’re not sure something is legitimate * Why you should never pay via Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, crypto, or similar methods * Trusted resources for checking whether something is a known scam (Writers Beware, Authors Guild, ALLi Watchdog Desk) * How Written Word Media can help sanity-check suspicious emails ### Resources Mentioned: * Read our full blog post: Author Beware: How Scammers Target Indie Authors (and How to Avoid Today’s Most Common Publishing Scams) * Writer Beware (Victoria Strauss) * Authors Guild * ALLi Watchdog Desk * Wide for the Win Facebook Group ____ Click here to view a raw transcript of this episode Ferol Vernon (00:03) Hello everybody and welcome back to the Written Word Media Pod. I am Farrell Vernon here with Ricky Wolman as always. And today we’re talking about scams. Ricky, ⁓ it’s very tough episode. talked about whether or not to do this. thought, you know, this is almost a public service episode where we’ve seen so much of this stuff ⁓ that we just feel really bad and like we need to kind of. Ricci (00:15) Unfortunately. Yeah, for sure. Unfortunately, especially the last couple of months, there have been a pretty big increase in scams that are targeting authors specifically. And it, you know, it really just sucks. ⁓ And authors, some authors have actually fallen for these scams because they’ve become so much more sophisticated than they used to be. And so yeah, this is our PSA this week to talk a little bit about the psychology of a scam. Ferol Vernon (00:39) Yeah. Ricci (00:56) and what some of the scams are out there right now that are targeting authors and how to protect yourself. Ferol Vernon (01:01) Yeah, and for the authors out there that have maybe fallen for one of these or engaged with them, I get it. We’ve had a few authors email us some of these scams and be like, hey, do you know anything about this as part of what prompted the episode? And man, they’re really good. These things are, the emails are just incredibly compelling. And I think that kind of leads us into how we wanted to kick off the episode. It’s like talking about the psychology of these scams and what are the hooks? What sort of… emotional techniques are they using to try to, you know, get somebody hooked on one of these things. Ricci (01:36) Yeah, so the psychology of a scam is both ⁓ what the scam uses, but it also can really act as a red flag for you as an author. So in general, if you get an email that makes you feel intensely positive or intensely negative, that’s usually a red flag. ⁓ And so some scams will prey on hopes and dreams. And you get an email that says something like, we can make you a bestselling author. I loved your book so much. I’d love to represent you as an agent. the things that you really are hoping and dreaming for and you get that email that you’re like, I’ve always wanted to get this email. Sometimes these, you know, in very rare cases, cases, these emails might actually be okay. But the very first thing to do if you get an email that makes you feel very joyful is to kind of stop and be like, is this real? And then on the flip side, preying on emotions of anxiety and fear. And this is when you get an email that has some sense of urgency. Ferol Vernon (02:28) and Ricci (02:32) or tells you you owe a ton of money, you are in violation of Amazon’s terms, and if you don’t do something in the next 24 hours, all your books are gonna be taken down, or outside of author life, I get these text messages all the time, like your tolls haven’t been paid in Massachusetts, and your license is gonna be revoked, and I know that these are a scam, and it still makes my blood pressure go up, right? I read that and my heart rate goes up, and I’m like, my God, did I forget to do something? Ferol Vernon (02:47) Yeah. That’s yeah, exactly. Ricci (02:59) And I didn’t, but they know that when you’re in a psychologically heightened state or an emotional state, you’re not thinking as rationally and you’re more apt to take action that they want you to take, but that’s not in your best interest. Ferol Vernon (03:13) Yep. Yeah. I think like, you know, these scams, like, and I think we should start, let’s start with the joyful ones because I think these feel like a little more common. feel like the, anxiety and the scary ones where you have to do something at the end, like right away tend to be more broad. These joyful ones tend to be more focused on authors. At least that’s what we’re hearing. And it’s everything from like, Hey, you know, something kind of mild, but still positive. Like, Hey, our book club loves your book. And. we want you to come talk about it and by the way, there’s a fee, right? ⁓ To things that are bigger, like, hey, we have a movie deal for you, right? And those, the psychology of that is, ⁓ you know, to get people excited. And when you’re excited, you know, it can make sort of rash decisions. ⁓ And one of the big problems is these emails are really compelling because they have your book or, know, they can look at the reviews and they’re mostly AI generated. ⁓ but they have really salient data about your characters, about your setting, about how long the book’s been published. And it can be really hard to figure out like what’s good and what’s bad. So Ricky, like what are some themes, are some ways authors can pick apart one of these emails and try to figure out like what’s real and what’s not? Ricci (04:28) Yeah, well, think just hitting on that idea of the sophistication of the scams, I think is important. And I want to double down on that for a second, because, you know, a few years ago, you could even when the scams were hitting on, you know, joyful and happiness and positive, you could usually spot that they were scams because they were misspellings or the English wasn’t that good. You know, our friends in Nigeria, you know, were well known for the kind of Nigerian prints and all of that kind of stuff. today, because you can just go in and use AI and Farrell to your point, because you can get so much information about somebody, the scams come across as very authentic. It feels like somebody has read your book. It feels like somebody has done their research. The language is very good. It feels like somebody who’s literary, somebody who’s educated, somebody who would speak to you in this way. ⁓ Ferol Vernon (05:07) Yeah. Ricci (05:24) And so it’s very convincing and just to sidebar here for a second. This, this isn’t really in, in scam world, but we get a ton of outreach on like LinkedIn and from people who trying to get us to, you know, purchase services with them. And Farrell, do you want to tell the story about that conference you went to and the email that you received? Ferol Vernon (05:36) totally. my God, that was terrifying. Yeah. So like I, I went to this conference with our son. and I’m not going to mention names or where I was, but, ⁓ we went to this conference together. It was a really cool experience for me to be there with him. And I, I posted a little note on LinkedIn about it and I had some specifics in there, you know, didn’t mention his name necessarily. ⁓ but what happened is I got an email from somebody and they had clearly like digested this LinkedIn post. and it referenced all the different things. It referenced the location where we were. It referenced my son. They guessed at his age and they got it almost right. ⁓ And then they made a small offer that was like barely an ask, but I’m sure it’s just to like get you to reply to see if your email is even there. But it was. Ricci (06:31) I think they were just asking you to like set up a meeting, right? And they made it sound like it made it, they made it sound like you had met, like the email to Farrell was like, Hey, it was great to meet you and your son at this conference. I’d love to follow up on the conversation. And Farrell was like, did I meet this person? Like, you know, you, you spent some time trying to remember. Yeah. Ferol Vernon (06:34) Yeah, it’s like get a call. Yes. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. You second, you second guessed yourself because especially for anybody who’s ever been to a conference and you know, as we’re recording this, I’m coming back from author nation. probably talked to hundreds of authors. And so if anybody’s ever been to a conference, you talk to a ton of people and like, you got to stack a business card. You kind of remember some of the people you had interesting conversations with, but some of them you sort of, you you forget and you’re like, you remember sort of the person’s face and the book, but like maybe you can’t place their name. And so I, you know, I had a really hard time remembering whether or not I’d actually talk and talk to this person. And when you kind of unpack the email, like, you know, this doesn’t make sense. ⁓ You know, that they’re asking me about this certain thing. And, you know, we ultimately ignored it, but it was one of those things where I think a second set of eyes helps. Like, Ricky, I remember showing you and like telling you about it. And I think a lot of authors, we had one actually right into the inbox today who shared one with us. And I think it’s one of those times where it’s so good. You’re like pretty sure it’s not real, but you like would feel better if somebody else told you, yeah, it’s not real. Ricci (07:29) Yeah. Ferol Vernon (07:44) And so, know, if you encounter one of these, you know, feel free to email us and ask us to look at it for you. We’re not the experts, but, you know, one of the ones that somebody sent us in, we were able to tell, you know, pretty easily, hey, yeah, that’s not a reputable person in the industry. Don’t reply. But I think these things can, you know, anything you put out there, for me, it was a very small LinkedIn post. But for authors, it’s their book, ⁓ which has to be out there if you want people to buy it. And people can sort of pick apart that content and write really compelling AI stuff. Ricci (08:17) Yeah. And it’s not just your book. If you have social media presence, if you have a blog, if they subscribe to your email list, unfortunately AI can digest all of this information and then come up with a really compelling pitch. So I think the very first thing is like trusting your gut. Right? So like when Farrell first got that, that email, he felt like something was off. Like I don’t remember meeting this guy. Like I don’t think this is right. ⁓ so trust your gut. If something feels a little off, like that’s, that’s a good, you know, warning, internal warning. Ferol Vernon (08:20) Yeah. Yeah, right. Ricci (08:47) And then, yeah, show it to somebody else to get a second opinion. And then the third thing is to like really try and these, has sent you this thing. So try and look up the company, try and look up the person. Never, ever, ever send money would be the most important thing. So even if it’s super compelling and you want to reach, you you want to say, okay, I’m going to have a conversation with this person. Ferol Vernon (08:49) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ricci (09:12) ⁓ you never want to send money, especially over PayPal or one of those services where you can’t Venmo, where you can’t get it back. and nobody should be asking for, you know, cash upfront or very early on. so yeah, but it’s, it is, is, you know, kind of tricky, ⁓ to, to figure out who is legitimate and who isn’t. and on that note, the other, ⁓ Ferol Vernon (09:16) or Venmo or Zelle, anything like that. Ricci (09:39) scam that’s proliferating is impersonation because these scammers can now pull companies that are reputable, they can pull other authors that are reputable. So there was actually, I think a situation where scammers were impersonating an author and saying, Hey, I’m this author. I’d love to do a swap with you. And the author on the other side was like, huh, that’s weird. And actually DM the author through social media. Ferol Vernon (10:07) The real author. Yeah. Yeah, right. Ricci (10:07) The real author and the real author is like, I never sent you this email. This is not me. So there’s impersonation going on, both people impersonating authors, but also people impersonating companies. Like we’ve gotten a few emails saying, ⁓ people said, you know, I got this email from written word media. ⁓ and it absolutely definitely wasn’t from us. And so in order to check that you always want to check who the email comes from. It should come from the domain in our case from at written word media.com. Ferol Vernon (10:26) Correct. Ricci (10:35) ⁓ Scammers are very tricky. They might put two M’s in there. ⁓ Penguin Random House might have two I’s. It’s something that’s really hard to spot. So when you’re looking at the from email, you need to literally look at it letter for letter and make sure that it 100 % matches the domain of the company that you think that you’re dealing with. Ferol Vernon (10:42) Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you one of the things that’s hard is like, you definitely want to check the domain. You want to check the reputation if you can, you know, and then another one of the things as hard as it’s much easier today to set up fake websites, even like fake chat rooms and things like that. And so, you know, if this initial outreach, if they kind of get past somebody on that initial one, then like, Hey, you know, the website that you Google might actually look okay, right? With AI, it’s pretty easy to spin up a, easy looking website. So there’s kind of a checklist of things you need to go through when you get one of these emails that where you’re as Ricky says, like if your gut says, hey, there might be something off here, there usually is, and that’s time to do your homework. Ricci (11:33) Yeah, for sure. So maybe we can talk a little bit about a couple of the specific scams that are happening right now. The one that seems to be prolific and the most popular is this book club scam where ⁓ I think most indie authors have gotten an email saying, hey, you know, we run a book club. We run a group that caters to book clubs and we’d love to have you come and join. And our book club has always review the books. Ferol Vernon (11:40) Yeah. Ricci (12:03) and then they pull you into a community on Discord and the community looks like there’s a lot of chatter. And then the kind of soft sell is, well, these reviewers and these people who are working in the book clubs and working to review your book, it would be so great if you could tip them because they’re spending time doing this. And then the ask is to tip five or $20 to these people, quote unquote, who are just bots. They’re not people, they’re not leaving reviews. It’s also against Amazon’s terms of service to pay for reviews. So any service that says, you can pay and get a bunch of reviews is, you know, to not legit. If it is legit, the chances those reviews are going to get pulled down by Amazon is pretty high. Ferol Vernon (12:38) Mm-hmm. Very high. Yeah. And I think that this is the thing that, you know, you have to be careful about is it’s like, it, if it, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Right. And I think the thing is the part of the reason why this scam so effective is because the bots now know about the content of your book because they’re able to, you know, go through it with a, with a chat bot or something. So when you get into that community, everybody’s talking about your book and your characters, right. And the things that you created that are really like emotional and close to your heart, because you’re the artist, right. You’re the author. ⁓ So I think it can really play. on this sort of emotional component. But again, back to kind of what we said earlier in the episode, if somebody’s asking you for a tip and they want you to send them some Bitcoin or they want you to send them Venmo or something like that, I think it’s good for all authors to step policy. Hey, I don’t send money over the internet for things like that. Is there a credit card page? One of the things when you buy unwritten word media, we pay sort of security services. We have an engineering team. You can trust that like, you know, we’re handling your data well. And we have a credit card page where you put your stuff in and you check out. And you know, most scammers will ask you to send them money directly rather than going through a checkout process with the green lock up in your browser. And that’s one thing you can tell pretty much anybody and they should understand if they’re reputable, hey, I’m not gonna send money through these channels. Ricci (14:14) Yeah, because if you do fall for a scam and you put your credit card down and you actually pay for something and it turns out to be a scam or the service is not delivered, you can actually go to your credit card company and dispute that and you will get your money back because the credit card company will claw it back from the end recipient. So you do have some level of protection there that’s really important. Ferol Vernon (14:33) Yeah, but you’re not gonna have the same thing on Venmo or especially not if you’re sending Bitcoin or crypto or anything like that. So just need to be really careful about that. One of things, Ricky, I wanted to just like say like on this ⁓ scams, I I actually have one of these emails pulled up that we got that like, actually I’m not going to name names, but the, one of our authors, like awesome person ⁓ forwarded this us just to be a good citizen and say, Hey, I thought, you know, other authors want to know. I wanted to maybe just read like the first few sentences so people can get a sense for like what these, what these things say. So I’m going to, I’m going to the first words of the title. not going to say the title, but it’s titled a book burst with the kind of unapologetic energy and originality readers rarely encounter in today’s mystery scene. It’s a reverent layered, completely alive, a rare blend of sharp intellect, humor, and raw humanity. Character name isn’t just a character. He’s a perspective, flawed, observant, and strangely endearing in his fight to make sense of an upside down world. Right? So you read something like that and it’s like, it’s got the main character’s name. It’s got. Adjectives that accurately describe the person And it starts with all the stuff and it’s really you know If I wrote this book like you feel warned me like that’s great Like somebody’s saying these really nice things about my book like, know at that point they’ve they’ve made a connection and I think that’s where ⁓ You know for authors out there spidey sense has got to go up Ricci (16:02) Yeah, for sure. It’s unfortunate, ⁓ I wish we were back in the days of the Nigerian prince and misspelling scams. Ferol Vernon (16:09) It’s much easier to spot, right? The spelling and the grammar on this thing’s perfect. Yeah. So I think, you know, what we were hoping all authors understand is that, you know, these scams are playing on positive emotions and then negative emotions, right? And I think like kind of our, you know, checklist that we’ve gone through so far is, you know, don’t send money, right? Get another pair of eyes on anything that comes through that feels fishy. ⁓ And then… Ricci (16:14) Yeah. Ferol Vernon (16:39) do your homework and make sure that these sources are reputable. And I think that’s a pretty good place to start. ⁓ But I think it’s worth going through one or two of these scams that we’ve seen that are sort of topical to make sure that people know about it. Ricci (16:53) Yeah, I do want to touch on the negative scam because usually these tend to involve like Amazon or a large retailer. So when you get an email that says, Hey, you, you have violated Amazon’s terms. We’re going to pull your books down or, you owe back paying royalties on your Google play books or things of that nature. And then a lot of the time they might include actually like a phone number. Ferol Vernon (16:56) Mm-hmm. Sure. Yup. Ricci (17:22) which is like call customer service right away. And what you really want to be careful about is like calling a number and giving a lot of personally identifiable information or giving a credit card on that phone call or giving any login information because you don’t want somebody to actually be able to get into your accounts and change bank account information. So they’re your royalties. They don’t get sent to