What Writers Should Do When Their Earnings Go Down
Don't panic, just ride it out
Hello Everyone!
We had a very nice weekend up here in Northern Wisconsin. To tell the truth, everybody is getting a little bit sick of the snow. Nevertheless, it wasn’t with complete disgust that we endured another 4 or 5 inches of the fluffy white stuff coming down.
Snow is hard to deal with when it’s ten below zero and you have to drive somewhere. If it’s above freezing and you’re sitting at home with the family, then you appreciate the beauty.
On Sunday, we roused everyone (including the dog), and went on a nice hike. I know where the deer bed down in the local park. I discovered them while out cross-country skiing, so I took the family out for a “snow globe” walk.
I didn’t know if the deer were going to be there, but they were. In fact, there were more than ever (30 or more). The dog behaved himself. He didn’t bark or growl and the deer weren’t too disturbed by us. We watched for a while, then went home and had a snowball fight. It was a nice day.
A good recharge day.
But the weekend is over and now it’s time to get back to business.
Podcast
I noticed that Substack offers a podcast option, so I’ve been toying with the idea of giving it a try. I actually sat down and recorded a 10 minute segment, but when I played it back I realized the audio quality was so bad I had to delete it (this was after 5 test runs).
I think the interface can handle a 1 minute test run, but when you get into the 10 minute recording range, the tool apparently can’t keep up. When I replayed the track, there were these grinding moments where the audio seemed to have to catch up with itself.
Next time, I’ll try the audio recorder on Windows. I just read an article on podcasting where the guy said you should spend zero dollars on it until it’s marketable. I tend to agree with that sentiment, although releasing something that’s unlistenable is not a good way to work towards marketability.
Still, I felt pretty good about the deleted test run, so why not? Stay tuned…
Earnings
One of the thing that’s been a constant reality about the writing life going as far back as I can remember is that earnings are fickle. There are months where you do well, and months where your earnings are down.
My earnings have had a small dip over the last few months, and I’ve read a couple comments from people who are experiencing the same thing.
This isn’t anything to panic about, it’s just a way of life.
The best way to handle a dip in earnings is to not worry about it. Worry is unproductive.
I work with a variety of platforms, and the interest always fluctuates.
Newsbreak (my earnings are actually surging here)
Incidentally, you should follow me on all those platforms.
My earnings started declining on Medium a couple months ago. What this usually means is that somebody is tinkering with the distribution mechanism.
Something that writers have to keep in mind is that we’re always at the mercy of some form of distribution mechanism. That’s why celebrity newscasters completely disappear when some massive scandal breaks. There’s nothing inherently noteworthy about those people, we see them on a daily basis because somebody handed them a platform.
I’ve had a few people who have made the effort to follow me for a LOOONG time (and I’m grateful). But I also mainly rely on distribution mechanisms to actually make any money. What usually happens when an algorithm is tweaked is that your views go down for a couple months, then you figure out what’s being distributed and you make adjustments.
Here’s how you handle the uncertainty:
Don’t check your earnings
The way to navigate the troubled waters is to mitigate your stress. The best way to do that is to simply not check in on your earnings.
A lot of writers like to go to their “wallet” (or whatever) and constantly refresh it every time a story starts getting a few views.
Don’t do that, you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.
If you have enough energy to hit a “refresh” key 10,000 times, then you have enough energy to write a marketable article or story.
That’s the key here: don’t allow yourself to fret so much that you lose the energy to write. The way out of a drop in earnings isn’t to write less... it’s to write MORE!
The same thing used to happen when I owned a business. There would be slow times of the year and profitable times of the year. Business always picks up.
What I’ve been doing
I’m actually really proud of how productive I’ve been over the last three months. In fact, I’ve written a HUGE amount over the last 2 years. The other day I received an email from Grammarly congratulating me on writing 467,000 words.
The kicker is that, in my mind, I barely even use Grammarly. Only one of the platforms that I write for requires it.
Almost half a million words is a LOT of words.
Last week, rather than fret about earnings, I put my energy into a creative short story. I’ve been wanting to submit more short stories, and last week provided a good motivation.
A couple months ago, I was making good enough money on my core platforms that I didn’t need to seek out other markets. Now, the slight dip in my earnings has provided the necessary motivation to explore some other opportunities.
Writers ALWAYS need to supplement their core income with other revenue streams. I’ve always been able to sell articles and stories here and there for an extra couple hundred dollars. I haven’t been submitting lately because it’s just easier to publish on my core platforms, but when the revenue goes down, my attention goes elsewhere.
You’d think that this would be incentive for the core platforms to keep their revenue up, but that’s not the way that it works.
My first attack comment on Substack
Also, I’m pleased to report that I received my first instance of hate mail on Substack! Whoo-hoo! Thanks for that! It shows that I’m relevant!
I wasn’t immediately aware of how to delete comments and block users, so now I’ve figured that out (which is good).
These days, I’ve been responding to hate mail with comments like, “I sincerely hope that you continue to make progress on your journey to happiness, love, and tolerance.”
They send some really awful replies to that statement. I think it’s comical to read the exchange... this is what I was considering doing for my podcast (reading those comments). Maybe I’ll try that again this week.
Stay tuned!
WR
I’ll leave you with a link to another article:
Thank you Walter🙏
I’m reading (some of) my stories. I’m using Loom to record on my phone with earbuds. Some street noise gets in but its ok for now.