you. They get sent, you know, somewhere else in the world. So although currently there are a lot of these kind of Ferol Vernon (17:41) Yeah. Ricci (17:52) Positive warm and fuzzy like your book so great you know we’d love to have you do x y and z and then pay us x y z there are ones that can. You know make your heart jump into your throat and make you you know really fearful about the status of your book or the status of your i’m standing with one of the retailers that might be out there. Ferol Vernon (17:55) Yeah. Yeah. And I think that the part of the reason why that one hits so hard is because any author that’s dealt with Amazon or really any of the retailers, like stuff does get mucked up. Sometimes your price doesn’t drop. Sometimes this doesn’t happen. like, know, so when, when that stuff comes, you’re like, my gosh, this is one of those times when something has gone wrong with my book being listed on one of these retailers. And the truth is it’s not one of those times, but because you’ve had that experience before you’re sort of primed to be receptive. to, no, there’s a problem with Amazon and I got to take care of it right away. Because, you know, when it does happen for real, like you do have to take care of it right away, right? If Amazon’s saying, we’re to pull your book down or something, unless you send us X, Y, and Z, you know, you do have to respond to them. ⁓ But these scammers are sort of taking that dynamic and using it to their advantage. Ricci (19:01) Yeah, it’s always, whatever you get is always plausible, right? That’s just plausible enough that you’re not going to dismiss it outright. It’s close enough to something that has happened or that you’ve heard of something happening that you’re like, ⁓ this could be true. This could be right. ⁓ And so trying to figure out what is actually fact from fiction in those scenarios. Ferol Vernon (19:04) Right, yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I think the negative scans, there’s the one about something wrong with the retailer. ⁓ And then, know, Ricky, what else do you have on your list that we need to tell everybody about? Ricci (19:37) ⁓ I think going into more detail on scams probably isn’t that useful because as we knock one down and authors get wise to it, another one’s gonna pop up. It’s kind of like whack-a-mole. So I like this idea of focusing more on the framework, right? Thinking about how is the email making you feel? What can you do to protect yourself? ⁓ And the other thing is that there are resources out there that can help you ⁓ determine Ferol Vernon (19:46) Yeah. Ricci (20:04) what scams are kind of trending right now. So Victoria Strauss has an amazing website called writers beware. And she tends to have her finger on the pulse of exactly, you know, what the trending scams are. So if you’re getting one of these emails, I would go straight to her website too and see if it’s there. And even if you’re not getting this email, these emails is probably worth going to her website. We’ll put the, the, address in the show notes so that you’re primed, right? So if you know, Ferol Vernon (20:26) Yeah, just to take a look. Ricci (20:32) hey, there’s a book club scam going on right now. And then you get that email, you’ll be like, yeah, Victoria told me about this. And you’re not gonna have to go through that whole emotional turmoil. And then the other thing that’s super helpful are these, you know, author groups, as if you’re part of a Facebook group or a community like Wide for the Win. There’s a lot of discussion there where authors are sharing their experiences as well. And so that’s where you can get educated and have other people help vet what’s, ⁓ you know, what’s true and what’s not. Ferol Vernon (20:38) I know it. Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s a really good point. It’s like, you know, we’ve talked about at the beginning of the episode, you know, get another pair of eyes on it and whether that’s, you know, a friend or trusted colleague, whether that’s like your writing group or a writing partner, or some of these communities that you mentioned, you know, writers beware or wide for the win that are reputable and run by people who, you know, know what they’re doing and are trying to genuinely help the author community. It’s basically like, you know, once, once you get one of these things, look for another set of eyes and whether that’s online or in person, um, in your network. That’s really a helpful thing for authors to do. we’ve gone through a bunch of these scams. We’ve talked about the psychology and, you know, I think we can kind of close with sort of our checklist that we’ve talked about, which is, you know, get another set of eyes on it. If your gut is feeling something wrong, it probably is. And then, you know, doing your homework. And, you know, we mentioned a few resources, but Ricky, I know you’ve looked up a few other ones, so maybe you can kind of read those out so people know some other resources that can help them if they’re, you know, on the receiving end of one of these things, it feels too good to be true. Ricci (22:05) Yeah. And again, these will be in the show notes. We’ll probably do a blog post about this as well and put these resources right at the top. ⁓ but riders beware is the first one that one tends to be the most up to date. So it gets updated pretty frequently. ⁓ the author is guild also has a website where they have a blog and if any of this stuff is happening, they’ll post it there as well. ⁓ ally, ⁓ also has a watchdog desk. So, ⁓ when scams kind of, you know, start reaching critical pitch. And they’ll put it put it there as well. So I think writers beware the author’s guild and the ally watchdog desk are all three really great resources where authors can go to find out what’s trending. And then as Farrell said, you’re always welcome to forward stuff to us at written word media and just say, Hey, I got this email. What do you think? Do you know if this is a scam or not? And we’ll be honest, you know, we’ll tell us, tell you what we think. If we know it’s a scam, because we do have authors reaching out to us. Ferol Vernon (22:52) Yes, we’ll take a look at it for you. Ricci (23:05) a fair amount or if we’re not sure, let you know that as well. Ferol Vernon (23:10) Okay, all right. Well, that’s the show for today. Thank you all for listening. Beware out there. Realize there’s people out there to help you. We’re on your side. ⁓ Thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you next time. If you enjoyed today’s episode, share it with a fellow author and leave us a review right here on Apple Podcasts. It helps more writers find the show. This episode of The Written Word Podcast was produced by Heart Centered Podcasting. © 2025 Written Word Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The clauses I’m going to discuss in this post come from the contract of Shadow Light Press, a publisher of fantasy and science fiction with deep ties to the LitRPG community. The contract stirred controversy this week when it was publicly posted on Reddit–largely from people aghast at its author-unfriendliness, but also because of alleged issues around the publisher’s relationship with a major progression fantasy and LitRPG Discord server. I’m not going to go into those issues here (you can find out more, if you like, from the comments on the Reddit post). My focus will be on the contract itself (which I can confirm is authentic: I’ve seen several other copies). My intent–as always with my posts about publishing contracts–isn’t just to call out a publisher for problematic language, but to explain _why_ it’s problematic, with the goal of empowering my readers to better evaluate the contracts they may be offered. New writers, who may be less knowledgeable or dazzled by the prospect of publication, are especially vulnerable to predatory contracts like this one. Oh, and I’m not a lawyer. So what follows isn’t legal commentary or advice. #### **An irrevocable 10-year grant of rights that demands every right in existence and renews to infinity** In my opinion, a 10-year grant term is too long–especially for a contract that, like this one, does not include language allowing the author to revert rights once sales decline (which can happen a lot sooner than ten years). Five or seven years is preferable. The extremely sweeping grant of rights–basically, the publisher is claiming the power to do everything and anything with every right that exists–is also a big “yikes”. A publisher, especially a small publisher, shouldn’t claim rights it hasn’t proven it’s capable of exploiting. How many foreign editions, for example, has this publisher managed to license? Additionally, a grant of rights shouldn’t be “irrevocable”: there should be provision for the author to revert rights during the contract term, even if only for breach by the publisher. (In fact, there is such a provision in the contract, so “irrevocable” shouldn’t even appear in this clause.) Ten years, sweeping grants…these things are greedy, but they aren’t unique. Plenty of publishers make similar demands. What’s unusual here is the fact that the grant term, potentially, is a whole lot longer than ten years. Why? Because it keeps rolling over. Every time the author delivers a new series installment (the contract includes a series commitment clause binding the author to an agreed-upon number of books), another ten years gets added on. I mean, what?? If your series is a trilogy, you’re looking at _a thirty-year contract_? And that’s not all: you get the add-on _even if the work you’re turning in is covered by a different publishing agreement._ If I’m reading this right, and you have two contracts for two different series, every time you deliver an installment of either series, _both_ contracts get an extra ten years. It’s not often I get to say this, but I have never seen anything even similar in any other publishing contract. It’s actually hard for me to believe it’s real. I suppose it’s possible that it isn’t what the publisher intends and the wording of the clause is simply unclear. But if so, that’s just a different bad thing. Series contracts where the author delivers installments at intervals need to be structured so that the publisher can keep all installments in print while sales are strong. But there are ways to do that fairly–for example, a life-of-copyright grant with reversion language allowing the author to revert rights to any of the books once sales drop below an agreed-upon benchmark. Or each book having its own grant term. Or even the grant of rights Shadow Light had a year ago, with a single ten-year renewal upon completion of the final installment (see the Other Concerns section, below). Unlimited rollovers are a terrible way to do it. #### **Net profit royalties and back-end vanity publishing** “Cost recoupment”, or a similar term, is not something you want to see in a publishing contract. It means that the publisher will appropriate some or all of the sales proceeds of your book in order to reimburse its production (and perhaps other) costs. This is, essentially, back-end vanity publishing. You’re not giving your publisher cash on the barrelhead, but you are agreeing that the publisher can keep money that would otherwise go to you, whether by withholding royalties or reducing royalty rates. At Shadow Light, cost recoupment means reducing royalties, both by actual lower rates (see below) and by paying on net profit, which it misleadingly calls net revenue. Net revenue, as generally understood, is the money the publisher actually receives from sales: list price less wholesalers’ and retailers’ discounts. Smaller publishers, especially, tend to pay royalties on net revenue rather than on list price. In this case, however, the term is defined as actual sales revenue less a menu of “marketing costs and specialized expenses”: the publisher’s net profit, in other words. Net profit royalties are the least favorable kind–not only because they reduce the amount on which your royalties are calculated, but because they can, potentially, allow a publisher to manipulate costs to make that amount is as small as possible. Shadow Light also recoups costs by reducing its initial royalty rate until “internal costs” have been reimbursed by sales income. From Clause 4.d.: So the publisher pays you less while it pays itself (and remember, that reduced rate is paid on net profit, reducing it even further). Once the “internal costs” have been satisfied, you get a bump up to 50%…but it’s still a net profit royalty, so the extra 10% will probably not make a heap of difference. In fact, Clause 10, which describes the payment schedule, seems to be preparing authors to receive nothing. “These adjustments [for expenses] will be estimated by the Publisher to ensure sufficient funds are available to support the continued promotion and success of the Work…These initial royalties are often reinvested into marketing efforts to bolster the series’ success. This approach continues until sufficient funds are accumulated, allowing for the distribution of profits.” Do Shadow Light’s royalty statements break the adjustments down, so that authors have a clear picture of what expenses are being credited against their royalties? I don’t know (but they should). However, we do know what some of the expenses are likely to be, thanks to this contract addendum: It’s notable that the upper range of costs for developmental and line editing exceed the recommended rates for professional editors suggested by the Editorial Freelancers Association. I also have a tough time crediting that a small press could actually afford to invest anything close to $10,000 in a marketing campaign. #### **All your world belong to us** Shadow Light’s contract includes an unusual amount of verbiage explaining Why This Thing Is Good–as here, in Clause 11, which addresses what happens if the author is unable to finish a series. The language is self-explanatory: if you can’t complete your series for any reason (other, presumably, than breach–more on that below), the publisher takes possession of it by giving itself unlimited power to produce derivative works based on it. The Why This Is Good paragraph presents this as a benefit to the author, (“step back…with dignity, with the assurance of continued support”), but in reality it’s 100% to the benefit of the publisher, who gets to continue exploiting the author’s rights, just without the author. There’s a nod to consent, with written notification and the possibility of a veto–but the veto isn’t really a veto, since it’s contingent upon the author agreeing to continue doing the thing they’d become unable to do. This is not standard publishing contract language, and stretches the concept of derivative works to the breaking point. In fact, the sweeping terms are more like those of a work-for-hire contract, where the publisher take possession of the author’s copyright. Further to that, I find it interesting that the only mention of copyright in this contract is in the lengthy preamble and in the indemnity and warranties clauses. There’s no explicit acknowledgement of the author’s retention of copyright, or requirement that the publisher print a copyright notice in the author’s name in each edition or format of the book and require licensees to do the same (there should be). #### **Triple damages!** If the publisher deems you to be in breach, it can terminate the agreement–but you can’t get your rights back unless you pay “unreimbursed costs” times three, a fee that the publisher declares “is not intended as a penalty.” From Clause 5.b.: If the contract terminates early by mutual agreement, rather than by breach, you will still owe triple damages: What’s the Future Earnings Obligation? If rights revert before the end of the contract term, whether because of your breach or a non-breach early termination, and you manage to sell the work elsewhere or self-publish it, you must give Shadow Light 20% of your earnings if publication happens within five years of reversion (or possibly you must pay the 20% for five years–it isn’t really clear). And you have to say thank you. #### **Other concerns** There are other items I’d flag, including a non-competition clause that extends for the entire term of the contract (which, remember, increases by ten years every time the author turns in a book–non-competition clauses should extend for at most a year or two post-publication); a First Look clause that obliges the author to offer any new work created during the term of the contract to the publisher before offering it anywhere else (a first look clause–also known as a first right of refusal or option clause–should cover only the author’s next non-contracted book in the same genre or for the same market); an Artificial Intelligence clause that requires the author to disclose their use of AI but doesn’t impose any restrictions on the publisher (at a minimum, the publisher should be barred from using or licensing the author’s work for AI training); and a “Limitation of Publisher’s Financial Obligations and Liability” clause that, among other things, relieves the publisher of maintaining “any specific level of financial support” (publishers always maintain that discretion, whether they tell you so or not, but where you see it actually written into a contract, it has the feeling of an advance justification). But the clauses I’ve unpacked in detail are the main issues, in my opinion. It’s also interesting to observe how the contract has evolved over time. I’ve seen four Shadow Light Press contracts in addition to the cut-and-paste on Reddit, dating from about a year ago to this past September. While none are author-friendly (they all include the same sweeping claims on rights along with most of the problematic provisions discussed above), there’ve been changes over time to make them even less so. For example, the oldest contract of the four has a significantly different grant of rights, with the contract term said to “begin upon signing and will conclude 10 years after the Publisher receives the final Work from the author.” Compare that to the most recent grant of rights language, which appears to extend the contract term by 10 years every time the author turns in a book. Also, the clauses dealing with royalties and costs are considerably less detailed, with no mention of “internal costs” and a 50/50 profit split from the start (though they are still paid on net profit, with multiple expense deductions); and the lengthy explainer that prefaces the most recent versions is absent (did the publisher feel the need to anticipate inconvenient questions?). It all paints a picture of a publisher crafting and changing its contract to tip the scales ever more sharply to its advantage. This tension between the author’s interests and the publisher’s benefit exists in all publishing contracts, of course. Pretty much any publishing contract you’ll ever be offered will favor the publisher. But the best contracts seek to maintain a reasonable balance between these two competing interests–even more so if the publisher is willing to negotiate. #### **Knowledge is your best defense** As I mentioned at the start of this post, new authors are especially vulnerable to predatory publishing contracts. Inexperience plays a part, as does the difficulty of dense language and legalese–but so does the excitement and validation of a publishing offer, particularly a first-time offer, which can cause writers to forge ahead without fully understanding what they may be committing to, or giving up, by signing that longed-for contract. Publishers can, and do, take absolute advantage of those things. Where that’s the case, it’s important to call it out. Exposing bad contract language helps writers understand not just what they should avoid, but what they should demand. Whoever made that Reddit post–which I’m guessing took considerable bravery–did a favor to writers everywhere. ### Share this: * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn * Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky * Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Click to print (Opens in new window) Print * Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest * Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * More * * Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * ### Like this: Like Loading... ### _Related_

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I don't have time to read it at the moment, and oh, I am a fool for not stopping to check what that email is. * * * The air in the conference space where our "Writers of the Future" group meets always smells of harsh cologne and performative productivity. It is a sensory assault of laptop fans and the frantic tapping of laptop keys. I sit in the corner, my cane hooked over the back of my chair, listening to the room. I hate the name. Writers of the Future sounds like a corporate slogan for a pesticide company, but the name is less important than the people within it, and that's why I'm here. Leo sits next to me. I can hear the nervous rhythm of his breathing. Leo is a Black writer with a voice that sounds like jazz—unpredictable, syncopated, full of unexpected dissonances that resolve into heartbreaking chords. He writes about his life, the specific, humid weight of a Texas summer, the way joy can taste like a cheap freeze-pop on a Tuesday. "I have something new," Leo says. His voice is tight. "But... it's rough. It's really messy." "Messy is good," I say, leaning in. "Messy is where the blood is." Leo is a writer of immense, jagged power. He is a powerful man with a voice that sounds like gravel crunching under heavy tires, deep and resonant and full of a history that refuses to be smoothed over. When he reads his work aloud, the air in the room changes pressure. His prose is not "clean." It does not flow like water; it flows like molasses, thick and sweet and slow, or sometimes like lava, burning everything it touches. He tells more than he shows, a stylistic choice that critics hate but which I find profoundly honest. He doesn't invite you to watch; he commands you to listen. and I love everything he writes. Today, the writers in this group aren't buzzing with typing. They're listening to Chad, a white tech bro that sounds like his larynx is constantly massaging his speech for a pamphlet instead of talking to people. Chad isn't a writer. He's a content generator. He's published 400 generated books on Amazon and won't stop—not to mention—the insessant bragging he does about how he's a better writer because of whatever LLM he's using today. He is the kind of person who listens to podcasts at 2.5x speed because he believes silence is an inefficiency to be eliminated. He works in "Prompt Engineering," a job title that sounds to me like "Assembly Line Foreman for the Dream Factory." Chad's voice is smooth, frictionless, possessing the terrifying cheerfulness of a customer service bot that cannot be turned off. "Claude just released an update. It's incredible for unblocking. It really smooths out the edges." He's explaining to the group how to get the most out of large language models. Leo, beside me, is fidgeting with as much annoyance as I am. We're both immensely relieved when Brad finally claps his hands together, as if he's about to announce a press release. "Okay," says Brad. Brad is the organizer. His voice is a rich, polished baritone that vibrates in his throat but never seems to reach his chest. It's the voice of a podcast host who sells mattresses between segments on mindfulness. "Leo, you're up. Did you bring the revision of _The Asphalt Hymn_?" "Yeah," Leo says, "Great! Alright, creators," Brad announces. The word 'creators' sounds slippery in his mouth, like he's selling a subscription service. "Let's optimize the workflow tonight. Who's ready to output?" I have to suppress the urge to violently groan about his word choice. Instead, I turn my head towards Leo. I can't wait to hear this. Leo reads. It's a piece about his grandmother's kitchen. He describes the smell of collard greens as _a heavy, green blanket that wrestled the air into submission._ He describes her laugh as _a rusted hinge that still worked perfectly._ It is beautiful. It is jagged. It stops me cold. When he finishes, there is a silence. Not the reverent silence of a shared emotional impact, but the uncomfortable, shifting silence of a boardroom that has just been shown a graph with a downward trend. "It's... interesting," Chad says. "But the pacing is a little weird. And that metaphor about the hinge? It kind of pulls you out of the immersion. It's not very smooth." "It's not supposed to be smooth," I snap. "It's supposed to be true." "Leo," Chad says, choosing to ignore me entirely—he hates me just as much as I hate him—and addresses Leo directly. "Leo, did you read what I sent before this meeting? I took your last draft and ran it through Claud." The fuck? I roar internally. "I asked it to optimize for flow and readability. Listen to this." Chad clears his throat. The sound is grating. It sounds as if he's optimizing how to speak to humans. He reads from his screen. _"Her laugh was a joyous sound, ringing through the house like a silver bell. The kitchen always smelled delicious, the aroma of greens filling the air like a warm hug."_ The words hang in the air like dead flies. They are perfectly grammatical. They are perfectly structured. And they are completely, utterly stripped of everything that is Leo. A silver bell? A warm hug? It is the language of a Hallmark card Leo would never write written by a sociopath. "See?" Chad says, triumphant. "It just flows better. It's more... accessible. You should maybe use that as a base, Leo. Clean up your edges." I wait for the room to revolt. I wait for the other writers to laugh Chad out of the shop. But they don't. "Actually," says Amber, a poet who used to write searing verse about heartbreak, "that does sound a lot more professional, Leo. The 'silver bell' image is really classic." "Yeah," says Mike. "It's less... abrasive." I feel Leo shrink beside me. I can sense the physical collapse of his posture, the way he folds in on himself. "I guess," Leo whispers. "I guess I was trying too hard with the hinge." "No," I say, and my voice is the low growl of a guard dog. "The hinge was perfect. The bell is a lie. Leo, that machine didn't improve your writing. It erased your grandmother." "You're just resistant to the tools, Robert," Chad sighs. "It's the future. Adapt or die." "Oh, go power down somewhere. This isn't adaptation," I say, gripping the edge of the table until my knuckles ache. "It's lobotomy." Nobody agrees with me, though. I am outcast in a gaggle of readers and writers that seem to prefer LLM writing to the jagged edges. "And this is why," Chad practically yells, "why you don't listen to Luddites! Work smarter, not harder," Chad beams. The smile in his voice is audible, a stretching of wet skin. "That's the future. Why churn butter when you can buy margarine, right?" I sit there, gripping my cane until my knuckles pop, feeling the beginning of a horror story that has nothing to do with ghosts and everything to do with the slow, methodical erasure of a human soul. * * * ## Part 2. I walk home, my cane tapping a furious rhythm against the concrete. I fucking hate them. I fucking hate the Tech Bros. I hate the venture capitalists in their Patagonia vests who talk about "disruption" while they burn down the library of human experience. I hate them with the specific, intricate hatred of a survivor who knows exactly how the grift works. I hate LLMs. My hatred knows no bounds. I love the small web, the clean web. I hate tech bloat. And LLMs are the ultimate bloat. They didn't build these things to help us. I know this. Why do LLMs exist? They say it's to "democratize creativity." Bullshit. You don't democratize creativity by automating the act of creation. You democratize it by funding arts education, by supporting libraries, by paying writers a living wage. No, they created LLMs to solve a supply chain problem. The "problem" was that creating content—real, human, meaningful writing—is slow. It is expensive. It is unpredictable. And it is diverse. It requires dealing with _people_. People with traumas, people with political opinions, people with voices that don't fit into a corporate style guide. Minority writers, specifically, are "high friction." We talk about queerness and transphobia and racism, and We talk about disability. We make the advertisers uncomfortable. So the Tech Bros, in their infinite mediocrity, decided to bypass the human element entirely. They built a machine that scrapes our work—our pain, our joy, our very souls—without consent, grinds it into a mathematical slurry, and extrudes it as a flavorless, inoffensive paste that can be sold by the bucket. They built a machine to gentrify the English language. and the horror of watching my friend lose his soul almost eats me alive. * * * The next week, Leo brings a draft that was written 90% by him. The justifications are quiet, unsure of his own skill. The week after, he brings a piece that's written 50% by him. The shame is palpable, but it hurts me even more when readers and writers say the LLM versions are always better than his old drafts. This week, he stuns us all. "I don't—I don't have a draft," he admits. I immediately take his hand among the gaping and gawking of the room. His skin feels like it's a hallow shell of his soul. His voice is strained, broken, like there's something that's fundamentally shattering inside him nobody can see. "I just—I just—I haven't written in a while," he says. Claude has been down. I tried to write something… and, and… it just… I can't write. I ain't got nothin'." Chad chooses that exact moment to colonize the conversation. "Leo sent me his last draft," Chad announces. I freeze. NO! "And," Chad continues, "I ran it through the new 'Literary Fiction' AI I've been working on. Listen to the difference." He reads Leo's original sentence. I know it is Leo's because it has teeth. and then, he gets to the LLM version. The group murmurs. "Oh, that flows so much better," someone says. "It's more... universal." "Universal means average," I snap, wishing I could get away with prompt engineering Chad's stupid LLM to self destruct. "It means it touches no one because it tries to touch everyone." "Robert," Chad sighs. "Always the contrarian. Look, the metrics don't lie. Readers prefer the second one. We did A/B testing on Wattpad. The second one had a 40% higher retention rate." "You are feeding them sludge," I say, my voice rising. "And because they are starving, they eat it. And then you tell them sludge is what food tastes like." "It's just writing, Rob," Chad says, his voice hardening. "Why do you have to make it a crusade? Leo likes it. Don't you, Leo?" We all turn to Leo. Even though I can't see his face, I feel the weight of the room pivot toward him. "I..." Leo's voice cracks. A dry, brittle sound. "I don't know." "Leo," I say gently. "Tell him you are a good writer that doesn't need fixing." "It's better," Leo whispers. The words hit me like a physical blow. A kick to the shin. "What?" I ask. "It's better," Leo says, louder this time, but with a hysterical edge, a vibration of pure panic. "He's right, Rob. My metaphors... they're confusing. People don't get them. The machine... it makes me sound smart. It makes me sound like a _real_ writer." "You don't need an LLM to write for you. You're a good writer," I say, but his voice cracks as he stands up, snatches his coat, and practically bolts out of the room. "I can't write anymore. I can't write anymore. I just—I can't." I chase after him but it's too late. He's already out of the building. * * * The unraveling doesn't happen all at once. It is a slow rot, a decomposition of confidence that the Germans call Zersetzung. Psychological decomposition. It was the method the Stasi used to break dissidents not with torture, but with gaslighting, with subtle alterations of reality until the subject lost faith in their own mind. The Tech Bros haven't invented the term, but they have automated the process. They have built a machine that weaponizes mediocrity and sells it as perfection. Two weeks later, I sit in Leo's apartment. The air is heavy with the smell of stale laundry and despair. I have brought cookies—oatmeal raisin, heavy on the cinnamon, baked until the edges are crisp and the centers are dense and chewy. Food is a language of gravity; it pulls you back to earth. "Eat," I say, pushing the container across the table. Leo doesn't move. "I got into _Fiction Magazine_ ," he says softly. "Leo! That's huge!" I reach out, finding his forearm. His muscle is tense, rigid as wood. "Why do you sound like you're at a funeral?" "Because I didn't write it, Rob." "You used the LLM again?" "I used it for the whole thing," he whispers. "I fed it my draft. My messy, ugly, jagged draft. And it spit out... it spit out this smooth, perfect thing. And the editors loved it. They said it was 'refreshing.' They said the prose was 'elegant.'" He pulls his arm away from me. I hear the frantic clicking of keys. "Listen to this email," he says. His voice sounds like he's chewing glass as he reads it to me. _> "Dear Leo, we were impressed by the fluidity of your metaphors. Usually, your work feels a bit... disjointed. But this piece sang. The line about the 'tapestry of fate' was particularly moving."_ "Tapestry of fate," Leo spits. The words sound like poison in his mouth. "I hate that phrase. I would never write that phrase. It's a cliché. It's slop. But they _liked_ it better, Rob. They liked the machine better than me." "They liked the conditioning," I say, my voice sharp. "They liked the familiarity. It's the linguistic equivalent of McDonald's fries. It's chemically engineered to be palatable, but there's no nutrition in it. It passes through the brain without leaving a mark." "Maybe I'm just bad," Leo says. The sentence hangs in the air, heavy and wet. "You are not bad. You are a jazz musician in a world trying to sell ringtones." "But Robert, I can't do it anymore," Leo says, and then he breaks. It isn't a loud sob. It is a continuous intake of breath, a collapse of the chest. "Fuck, I tried to write this morning. Just me. Just a blank document. And I stared at the blinking cursor, and every sentence I thought of felt... weak. It felt amateur. I wrote, 'The rain hit the roof like gravel.' And then I thought, no, the AI would say something better. And I deleted it. I deleted it all." I'm about to say something when he continues, "I feel so stupid, Rob," he chokes out, the words drowning in his tears. "I feel so stupid. I let it into my head and now I can't get it out. I look at my own thoughts and they look wrong. They look like errors." I stand up and walk around the table, navigating by the sound of his breathing. I find his shoulder and pull him into an embrace. He clings to me for dear life, his hands clutching my body as if I'm his only life raft at sea. "That is the trap, Leo. That is the psychological warfare. They are selling you a solution to a problem they created. They want you to feel insecure. If you feel insecure, you pay the subscription. They are strip-mining your confidence to sell you back a synthetic version of it." "I'm losing money!" he wails. "I'm losing money, I can't write anymore—and readers—readers love my LLM writing! I don't know what to do, Rob! Readers like it. Editors like it. Editors. Editors of Magazines. I can't write anymore! I just—what the hell is happening to me—why do readers like it?" "I don't know," I answer honestly, rocking him, trying to comfort his soul with my words. "But just because people want to eat McDonalds, that doesn't mean we need to stop home cooking. But I don't know what to do. I'm just one person, but Leo, I love you, okay? I'll always be here if you need me. If you need me to look over a draft or—" "It's not just the subscription," he weeps. "It's the readers. They're getting used to the slop, Rob. They're getting used to the smooth edges. My writing... my real writing... it feels like it has too much friction now. Even the editors. Even the people who are supposed to know better." "Friction is where the heat comes from," I say fiercely. "Friction is where the life is." But he can't hear me. The Zersetzung is working. He is taking himself apart, piece by piece, and replacing the parts with synthetic fillers because the world has told him his own parts are defective. * * * Days later, it's my turn. we're back at that fucking writers' group. Although, today, it feels like it's a uniquely crafted torture chamber. I decided to read something. I usually don't. I keep my work for my blog, for the people who understand that a screen reader isn't a constraint but an instrument. But I needed to show Leo that imperfection was power. I needed to prove that raw data hits harder than processed data. I read a piece about my mother. It is raw. It is angry. It describes the sound of her voice as "a serrated knife cutting through warm butter." It describes the smell of the trailer park as "wet cardboard and ambition gone sour." It is jagged. It has no tapestries. It has no symphonies. It is a piece of writing that demands you look at the ugly thing and call it by its name. It's imperfect, but it's everything me. When I finish, the room is silent. "Interesting," Chad says. The word is a dismissal. "Very... visceral. But Rob, my guy, it's a little hard to follow. The sentence structure is all over the place. And 'wet cardboard'? It's a bit gross, isn't it?" "It's the truth," I say. "Truth doesn't scale," Chad says. He taps on his keyboard. "Just for fun, I ran your first paragraph through the new GPT-fiction-Plus wrapper I'm beta testing. Just to see what it could do with the core idea. I prompted it to 'elevate the tone' and 'smooth the syntax.'" "Don't," I warn. My voice drops—calm, dangerous, flat. "Do not run my life through your blender." "Too late," Chad says. "Listen to this improvement." He clears his throat, loving this. I feel like I'm being punctured by a thousand arrows through the heart. When he finishes, Chad beams. I can hear the smile in his voice. "See? Same info, but now it's palatable. Now it's _content_. It took out the aggression. It leveled the tone. It's objectively better writing." A woman in the front row murmurs, "Oh, that is much nicer. It feels more... literary." "Exactly!" Chad says. "I fixed it." "Chad," I say, my voice calm, the voice of a teacher correcting a slow student. "Why did it choose 'stone' for the throat metaphor?" "What? Because it's intelligent. It's smart. It knows. Because it fits." "No," I say. "It chose 'stone' because statistically, in the petabytes of training data scraped without consent from the internet, the word 'stone' appears in proximity to 'lump in throat' with a probability of 0.04 percent, which is higher than 'wet creature.' It isn't a choice. It's a math problem. It is a predictive text algorithm on steroids. It doesn't know what a throat is. It doesn't know what fear feels like. It is predicting the next token based on mediocrity." "It's still better writing," Chad insists, but his voice vibrates with the anger that someone who he thinks is a technophobe knows this tech better than he knows the tech. "It is a hallucination of competence," I say. "Chad, asking that machine to improve writing is like asking a blender to improve a salad. You don't get a better salad. You get sludge. And you," I turn my head to sweep the room, "you are all cheering for the sludge because it's easy to swallow. You are letting this tech bro convince you that your own distinct flavors are defects." I hear a sound next to me. It is Leo. He is making a sound like a wounded animal trying to stay quiet. A high, thin whine in the back of his throat. "You… fixed it," Leo whispers. "See?" Chad says to me. "Even Leo gets it." "No," I say. I stand up, unfolding my cane with a snap that sounds like a gunshot in the quiet room. "You didn't fix it. You lobotomized it. You took a scream and turned it into elevator music. You took the specific, painful texture of my life and turned it into a generic stock photo." "Whoa, calm down, Luddite," Chad laughs. "You're just jealous the machine has better flow than you." "I am not a fucking technophobe!" I shout, and the room flinches. "I built my own website stack from scratch! I code in raw HTML! I know more about the architecture of the internet than you and your wrapper-scripting ass ever will! I love technology! I love tools that expand human capacity! This?" I point my cane at his laptop. "This isn't a tool. This is a replacement. This is a parasite. It doesn't expand us; it eats us. It eats our confidence. It eats our specificity. It eats our struggle." I turn to Leo. "I'm a better writer than this—any LLM. So are you, Leo! You're a better writer." Leo doesn't move. He stands up, sad, resigned. He grabs his coat and walks out. I quickly tap my way out to follow him. "Rob," he says, stopping to turn back, facing my fury. "Rob, I wish I was as good of a writer as you. I'm a shit—" "Leo, no. You're a good writer—" "I can't write, Rob!" Leo screams. It is a terrifying sound, a man ripping his own throat open. "I feel so stupid! I look at my words and they look like trash! I can't do it! I'm done! I hate everything I do without the AI!" I have Mo idea what to say. Leo comes closer, his hands grasping mine. The force of his grip breaks my heart. "Rob," he says, and his voice shakes with tears. "I hate this. I hate this." "I know, buddy. I know! I'm here. I'm right here, with you. I'm here." As I let go for now, I don't know what to do to help him since my writing exercises didn't work. I told him to write fun Fanfiction. I told him to just write something bad. It's okay. I told him he didn't have to be marketable, but nothing is working, and he hates his own writing more as the days pass. I know Leo can still write without an LLM. He just needs encouragement. This is the thought that plants another seed as I leave the building. I can't go home yet. * * * ## Part 3. I take a bus to the other side of the city, to a neighborhood that smells of pupusas, exhaust fumes, and resilience. I walk three blocks, absently counting the cracks in the sidewalk through the tip of my cane, until the acoustic landscape changes. The echo of the street vanishes, absorbed by walls of paper. I eventually make it to The Cat's Shelf. The bell above the door doesn't ding; it clatters, a sound of heavy brass against wood. The air inside is cool and smells of vanilla (from the degrading lignin in old paper), binding glue, and peppermint tea. Entering it is a sensory baptism. The floorboards groan under my feet—a specific, B-flat groan that tells me exactly where I am in the room. There is no ultrasonic hum of cooling fans here. There is the rustle of pages and the hushed murmuring of conspiracy. "Rob?" Sarah's voice comes from behind the counter. Sarah sounds like she looks—sturdy, worn, and warm. She is a trans woman who built this bookstore with her bare hands and a lot of crowdfunding. She understands the politics of space. "I need a favor," I say. "A big one." "For you? Always. Do you need an audiobook or a body buried?" "I need a router," I say. "And I need a space." I explain it all. The Tech Bros. Chad. The Zersetzung. Leo's disintegration. The horror of watching a friend scrub the humanity out of his work because a machine told him he was inefficient. I tell her about the magazine editors who preferred the lie. Sarah listens. She pours me tea. It's an act of love I didn't know I needed. "you're not being hysterical, Robbie. They're colonizing the imagination," Sarah says softly. "That's what it is. Gentrification of the mind. They price you out of your own creativity." "Yeah. That's why I want to make a space, a space where that can't happen. I want to start a new group," I say. "Here. After hours. But I have rules. No LLMs. Not just discouraged—blocked. I want to configure your router to sinkhole every request to OpenAI, Claude, Anthropic, all of them. If they try to connect, I want the browser to redirect to an HTML page that has a very judgmental cat purring at you." "I love it," Sarah says. "When do we start?" "Tonight," I say. "I can't go home. I need to bring my friend back." * * * We call it "The Drafty writer's group." It's not the best name I've ever invented, but I don't care. The first meeting is small. Just me, Sarah, and a non-binary poet named Ash who writes sestinas about urban decay. We sit in a circle on mismatched chairs. I bring cookies—chocolate chip with sea salt, the contrast of sweet and sharp designed to wake up the palate. I don't invite Leo yet. He isn't ready. But word spreads. I don't use social media with an algorithm. I use the vast power of word of mouth. We print physical zines—little folded pieces of paper that smell of toner—and leave them in coffee shops, record stores, and community centers. Any place that will let us talk about the space. _Tired of the Slop? Come write poorly with us._ _Recovering Prompters Welcome._ _We don't want your polished draft. We want your mess._ By the third week, we have seven people. One of them is Adam. Adam is a Trans Black man with a voice that is soft, almost a whisper. He sits in the corner for the first hour, just listening to the sound of pens scratching on paper and keys clattering, phone keyboards clicking, the rhythmic clacking of my mechanical keyboard. "I... I used to use it too," Adam says suddenly during the break. The room goes still. Not the hostile silence of Chad's group. A holding silence. A waiting silence. "I wrote a story about my transition," Adam says. "And I showed it to a friend, and he said it was 'too angry.' So I put it in ChatGPT. I told it to make it 'more universal.' And it did. It took out the anger. It took out the specific smell of fear. It took out the things that made me, me. It made it... nice. And I hated it. But I couldn't stop. Because every time I tried to write the anger back in, I felt like I was doing it wrong. I felt like the machine knew better how to be human than I did." "You weren't doing it wrong," I say. "You were doing it human. The machine averages out humanity until it's just a beige paste." "I want to write the anger back," Adam whispers. "But I'm scared. I'm scared it's going to be bad." "Let it be bad," Sarah says from the counter. "Be bad. Be furious. Be unintelligible. Just don't be artificial." "We call that being a Recovering Prompter," I say. "There's no shame in it here. We know the pressure. We know the addiction of the easy fix. But we're here to do the hard work." Adam picks up his pen. I hear the scratch, hesitant at first, then harder, faster, digging into the paper until I think it might tear. Encouragement and love flood the space. There's still one person missing, though. I send Leo an email and a text message, and yes, an actual letter. _Leo,_ _I made a writing garden. It's full of weeds. It's messy. Nothing is polished. It's not perfect._ _We have cookies._ _I miss your voice. Not the LLM one. The one that shakes the floor._ _Come home. You are always welcome. I miss you. Come to one group, just one. We need you._ _- Rob_ He shows up twenty minutes late. I hear the bell clatter. I hear his heavy, hesitant steps. He smells of old sweat and that specific, acrid scent of anxiety. "I didn't bring anything," he says, standing in the doorway. "I haven't written a word in two months, Rob. I'm empty. The well is dry." "You're not empty," I say. "You're just quiet. Come sit." He sits next to Adam. "This is Leo," I tell the group. "He's the best writer I know. He's just forgetting how the instrument works." "I'm not the best," Leo mutters. "I'm a fraud. I sent a story to a magazine that a robot wrote, and they paid me for it. I cashed the check, Rob. I spent the money." "And you're here now," Adam says. "That's the work." That night, Leo doesn't write. But he eats a cookie. And he listens. He listens to Ash read a poem that doesn't rhyme and has a stanza that is just a scream. He listens to Adam read a paragraph that is so angry it feels like heat radiating from a furnace. And for the first time in months, I hear Leo breathe. A real breath. Deep into the diaphragm. * * * The resistance grows. It isn't a war fought with DDOS attacks or angry tweets or furious posts about how AI sucks. It is fought with vulnerability. It is fought by local businesses putting our flyer in their windows. It is fought by people telling their friends, "Hey, there's a place where you don't have to be perfect." Weeks bleed into a month. We start talking of putting on a live literature event. None of us have money, but none of us care. We want to do this. As we plan, people come to just listen. readers arrive to just enjoy writers being messy on the page. Other writers that are recovering prompt engineers come to our space. They all write poorly while they eat and drink, laughing at lines, embracing hugs, feeling far less alone than when they walked in the door. As the night of our first live reading is under way, just before the event, three people walk in who smell of expensive leather jackets and throat lozenges. "Is this the place?" a woman asks. Her voice is incredible—rich, trained, with perfect diction but a warmth that feels like velvet. It's a voice that knows how to hold a listener. "Who's asking?" Sarah says. "My name is Britany," the woman says. "I'm an audiobook narrator. This is David and Sam. We... we heard about what you're doing from the guy who runs the falafel stand down the street. We would love to read for anyone with disabilities or social anxiety or who just don't want to read work themselves." "that's incredible!" I say, unable to hide my joyous shock, "but we can't pay you. We have a lot of cookies and anger but that doesn't translate into cash, and we didn't get enough donations to pay you all." Brittany laughs. It is a musical sound, telling me everything is fine with the world. "Honey, I don't want your money. Do you know what I've been reading for the last six months? AI-generated litRPG novels. Thousands of pages of slop. I am dying of thirst. I am drowning in slop. I sit in my booth, and I read sentences that mean nothing, written by nobody, for an algorithm." "We never seen a space for recovering prompt writers. This is such a cool idea. We want to lend our skills. We want to help. We heard there was grit here," David says. His voice is a deep baritone. "We heard there were jagged edges. We want to read them. For free. Just let us chew on something real. Let us narrate something that's growing into itself." "We have plenty of jagged edges," I say. "Welcome to the writer's garden." * * * The Live Lit event was meant to be a small showcase. It turns into a riot of joy. We didn't shy away from the fact that recovering LLM prompters were going to be performing tonight. **Live readings by recovering humans. Show starts at eight PM.** The flyers catch the most attention. Sarah can't even fit everybody in the bookstore. The alleyway is packed. I can feel the body heat, a wall of humidity and anticipation. It smells of rain, cheap beer, and electricity. There are people here from the neighborhood, people from the university, people who just sound tired of being sold things. I walk up to the microphone. I tap my cane against the stand to gauge the distance. The hum of the PA system is dirty, crackling with interference. I love it. It sounds like potential. The microphone hums and pops before me. None of us are audio technicians, and it shows. It's the most goddamn beautiful thing in the world. It's the sound of electricity trying to speak. "Thank, uh, thank you all for coming," I say, and the microphone squeaks with a high-pitched feedback whine that makes a few people wince. I smile. I love that wine. It means the gain is too high. It means we are pushing the limits. "You might notice our manifesto on the door," I say, my voice booming through the cheap PA system. "These writers... some of them have used LLMs before. Or what the venture capitalists call 'AI.' I think we can all agree, fuck AI, right?" A cheer goes up. It's ragged and loud. "But," I continue, lowering my voice, leaning in until my lips almost brush the metal grille, "I believe there should be a space for people that have been broken by the system. There will always be people that love whatever slop the LLM makes. There will always be those readers—and God help them, the editors—that prefer the LLM versions, the slop, the generated works that slide down your throat without you ever having to care about the artist behind it." I pause. I listen to the silence. It is a deep, attentive silence. The kind of silence you find in a forest, not a packed room. "Tonight, you'll hear grit," I say. "You'll hear mess. You'll hear first drafts. You'll hear bleeding onto the page. Nothing will be polished. Nothing will be sanitized. I admit, some things won't make a lick of fucking sense. But you all are here because you love the mess. You love artists. You love art. You love the chaos of a human mind trying to explain itself to another human mind." I can feel the energy in the room shifting. It is a wave of warmth washing over me. "We didn't tell you which writers are recovering LLM users," I say, my voice thickening with emotion. "Because they deserve better than to be hated. Psychological harm and warfare isn't easy to recover from. When a machine tells you your soul is inefficient, it takes a long time to stop believing it. But none of the pieces were generated by an LLM tonight. Not one word." I grip the mic stand harder. "So enjoy the recovering writers. Have some cookies—Sarah made them, and I can confirm by tactile inspection they are excellent. Be a part of the readers and listeners that listen to and appreciate art instead of just consume it like content pigs at a trough." Laughter ripples through the room. "If you don't want to support any of these writers for fear all of them used an LLM at some point, I understand. Trauma leaves scars. But there's information on how to donate to these writers in the front, and on the bookstore's website. Thank you for giving everyone a chance. Thank you for saying fuck you to the way others want you to be. Thank you for taking a chance on artists." I take a breath. I can smell the ozone of the amp and the sugar of the cookies. "Now... let's have some fucking fun!" I step back. The applause is deafening. It isn't polite golf claps. It is stomping feet. It is whistles. It is the sound of a community knitting itself back together. With every artist, the applause increases in volume. The audience participation is utterly stellar. There's whoops. There's cheers. There's exclamations of shock and wracked sobs and guttural laughter that spills out into the open space. Nobody leaves. Everyone stays. Finally, it's time. "and our final artist for tonight," Sarah announces, "is Leo." The stomping grows louder. I hear Leo walk to the mic. His footsteps are heavy. Solid. The footsteps of a man who remembers he has weight. He clears his throat. It is a wet, nervous sound. "This is... this is a first draft," Leo says. His voice shakes, just a little. "It has typos. I didn't run it through a spellchecker. I definitely didn't run it through Claude. And... for a while, I thought I couldn't write without it. I thought my voice was broken. But my friends told me broken things still make sound." Laughter. Warm, supportive laughter. "It's called _The Taste of Love_." He begins to read. It's the best thing I've ever heard. It's about his momma cooking for him in her kitchen. There are stumbling blocks. Some metaphors swerve a little. Everything is Leo again. It's the best story I've heard from him in months, even with its imperfections. Britany, the audiobook narrator, is standing next to me. I hear her inhale sharply, a sound of pure appreciation as the scene unfolds before our mind's eye. His words grow in confidence as he dives deeper into his work. Everyone is engrossed. "He's good," she whispers. "He's real," I whisper back. Leo continues reading. He describes the sound of a screen door slamming in the wind. He describes the texture of his grandmother's hands—"rough as unfinished pine." He doesn't try to hide his tears when he speaks of her clothes. He doesn't hold back. He doesn't try to change any part of his mess. He builds a world out of friction. When he finishes, there is a second of silence—that profound, heavy silence that happens when a truth has landed in the room. Then, the world explodes. The applause isn't just hands clapping. It's yells. It's people roaring. It's whistles. People stomp their feet. I swear, I think the sound rips a hole through time and space. The wooden floor vibrates so hard it travels up my cane and into my marrow. The applause is a physical assault of love. I hear Leo sob, just once, a sharp intake of breath over the microphone, before he is drowned out by the noise. I feel a hand on my shoulder. It is Sarah. "We did it, Rob," she shouts over the roar. "We built this—this night—we did it!" I lean back against the brick wall, feeling the rough texture snag against my jacket. I listen to the chaotic, unpolished, beautiful noise of human beings screaming for a story that has jagged edges. The Tech Bros can keep their tokens. They can keep their scale. They can keep their LLM modules. We have the love. We have the care. And we have the voices. And that, I realize as the tears unapologetically spill onto my cheeks, is something they can never code. * * * If you enjoyed this story, support artists and art. But for real, if you enjoyed this story, you might enjoy Frindle by Andrew Clements's

In a recent press release, Amazon noted that some new features were coming to Kindle. > We’re adding new AI-powered reading features that preserve the magic of reading on Kindle. Story So Far lets you catch up on the book you’re reading—but only up to where you’ve read without any spoilers. For our endlessly curious readers, Ask this Book will let you highlight any passage of text while reading a book and get spoiler-free answers to questions about things like a character’s motive or the significance of a scene. The lead article in today’s _Publishers Lunch_ (PL) is all about Ask This Book, which went live in the Kindle iOS app earlier this week (it’ll be rolled out on all devices and Android OS in 2026). Amazon’s breezy announcement of the feature’s debut describes it as “your expert reading assistant, instantly answering questions about plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements without disrupting your reading flow.” You can highlight a phrase or sentence, type a question into a search box, and AI will generate an answer “right on the page.” There’s a little video to demonstrate the process. That might sound inoffensive enough. But as PL points out, Ask This Book is, in effect, “an in-book chatbot. You ask any question about the book, and a generative AI process provides you answers.” Which would seem…hmmm…to raise some rights concerns. Questioned about this, Amazon was not prepared to elaborate, but did note that Ask This Book is not optional for rightsholders: > Our query about what rights the company was relying upon to execute the new feature was not answered, nor did they elaborate on the technical details of the service and any protections involved (whether to prevent against hallucinations, or to protect the text from AI training). > > Asked whether rightsholders could elect to withdraw from the program, [Amazon spokesperson Ale] Iraheta wrote, “To ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out.” Most of the literary agents and publishing executives PL reached out to for comment were not aware that Ask This Book was live–and some were not aware of it at all. PL quotes one publisher who echoes the rights concerns, noting the need for “both a legal and technical review to understand the process and protections Amazon is deploying, as well as the rights they are relying on to do this in the first place.” It’s not the first time Amazon has rolled out a new feature without adequate notice or consideration of the rights involved. > For those with long memories it will recall the early days of Kindle, when in early 2009 the company rolled out a text to speech feature that would read aloud ebooks, trampling on audio rights for the sake of being able to do so. At the time, Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener insisted “these are not audiobooks. Text to speech is simply software that runs on devices and reads content.” Simply software. > > Pushback from rightsholders was considerable and immediate, and Amazon quickly conceded to make the feature optional, “modifying our systems so that rightsholders can decide on a title-by-title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title.” They denied any infringement, claiming the “experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given.” Yet they acknowledged, “Nevertheless, we strongly believe many rightsholders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver’s seat.” Will there be similar pushback on Ask This Book? As PL points out, “many people would deem the outputs of generative AI analyzing a particular copyright work as the very embodiment of a derivative work (or simply a direct infringement).” Agents and publishers broadly regard anything to do with generative AI as a separate right reserved solely to the author, and publishing contracts are increasingly addressing this issue. The primary focus has been on preventing unpermissioned AI training, but with the technology embedding itself at warp speed in all aspects of the book business, the rights implications are expanding just as fast…especially where, as here, they sneak in under the radar. ### Share this: * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn * Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky * Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Click to print (Opens in new window) Print * Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest * Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * More * * Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * ### Like this: Like Loading... ### _Related_

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* 54 * 0 * 27 * 27 Every year, we ask indie authors about their experiences with writing, publishing, and marketing. We’ve been running this survey since **2016** , and it’s one of my favorite projects of the year. For **2025** , we had **1,346 responses** from authors around the world. * **96%** of respondents are _already published_ * **4%** are not yet published but actively working toward it The survey skews toward **serious, prolific indie authors** (that’s our audience!), and all data is **self-reported** , especially income. As always: **Correlation ≠ causation. When we say “high earners tend to…,” we’re not saying “if you do this one thing, you’ll get rich.” We’re describing patterns, not guarantees.** This year’s survey covered everything from **income** and **catalog size** to **email lists** , **direct sales** , **KU vs wide** , and **author sentiment**. Grab a coffee (or your favorite writing snack) and let’s dig in. ☕️ ## **Table of Contents** 1) How Are Authors Published in 2025? 2) Motivation & Goals 3) Income Breakdown: How Much Are Authors Earning Each Month? 4) Genres 5) Catalog Size 6) Formats 7) Revenue Channels & KU 8) Direct Sales 9) Cover Design 10) Editing 11) Marketing 12) Email Marketing 13) Sentiment & Community ## **1) How Are Authors Published in 2025?** #### The indie author community continues to thrive, with **77%** of respondents identifying as self-published, while **17%** described themselves as hybrid authors, Only 5**%** of authors remain fully in the traditionally published camp. Indie publishing is no longer anyone’s “Plan B.” It’s a **primary, intentional path** that serious authors choose because it lets them: * Control **rights, pricing, and packaging** * Move faster than traditional cycles * Experiment with series, direct sales, and special editions ### 💡What It Means for You If you’re indie (or indie-curious), you’re not on the fringes—you’re part of a **mature, thriving ecosystem**. That means: * You don’t need permission to build a real author career. * You _do_ need to think like a **small business owner** , not just a creator. ## **2) Motivation & Goals** ### Motivation for Publishing: What Drives Indie Authors? When asked about their **primary motivation** for publishing a book, authors offered a range of responses, with less than half focused on financial goals: * **40%** of respondents said, _“I want to make money from my book,”_ highlighting a strong financial drive for many indie authors. * **20%** indicated that _“I want my story to be told,”_ showing a significant portion of authors are motivated by sharing their personal or creative narratives. * **16%** want to become _“a well-known author,”_ indicating a desire for recognition and status within the literary community * **15%** stated that _“writing is a hobby I enjoy,”_ reflecting the passion and enjoyment they find in the writing process itself. * **9%** selected _“other,”_ with a mix of unique or alternative motivations not captured by the main categories. There are two big takeaways around motivation: **– > Not everyone is here for the money. **Many authors are driven by: Expression, Legacy or Joy of the craft. **– > Money-motivated authors _do_ earn more on average.** Authors who checked “I want to make money” are: * More likely to treat their writing as a **business** * More likely to **invest** in covers, editing, and marketing * More likely to **stick with** tactics that move the needle There’s a **strong correlation** between saying “my goal is to make money” and actually landing in the higher-income brackets. ### 💡What It Means for You * If your main goal is **creative fulfillment** → you’re already winning every time you finish a book. * If your main goal is **income** → you’ll want to: * Set **business-style goals** * Invest (within your means) in **packaging and marketing** * Make decisions based on **data** , not vibes Both paths are valid. Just be honest with yourself about which game you’re actually playing. ## **3) Income Breakdown: How Much Are Authors Earning Each Month?** While **44%** of authors earn **$100 or less** , the majority—**56%** —are earning over $100 monthly from their writing. Authors in the **$500 – $5,000** range make up 20**%** of respondents, while authors making over $5,000 per month account for **13%** of respondents. **8%** of authors who answered the survey report making **over $10,000** per month. A few key patterns emerge from the data: * There is a **large “early stage” group** under $100/month. Many of these authors: * Have just a few books * Haven’t built an email list yet * Spend little or nothing on marketing * The **$100–$1,000** group is the “in motion” crowd. They’re: * Publishing more consistently * Experimenting with promo sites and email * Figuring out what works * The **$1,000+** group almost always has: * More books (often **10+** , and very often **series**) * An active **email list** * Regular **marketing spend** * A mindset: “This is a business” ### 💡What It Means for You * If you’re **under $100/month** : you’re not failing; you’re early. * If you’re earning **$100–$1,000/month** , you’ve proven your books can sell—your next lever is scale (more books, better packaging, stronger marketing). * If your dream is **full-time author income** , the survey shows it’s absolutely possible—but the authors doing it are: * Prolific * Strategic * Patient If your primary goal is to make money from your writing, this data confirms that making money from your writing is possible. If you’re already earning over $100 per month from your writing, you’re on the right track – the next step is scaling up. If you’re currently in the lower brackets, remember that it’s common to start small, and that many authors grow their income steadily over time. If your motivation for writing is driven by **creativity** or **personal fulfillment** , don’t be discouraged by lower earnings. Writing for the love of storytelling or as a creative outlet is incredibly rewarding in its own right. ## **4) Genres** Before we look at how different genres perform at various income levels, it’s important to understand **which genres were represented in this year’s survey**. Among the 1,346 authors who responded, the largest primary genres were: Romance – 21% (276 authors), Fantasy – 14% (186 authors), Science Fiction – 8% (101 authors), Thriller – 8% (103 authors), Mystery – 7% (95 authors), Historical Fiction – 6% (73 authors) and Non-Fiction – 6% (79 authors). A number of smaller but important genres also appeared, including: Cozy Mystery, Literary Fiction, Paranormal Romance, Children’s, Women’s Fiction, Young Adult, Horror, and Religious Fiction & Non-fiction. ⚠️ A Note on Bias Because Written Word Media’s audience skews toward **commercial indie fiction** , our genre mix reflects that: * **Romance, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, and genre fiction** are all well-represented. * More niche or traditionally print-focused genres—like **children’s books, literary fiction, and religious nonfiction** —appear in smaller numbers. That means the income patterns below reveal _real signals_ , but they may reflect indie-author ecosystem dynamics more than the entire book market. With that context, here’s what we found. ### **Which Genres Over-Index Among Higher Earners?** Across the entire dataset, a few genres show up **more frequently as income rises**. #### **Romance (All Romance)** * **21% of authors overall** * **~44% of the Over $10k group** * **~38% of $5k–$10k** * **~35% of $1k–$5k** * **Only ~12% of Under $100** 👉 Romance authors are **roughly twice as common** in the top-earning tiers as you would expect from their share of the survey population. #### **Paranormal Romance** * **4% overall** * **~11% of Over $10k authors** * Drops to **~3% in Under $100** Genre takeaway: Paranormal Romance has **one of the strongest correlations with high income** , showing ~2.5× its expected presence in the top tier. #### **Cozy Mystery** * **4% overall** * **6–9%** of authors earning above **$500/month** * Only **~1.7%** in Under $100 Genre takeaway: Cozy authors consistently appear more often in **every income bracket above $500** , and clearly decline toward the bottom. ### **Genres More Common in Lower Income Brackets** A few genres appear **more frequently among authors earning under $100/month** , and far less among high earners. This doesn’t reflect quality or potential—just market realities for indie publishing. #### **Children’s** * 3% overall * **5.5%** in Under $100 * Almost absent among higher earners Reasoning: Children’s books often rely on **illustration cost** , **school channels** , **in-person events** , and **gatekeepers** , which can make indie discoverability harder. #### **Literary Fiction** * 4% overall * **~7%** in Under $100 * Essentially absent from $5k+ brackets Reasoning: Literary fiction often relies more on **prestige, awards, and traditional coverage** than the indie-style marketing tactics that scale. #### **Religious Non-fiction** * 1% overall * **1.7% in Under $100** * Almost none in the higher brackets Reasoning: Smaller audiences, niche channels, and lower digital conversion can all play a role. ### **Genres That Lean Toward Lower/Mid Brackets** These genres are not over-represented at the bottom, but they aren’t common at the very top either. #### **Non-Fiction (General)** * 6% overall * **9–10%** in the $100–$1,000 brackets * Rare among high earners It’s also important to recognize that **non-fiction authors often earn income differently than fiction authors**. For many non-fiction writers, the book itself functions as a **branding asset** —a credibility builder, a calling card, or a **lead magnet** that drives readers into higher-value offerings such as: * speaking engagements * consulting * coaching * courses * workshops or trainings * newsletters or memberships Because their revenue often comes from these **adjacent services** , their book income alone typically sits in the **lower or mid brackets** , even when their _overall business income_ is much higher. In other words, non-fiction authors may appear under-represented in the top royalty tiers, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect the full financial picture of their author business. #### **Young Adult** * 2.5% overall * 3.7% in $100–$500 * 3.6% in Under $100 * Almost no YA authors in the top brackets The YA digital market is smaller than its print/trad counterpart, which shapes indie earning potential. ### 💡 What It Means for You * **Commercial genre fiction** (Romance, Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery) continues to have the **clearest path** to high monthly royalties in the indie ecosystem, driven by: * Read-through from series * High consumption rates * Strong, trope-driven reader communities * Effective digital marketing channels * **Children’s, literary fiction, religious nonfiction** , and similar genres require **different success strategies** , including: * Events * School and library outreach * Speaking, workshops, or services * Local community channels * Alternate definitions of success * **Fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, historical fiction, and mystery** make up a large share of indie authors and have strong mid-range earning potential—with some high earners in each, usually those who: * Write in **series** * Publish consistently * Target clear subgenre niches Above all: 👉 **No genre guarantees income** , but understanding how your genre performs on average helps you plan your strategy, timeline, and expectations—with far more clarity. ## **5) Catalog Size** One of the strongest predictors of earning potential in indie publishing continues to be **catalog size** —the number of books an author has published. The 2025 data shows a clear and consistent pattern: **The more books an author has published, the more they tend to earn.** Here’s how the **average number of published books** breaks down across income brackets: #### ### 2025 Patterns: Catalog Size vs Income From the 2025 survey: * Authors with **1–3 books** : About **80%** fall into the **under $100/month** band. * Authors with **5–9 books** : * Median income jumps to around **$50/month** * Many more enter the **$100–$1,000** band. * Authors with **10+ books** : This is where we start to see a **steeper income ramp**. * Authors with **25+ books** : * **Median income ≈ $3,000/month** * **40%+** of them earn **$5,000+/month** #### The Series Effect For the **very high earners** , it’s not just “lots of books.” It’s: * Lots of books * **In series** Why that matters: * If you spend $100 on a promo and only have **one book** , the reader can only buy… that one book. * If Book 1 leads into a **7- or 10-book series** , that same $100 can turn into: * Multiple full-price sales * A long-term fan Marketing spend gets **amortized across the whole series**. That’s where you start to see exponential, not incremental, returns. ### 💡What It Means for You Building a backlist takes time, but it’s one of the most important strategies for long-term success in indie publishing. Your **next best marketing move** might simply be: _write the next book_. If you love standalones, consider **loose series** (shared world, shared characters) so you can still benefit from series read-through. Backlist is power. The authors making $5k, $10k, $20k+ per month almost always have: * Deep series * A consistent release history Every book you add to your backlist: * Expands your digital footprint * Gives readers another entry point into your world * Boosts your chances of read-through * Creates more opportunities for promotions, box sets, and bundles Whether you’re at 1 book or 21, the path forward is the same: **keep writing, keep publishing, and think long-term.** ## **6) Formats** Indie authors continue to diversify the formats they publish in, but one thing hasn’t changed: **eBooks and paperbacks remain the backbone of indie publishing.** Here’s the breakdown of which formats authors currently offer: A few clear trends emerge from this year’s data: #### **1. eBooks and paperbacks are essentially universal.** Nearly every author surveyed publishes in **both eBook and paperback** —the two formats that remain the most accessible, most affordable to produce, and most in-demand on major retail platforms. * **eBooks (98%)** : Still the format where indie authors rely most heavily for discoverability and global distribution. * **Paperbacks (97%)** : Almost universally adopted, thanks largely to streamlined POD solutions through KDP and IngramSpark. #### **2. Audiobooks continue strong growth.** Over **half of authors (51%)** now have at least one audiobook—an impressive number given that: * Audiobooks are more expensive to produce * They typically require separate distribution channels * They can take longer to break even But demand remains high, and indie authors are increasingly viewing audio as a **long-term investment** that deepens reader engagement and increases lifetime value. #### **3. Hardbacks are becoming more common.** With **36%** of authors offering hardcover editions, the format has moved from “nice-to-have” to **a meaningful part of the indie toolkit** , especially for: * Collectible editions * Library distribution * Direct sales * Authors in fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction, where premium formats perform well The rise of new POD hardback options has clearly made this format more accessible. #### **4. Collector’s Editions remain niche but strategic.** Only **8%** of authors offer a collector’s edition, but this small segment ties directly into two major industry trends: * **Special editions with sprayed edges, foil stamping, or custom art** * **Higher-margin direct sales** at events or via Shopify/WooCommerce stores Collectors’ editions are especially popular in fantasy, romance, and fan-driven genres where superfans want physical books that feel special. ### 💡What It Means for You As you’re planning your publishing strategy for 2026: * **eBook + paperback is the essential baseline** for indie authors. * **Adding audio or hardback** can expand your reach and credibility—but they are better positioned as **Phase 2** investments unless you already have strong reader demand. * **Collector’s editions** are best for authors with: * An established fanbase * A strong direct-sales strategy * High engagement in reader communities * Genres with a collector culture (fantasy, romance, sci-fi) As production tools improve and direct sales gain traction, expect more authors to explore **premium formats** in the coming years. ## **7) Revenue Channels & Kindle Unlimited (KU) ** When it comes to generating revenue, Amazon is still the dominant platform for indie authors, with 83% of respondents naming it as their top revenue source. The percentage of authors who named Amazon as their top revenue source dropped for a second year – from 91% in 2023 to 87% in 2024 and 83% this year. When looking at which sources generated the 2nd most revenue for authors, Amazon still topped the list, but in-person sales, Apple, Kobo, and direct sales were much more visible in that #2 slot. ### KDP Select vs Wide in 2025 We also asked authors how they use **KDP Select (KU)** and the answers were as follows: * **38%** of authors– “ _All_ my books are in KDP Select” * **30%** of authors – “ _None_ of my books are in KDP Select” (fully wide) * **The rest** – A mix (some titles in KU, some wide) When we looked at **income brackets** : * Among authors earning **over $5,000/month** : * **43%** had **all** their books in Select * **15%** had **none** in Select (fully wide) * The rest had **mixed catalogs** Many high earners are **in KU** , but not all. There are successful authors: * Fully **wide** * Fully **KU** * And a big chunk doing **both** ### Important: Correlation vs Causation This data does **not** mean: “To make $5k+/month, you must be in KU.” It _does_ mean: * Many high earners **choose KU** because: * Discoverability is often easier * Page reads provide a separate revenue stream But there is a meaningful group of **high-income, fully wide authors** too. ### 💡What It Means for You * There is **no single correct path** : * Fully KU can work * Fully wide can work * A mix can work * You _can_ experiment: * Put a series in KU for 90 days * Try taking it wide for the next 90 * Compare real numbers Pick a strategy that: * Matches your **values** (e.g., not wanting exclusivity) * Fits your **stage** (KU is often easier for discoverability early on) * And that you’re willing to **execute on consistently** ## **8) Direct Sales** ### 2025 Direct Sales Adoption From the 2025 survey: * About **30%** of authors are **already selling direct** (from their own site or store). * Among those who _aren’t_ selling direct yet, about **30%** say they plan to start in the next **12 months**. So we have: * A **solid minority** currently selling direct * A **large pipeline** of authors who want to add direct as a channel When we slice by income: * Among authors earning **$10,000+/month** , roughly **half** sell direct. * Among lower earners, direct sales are much less common. ### Why High Earners Use Direct Sales Direct sales let you: * Keep a **larger percentage** of each sale * Build a **customer list** you control * Offer: * Special editions * Signed copies * Bundles & upsells But they also come with: * **More logistics** (customer service, fulfillment) * A need for **traffic** (you still have to do marketing!) ### When Direct Sales Are _Too_ Early We’re also seeing a pattern of: * Early-stage authors going hard into direct * Ending up with boxes of books in the garage and very few buyers The missing ingredient is usually: * An established **audience** (often via email) * Proven **demand** for your existing books ### 💡What It Means for You Direct sales are powerful, but they’re not “easy mode.” Consider: * If you already have: * A **meaningful email list** * Readers asking for signed copies / special editions → Direct might be a great next step. * If you’re early and mostly unknown: * Focus first on **discoverability** on big retailers * Build your **email list** * Then layer in direct when you have people to send there Tools like **BookFunnel** , **Shopify** , and others make direct sales more accessible—but they’re multipliers, not magic. ## **9) Cover Design** 2025 reinforced something we love to see: Authors overwhelmingly agree that **cover design is the #1 factor** in selling a book. Across experience levels and income tiers, book cover came out on top when we asked what matters most for selling books. ### How Much Are Authors Spending on Covers * **Low earners (≤ $100/month)** * Over **half** spend **$0–$100** on covers. * Many DIY using Canva, templates, or a helpful friend. * **Mid-range earners ($100–$1,000+/month)** * Typically invest **$100–$499** per cover. * Often working with **freelance designers** who specialize in their genre. * **High earners ($5,000+/month)** * Most spend at least **$250** , and often **$250–$1,000** per cover. * Very few spend **$0**. * A small fraction spend **$2,000+** , but: > There’s **no clear correlation** between spending $2k+ and higher income. The importance of a high-quality cover can’t be overstated. However, it’s not “the more you spend, the more you earn.” It’s: * “Spend **something** to get a **professional, on-genre cover** , and you give your book a fighting chance.” OR * “Spend nothing but **make sure that you get objective feedback** on whether your cover is good. #### Genre Signaling vs Plot Art One of the most important mindset shifts: Your cover’s job is to signal **genre** , not summarize **plot**. Readers scan for visual shorthand: * Dark background + bold serif text + spaceship → Sci-Fi * Pastel illustration + cute fonts → Rom-com * Moody figure + city skyline → Urban fantasy / thriller If your cover doesn’t “fit” when dropped into the Top 10 of your category, you’re making it harder for readers to say yes. ### 💡What It Means for You * If your budget is tight: * DIY is okay, **as long as** you get **objective feedback** and compare against genre bestsellers. * As revenue grows: * Move into the **$250–$500** range for covers if you can. That seems to be a sweet spot for many high earners. * Be ruthless (kindly!) about changing a cover that isn’t working. Emotional attachment to a DIY cover is one of the biggest blockers we see. ## **10) Editing** Editing remains one of the most important components of a strong, professional book—but indie authors take a wide range of approaches when it comes to how much they invest. The 2025 data shows a **broad spread in editing spend** , with a surprisingly large number of authors still spending nothing at all. #### A few strong trends emerge when we look at _both_ spend levels and income brackets together. #### **1. High earners almost always invest — but not necessarily at premium levels** Authors earning **over $10,000/month** fall overwhelmingly into the **$250–$999** and **$1,000–$1,999** editing tiers. Only **11 high earners** reported spending nothing. Top earners invest consistently in editing — but the _majority_ spend between **$250 and $1,999** , not $2,000+ #### **2. The lowest earners are heavily over-represented in the “Nothing” category** Among authors earning **under $100/month** : * **214** (the largest group) spend **nothing** on editing * Another **53** spend only $100–$249 * Only a small fraction invest $500+ Newer or lower-earning authors overwhelmingly choose DIY, beta readers, or no editing at all — which may directly affect reviews, read-through, and sales. #### **3. Spending more is _not_ the magic bullet** The **More than $2,000** tier is particularly revealing: * Only **4** high earners (Over $10k) invest at that level * **38** authors spending $2,000+ are earning **under $100/month** High-priced editing does not guarantee high income. Many lower-income authors overspend early, before they’ve built: * an audience * a consistent writing cadence * a clear genre strategy * a backlist Smart, strategic investment — not _maximum_ investment — is what correlates with earnings. #### **4. Mid-range spend ($250–$999) is the “sweet spot” for upward mobility** When we look at authors earning **$500–$10k/month** , the bulk are clustered in the mid-range: * $250–$499: strong representation across $500–$10k * $500–$999: even stronger correlation * $1,000–$1,999: solid, but slightly fewer Far fewer mid-range earners are found in: * “Nothing” * Under $100 * Over $2,000 Investing **something** , consistently, between **$250 and $999** , appears to be a meaningful milestone on the path to higher earnings. #### **Summary: Editing Spending by Income Bracket** The 2025 survey showed **very similar patterns** to prior years: * **Low earners** are much more likely to spend **$0** on editing. * **High earners** almost always spend **something** , but **not usually $2,000+**. Roughly: * Many authors across tiers are spending **$100–$999** per book on editing. * Only a **small minority** spend more than **$2,000**. * There is **no strong income advantage** to going way above that range. #### Why Editing Still Matters (a Lot) Editing matters less for the **click** and more for the **relationship** : * The **cover** sells the book. * **Editing** keeps the reader reading: * Fewer typos * Clean structure * Satisfying pacing and payoffs Poor editing often shows up as: * 1–3★ reviews mentioning “typos,” “clunky writing,” or “needs an editor” * Weak read-through to your other books * Fewer true fans #### **What It Means for You 💡** Editing is critical — but the data makes an important point: **You don’t need to spend thousands to succeed; you just need to invest enough to produce a clean, professional read.** Here’s how to interpret your stage: * **If you’re early / low-income:** Beta readers + light professional editing is fine for now, but skipping editing entirely makes it hard to retain readers or build reviews. * **If you’re growing:** Target the **$250–$999 range** , where the majority of rising earners cluster. * **If you’re established:** You may not need the $2,000+ tier — most high earners don’t use it — but you _should_ be working with trusted, consistent editors. Ultimately: **Editing is less about price, and more about clarity, quality, and reader trust.** A well-edited book boosts reviews, improves read-through, strengthens your brand, and helps every marketing dollar work harder — which is why the authors earning the most treat editing as a non-negotiable investment. ## **11) Marketing** If there’s one place where authors are loudly on the same page, it’s this: **Marketing is the hardest part.** In the 2025 survey, a strong majority (well over 80%) named **marketing** as the most challenging aspect of being an author—more than writing or production. #### This is an overview of how authors rated the following tactics, on average, on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 = least effective and 5 = most effective: ### ### What’s Working Best (The Winners) From the 2025 data + podcast discussion, here’s how things shake out qualitatively: **Most effective (especially for high earners):** * **Your own email list** * **Promo sites** (like Freebooksy, Bargain Booksy, BookBub Featured Deals) * Facebook Ads (for those who learn the system) * **Lead magnets / reader magnets** to grow email lists ### **Mixed / challenging but can work:** * Amazon Ads * **BookBub Ads** Many authors find these ad platforms hard to optimize, time-consuming and it’s easy to overspend on without clear ROI. ### **Most polarizing:** * **Kickstarter** * For some: a huge success * For many: a lot of work for little return * Very “all or nothing” ### **Trending down in perceived effectiveness:** * **Newsletter swaps** * Still used * But rated less effective than in previous years, possibly due to: * Overuse * Less engaged lists ### Stacking Tactics: What High Earners Actually Do One of the biggest 2025 insights: High earners don’t rely on _one_ marketing tactic. They **stack** them. Common patterns among authors earning **$5,000–$20,000+/month** : * Strong **email list** * Regular use of **promo sites** * Strategic Facebook Ads * Thoughtful **pricing & series strategy** * For some: **direct sales** layered on top It’s very rare to see a high earner who is: * Doing _no_ email * Spending _nothing_ on marketing * And relying _only_ on organic retailer traffic ### How Much Are Authors Spending on Marketing? We also asked authors how much they spend on marketing each month. Across all respondents, the **average monthly spend was $636** — but that average hides a big spread. On average, authors in each income bracket reported spending: * **Over $10,000/month in income:** spend about **$4,500/month** * **$5,000–$10,000:** spend about **$1,362/month** * **$1,000–$5,000:** spend about **$478/month** * **$500–$1,000:** spend about **$275/month** * **$100–$500:** spend about **$152/month** * **Under $100:** spend about **$81/month** A few things stand out: * **Higher earners invest more.** The authors making over $10k/month are typically reinvesting thousands of dollars each month into marketing. * **Investment tends to rise with income.** As authors move from “earning a little” to “earning a living,” their marketing spend increases steadily at each bracket. * **You don’t have to start big.** Authors in the lower income brackets are often spending under $200/month, then scaling up as their catalog and readership grow. This doesn’t prove that “spend = success,” but it _does_ show a clear pattern: authors who are earning more are usually treating marketing as an ongoing business investment, not a one-time experiment. ### 💡What It Means for You If marketing feels overwhelming, that’s normal. Almost everyone says that. **You don’t need to spend like a high earner to _become_ a high earner.** Most authors start small. As income grows, spend grows. It’s an evolution, not a leap. Here’s a simple way to approach it: **Start with the foundations (low or no cost):** * Optimize your packaging (cover, blurb, Look Inside) * Build your email list * Test one promo site These alone can move you meaningfully up the income brackets. **Then scale your investment as your results improve:** Authors earning more tend to **intentionally reinvest** in marketing — not all at once, but gradually. The data shows a steady climb in monthly spend from about **$80/month** on the low end to **$4,500/month** for top earners. Think of it as a ladder: * Start with what you can comfortably invest * Track what’s working * Increase spend on the tactics that clearly move the needle **As you grow, consider layering in:** * Facebook Ads * Promo stacks * Direct sales (for those ready to diversify) The key is to **experiment, measure, and double down on what works for _your_ genre and readers.** Marketing isn’t about doing everything — it’s about building, step by step, toward the strategy that fits your goals and your stage of the author journey. ## **12) Email Marketing** If there’s one metric that consistently predicts higher author income, it’s the size—and use—of an author’s email list. The 2025 data shows a dramatic spread in list size across income brackets: **Average Email List Size by Income Bracket** * **Over $10k/month:** 18,327 subscribers * **$5k–$10k:** 7,488 subscribers * **$1k–$5k:** 3,986 subscribers * **$500–$1k:** 2,743 subscribers * **$100–$500:** 1,405 subscribers * **Under $100:** 902 subscribers This is one of the sharpest correlations in the entire survey: **the more an author earns, the larger their email list tends to be.** ### **Email List = Income: The Numbers Behind It** Among published authors: * Authors **with** an email list earn a median of **~$300/month** * Authors **without** a list earn a median of **~$15/month** That’s a **20x difference**. When we asked about _perceived_ effectiveness: * **High earners ( > $10k/month)** rated their own newsletters **4.3/5** * **Low earners** rated newsletters **~2.7/5** So the authors who: * make the most money, * have the biggest lists, and * believe most strongly in email …are exactly the same group. 👉 **Top earners don’t just “have” a list—they actively build it and email it.** ### **Why Email Works So Well for Authors** Your email list is: * a **direct line** to your readers, * immune to retailer or social media algorithms, * one of the highest-ROI ways to: * launch new books * run promos * drive direct sales * nurture superfans And unlike ads, which get more expensive every year, email has **near-zero marginal cost**. This is why high-income authors rely so heavily on it—and why newer authors underestimate it. ### **What Effective List-Builders Do** Across both 2024 and 2025, the same habits show up again and again among authors with strong lists: * Use **reader magnets** (free novellas, prequels, bonus scenes) to attract subscribers * Place **email signup links in their backmatter** * Join **multi-author promotions** via BookFunnel, StoryOrigin, Prolific Works * Email consistently—not just at launch time * Treat their newsletter like a key business asset, not an afterthought The math is simple: > **More subscribers = more reliable launches = more consistent monthly income.** ### 💡What It Means for You If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this: > **Start your email list now.** * Even if you have **one book** * Even if you’re still writing your **first book** Simple starting point: 1. Choose a beginner-friendly ESP (MailerLite, Mailchimp, etc.) 2. Create a **reader magnet** (short story, bonus epilogue, sample) 3. Put the signup link: * On your website * In the backmatter of your books * On your social profiles Over time, this list becomes the **engine** of your author business. ## **13) Sentiment & Community** We also asked open-ended questions about how authors are _feeling_ and where they’re finding community. ### The 2025 Emotional Snapshot After reading hundreds of responses, here’s the vibe: **Hopeful but tired. Motivated but overwhelmed. Committed, but facing a lot of uncertainty.** Common themes: * **Marketing fatigue** (“It’s hard, it’s expensive, I’m not sure what works.”) * **Algorithm + platform fatigue** (“Things change constantly; it’s hard to keep up.”) * **Loneliness** (“It feels like it’s just me and my keyboard.”) * **But also… optimism** * Authors are proud of their books * Many _are_ seeing results * There’s a strong desire to keep going ### “It’s Not Just You” One of the most important takeaways: * The struggles you’re facing—discoverability, ads, burnout, doubt—are **extremely common**. * You’re not uniquely failing. You’re **doing author life in 2025**. ### Who’s Serving Authors Well? When we asked who is supporting them, authors frequently mentioned: * **Written Word Media** (thank you, truly 🧡) * **Joanna Penn** * **Becca Syme** * **ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors)** * **Author Nation** * **James Blatch / Self Publishing Show** * **Dale Roberts** And on the community side: * **Facebook groups** are still the #1 place authors log in weekly. * Many authors are active in: * Genre-specific groups * 20Books-style strategy groups * Wide-publishing communities * Smaller, invite-only mastermind groups ### Burnout & Community Fatigue Alongside the positives: * Some authors reported **stepping back** from groups due to: * Drama * Information overload * Time suck Others have found a healthier balance by: * Choosing **1–2 core communities** * Muting the rest * Protecting their **writing time** ### What It Means for You 💡 * If you’re feeling discouraged, you are **very far from alone**. * Plug into **one or two caring, practical communities** —not twenty. * When it all feels like too much, it can help to come back to: “Why did I start writing in the first place?” ## **Conclusion: What We Learned in 2025** Looking across the 2025 survey, a few big themes stand out: 1. #### **Email is the engine.** Authors with lists earn far more and feel more in control. 2. #### **Catalog size + series = leverage.** The more (and more connected) books you have, the more each marketing dollar can do. 3. #### **Packaging matters.** Professional, on-genre **covers** and solid **editing** are still non-negotiable for serious income. 4. #### **There’s no one true path (KU vs wide vs direct).** High earners exist in every camp; what matters is **strategy + execution** , not dogma. 5. #### **Direct sales are growing—but best as a “Phase 2” move.** They shine when layered on top of an existing **audience** and **email list**. 6. #### **Marketing is hard for almost everyone.** The difference is that high earners: * Invest _something_ in marketing * Stack effective tactics * Keep experimenting 7. #### **You’re not alone.** The fatigue, the hope, the grind—it’s shared by thousands of authors walking this same road. As you look ahead: * Take one or two insights from this survey and **apply them** —even in a tiny way. * Maybe that’s: * Starting your email list * Investing in your next cover * Planning your first series instead of another standalone * Testing a promo site you’ve been curious about There’s no single formula, but there _are_ clear patterns. And every year, more authors are quietly, steadily building the writing life they dreamed about. We can’t wait to see what you create—and what the data will show us in 2026. 🚀

Russell Phillips writes military history and RPG books. Born and brought up in a mining village in South Yorkshire, they have lived and worked in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria and Staffordshire. Russell has always had a deep interest in history and conflicts all over the world, and enjoys sharing their knowledge with others through clear, factual accounts which shine a light on events of the past. Their articles have been published in Miniature Wargames, Wargames Illustrated, The Wargames Website, and the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers' Journal. They have been interviewed on WW2TV, BBC Radio Stoke, The WW2 Podcast, and Cold War Conversations. They currently live in Stoke-on-Trent with their wife and two children.

This excerpt from the new book Digital Inc. by Richard Curtis examines why ebooks failed to supplant print as many tech pioneers expected.

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Learn why simple, clear author websites outperform complex ones with expert guidance from publisher Evan Swensen.

Sharing is caring! * Share * Tweet * Pin _The fire was built high to hold back the questing claws of Howling Winter, but it served another purpose too. By its warm and shifting light, Bright Hand could see the wall of the cave, its curves and shadows, the animals painted by generations of artists before her. Wooden bowls of paint sat amid the hoof prints of animals summoned through the wall from the Shadow Land, for the People to hunt. This was Bright Hand’s craft. This was her passion. This was her duty, passed down when Sky Eyes died._ _This was her people’s only hope…_ I have a new short story out in issue 18 of Horizons, the British Fantasy Society’s fiction magazine. Painting a Path to Sanctuary is about a stone age tribe facing the threat of extinction. As the icy spirit of winter closes in on them, they turn to art in hopes of salvation. This isn’t the first story I’ve written in which art can be used to make magic, which says something about my view of life. It’s easy to romanticise art when you do creative work yourself, but I do think that there’s something genuinely transformative about art. It lets us see the world and ourselves in new ways. What better way to make magic? BFS members should already be receiving their copies of Horizons, whether physically or digitally. I’ll post a link once it’s available to buy elsewhere.

Need ideas for how to promote your book on Instagram? Take a look at what publishers are doing to show off their titles.

A librarian struggles with escaping books.

Sharing is caring! * Share * Tweet * Pin From now until 15 December, Orbit US have an offer on ebooks by their newest authors, including _Forged for Destiny_ , my story of freedom fighters, dodgy prophecies, and a fake chosen one battling vicious oppressors. There are over a dozen books included in the offer, and you can find them all here. If you’re a UK reader, don’t worry, you’re not missing out on the discounts. _Forged for Destiny_ is currently 99p on both Kobo and Kindle.

Recently, we sent a QR code to a client. She asked if it was safe to use on things like bookmarks because she’d heard that free QR codes expire after a month. Is this true? Do free QR codes expire? What about paid ones? The technical answer is that no, QR codes do not expire, but in practice, the answer is a little more nuanced. ## What is a QR code? In case anyone reading this is wondering what we’re talking about, let’s start with an explanation of what a QR code is. At its simplest, a QR code is a pattern of black and white squares that can be read by a smartphone camera. They are often used to link to websites, but they can store any type of text. They are also used for applications such as two-factor authentication codes, tickets, or connecting to Wi-Fi networks. Just as a barcode is a representation of a number, a QR code is a representation of a piece of text. How the text is encoded into squares and decoded back into text is defined by an open standard, so a QR code created now will still be readable years from now. A QR code bus ticket. When boarding the bus, the QR code is read by a special machine that confirms the ticket is valid. ## So they don’t expire? Technically, no. It will always be possible to decode the pattern of squares into the text that was used to create the pattern. If that text is a link to a web page, your smartphone will offer to open the web page in your browser. But sometimes that link will stop working, which is where the confusion about QR codes expiring comes from. When you create a QR code of a link, the service that you use might offer extra features, such as tracking how many people are using the QR code. They do that by having the link go to their website first, where they can collect data, then the browser is redirected to your website. That redirection can be switched off at any time. Our QR code creator does not do that — it simply creates a QR code that represents the text you enter. Let’s use an example to illustrate the point. Let’s say you want to create a QR code to take people to your book at https://www.example.com/book If you create a QR code with our creator tool, and scan it with your smartphone, you will see that it shows the text “https://www.example.com/book”. ## How QR codes can expire However, some QR code creators offer analytics or other extra services. They need the user to go through their site before being redirected to the destination you set so that they can collect data about how the QR code is being used. If you scan the QR code from such a service, you might see that it shows text like “https://free-qr-with-analytics.com/abc123”. An example of a QR code without redirection. Going to that link will take you to www.example.com/book, but it goes to the free-qr-with-analytics.com site first. Because it’s reliant on that other site, the owners of that site can deactivate the redirection at any time. They might simply turn it off, or they might require a fee to keep it working. An example of a QR code with redirection. ## Conclusion We’d recommend using QR codes that do not rely on a third-party site because that site can deactivate them at any time. Codes made with our QR code creator can’t be deactivated, so that’s a good choice. If you want to see what a different creator does, scan the code with your phone. If it shows the text you entered, you’re fine. But if it shows some other text, then you’re reliant on the site staying online and not removing your redirection. You might decide that it’s worth paying for a service that provides analytic or other information. Just bear in mind that the physical codes may exist for many years, and that they may stop working if you stop paying or the site goes offline. In either case, it may be a good idea to include a written web address as well as the QR code. This is particularly relevant if your readers are from a demographic that is less likely to use a smartphone.

To create a barcode, enter the 13-digit ISBN and click **Create**. ISBN-13: Include price Set list price: $ USD £ GBP $ CAD $ AUD $ NZD No price set Format: PNG SVG Create Download barcode There was an error creating your barcode. Download barcode There was an error creating your barcode. Related article: ISBNs and barcodes. * * * More tools for authors. If you have any problems using these tools, please contact us.

One of the questions we ask our authors is whether or not they want to enable DRM for their ebooks. Our recommendation is always not to enable it, but as with everything else, it’s the author’s book and so the final decision is theirs. This article explains what DRM is, why you might want it, and why we always recommend against using it. ## What is DRM? DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, which is technology that tries to prevent unauthorised copying of electronic files. There are DRM technologies available for various types of electronic files, but this article is only concerned with ebooks. In theory, an ebook with DRM can only be viewed on an authorised device. In other words, if you buy a Kindle ebook from Amazon, you can read that ebook on any Kindle app or device that is registered to your Amazon account. If you buy an ebook from Kobo, you can read it on any Kobo app or device registered to your Kobo account. There’s no point uploading your file to a piracy site, since no-one else will be able to read it. ## Does it stop piracy? If it worked as intended, DRM would stop piracy. In practice, for anyone who knows how, removing DRM from ebooks is quick and easy. Most readers don’t know how, of course, but anyone wanting to pirate ebooks can find it out from a quick internet search. This means that pirates know how to get around the restrictions. Thus, the pirates aren’t affected, and piracy isn’t prevented. ## What does it mean for readers? Most of the time, nothing. But if a reader has been reading books on one platform and decides to move to another, they won’t be able to take any DRM’d books to their new ereader. While it’s possible to strip the DRM to do this, the average user is unlikely to know how. If the vendor decides to stop selling ebooks, the reader will not be able to read their DRM’d books elsewhere. If you’re thinking that’s unlikely, note that Microsoft stopped selling ebooks as recently as 2019. Back in 2013, Kobo removed all self-published books from its catalogue in what turned out to be a temporary purge. In the early days of Kindles back in 2009, Amazon removed copies of George Orwell’s 1984 from Kindles. So overall, there is no real benefit to enabling DRM, but you might potentially cause problems for readers.

By Patricia Crisafulli “The minute you walk out this door you show your character to everyone who sees you.” When I was young, my mother admonished me into good behavior with these words. What she did not know, and I could not fully appreciate until many years later, was just how valuable her advice was […]

Author Tanya Grant dives deep into the ins and outs of using setting to create conflict in fiction, including building plot and characters.