We Were Promised Unicorns. We Were Given TPS Reports.

A sneak peek at my new book for authors.

After receiving many enthusiastic “someone is finally saying what I’ve been thinking!” responses to my presentation at Author Nation 2024 and articles like this one (over 100 restacks and counting!), I’ve begun work on a book called The Artisan Author, which will be released this year.

What’s below is the introduction to The Artisan Author. If it intrigues you, be sure to follow the book’s Kickstarter campaign here. It will debut on Kickstarter on July 15th, then in bookstores this November.

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I’ll bet you remember the day you first realized you wanted to be a writer.

Maybe it wasn’t one specific day. Maybe it was a year, or a season of life, in which the idea of writing slowly grew within you. Maybe, like many authors, books saved you at a time when you needed them most, and a deep part of you decided you wanted to do the same for others. You’d build fantasies for strangers to lose themselves in. You’d plumb the depths of the mundane with your words, trying to make sense of it all. You’d build worlds like sanctuaries: a refuge from the everyday; a pause button for the frenzy — or the difficulty — of your future readers’ lives.

Maybe you’ve always had stories within you. Maybe, like a seedling finding its way through hard earth, a fragile idea struggled for years inside your mind — shaping and reshaping itself until one day, it broke free and became words on a page. Maybe that process took decades. Maybe it happened in a snap. Either way, a feeling came with it: You no longer had to accept the reality you were given. Now you were a creator, and could live in worlds of your own.

You were free. And as soon as you figured out how to make a living selling your books, you’d be freer still.

Speaking for myself, the dream of writing full-time was all that kept me sane for a while. I was in a job I hated, and the prospect of advancing in that job (thereby earning the right to do it forever) felt like sailing headlong into a storm. But I couldn’t see an alternative. I’d set my sails and was qualified for nothing else. Worse, it was 1999 (a decade or so before the Kindle made digital self publishing possible), and “becoming an author” meant submitting short stories to magazines that nobody read, then sending query letters to agents to trumpet those credits and hope they’d deign to represent you.

It was a one-in-a-million shot. My odds of escape were not promising.

Before ebooks and print-on-demand, there were only two paths to becoming a writer. One was to pay to publish thousands of copies of your book and sell them from the trunk of your car, and the other was to win the lottery by finding not just a good agent, but also a good editor. But it didn’t stop there. You also had to luck into a publishing deal big enough to buy more than ramen noodles … and even then, if your book didn’t sell as many copies as your publisher wanted, they’d pass on your next book and send you right back to zero.

My dream of writing for a living felt about as possible as being struck repeatedly by lightning, but I didn’t care. It was my only way out. My only way to do what I truly wanted, and enjoy my life instead of hating so much of it.

If you’ve been at this a while, maybe you can relate. If you’re brand new, be glad the world has changed. Because it did change. After ebooks and print-on-demand became a thing, the draconian trad scene was no longer the only way to get published. Technology had given us new formats, and the internet had given us a voice. Writers didn’t need permission anymore. Now we could reach readers directly, and deliver our books through sites like Amazon.

The sun came out. Bunnies hopped through beautiful meadows. Unicorns blessed us all with the fertile magic of unlimited possibility, and writers’ dreams came true the world over.

Maybe that’s where you entered the picture, or maybe you’re just entering the picture today. Whether you were a writer in the good ol’ days or just became one recently, you’re probably familiar with the dream that began in the late aughts and early teens. Suddenly, writers didn’t need permission to write, nor to publish. We could reach readers everywhere without middlemen! Unicorns rejoice!

Well … not so fast.

Let me ask a question. Is that how the writing world feels to you right now?

If this is the first book about indie publishing that you’ve read, maybe it does still feel that way. If, however, you’ve read other books — or attended writers’ conferences, or lurked in author forums, or followed authors-talking-about-authoring on YouTube or elsewhere — you’ve probably gotten a very different picture.

Yes, you used to be able to write whatever you wanted, but now everyone knows you really need to write to market. Research a genre, study the recurring elements, then write a book with all that same stuff and be sure to commission a cover that looks like all the others.

Yes, you used to be able to just put your book up for sale and people would buy it, but obviously you have to do more than that now. Have you chosen the right keywords? Picked all the right subgenres? Is your description SEO-optimized? Oh, and what about social media promotion and advertising? You don’t actually think you can sell books without learning to run ads, do you? Well, don’t worry. Ad strategies change all the time, but if you join all the courses and spend a few hours a day staying current, your ad game might only be slightly behind the curve.

Yes, you used to be able to price your book at a decent price, but why would anyone buy books at more than $2.99 these days? Alternatively, you can gamble with Kindle Unlimited. You might do great there … or your books might earn almost nothing. Either way, you’ll be attracting legions of readers who don’t actually like to pay for books. That’s cool, right?

Yes, you used to be able to publish a book occasionally and do okay. Can’t do that now, though. You do have enough books lined up to release one every month at the very least, right? No? Well, then you’d better cancel your vacations and weekends and start writing yourself into burnout if you hope to survive.

Yes, you used to be irreplaceable to your readers. Those were the good old days. Now, your last book is basically “used up” after a few months, so you’d better have a new one ready. If you don’t publish anything new quickly, your readers will move on to someone else. They probably don’t remember your name anyway, seeing as you were just one more snack in their never-ending book buffet. Oh, and don’t forget about AI. Some folks who’ve really dialed into writing with AI can produce a few new books a week. I guess you’re actually pretty replaceable after all.

Doesn’t feel like unicorns anymore, does it?

These days, with so many indie writers praying at the temple of so-called “Rapid Release publishing,” it starts to feel like there are only two options for authors, be they established or newbies. Choice #1 is to join the Rapid Release rat race and publish commoditized, written-to-market, coloring-within-the-lines fiction at a rate of one book every two to four weeks if you want a chance of success. Choice #2 is to write whatever you want however you want … but sell almost nothing.

When I returned to the world of author conferences in 2023 after a few years away, that particular lose-lose dichotomy struck me like a hammer. I’m an art-first author, so Choice #1 felt worse than the most tedious office job. Choice #2, while creatively satisfying, wasn’t any better. Yes, I love writing and would do it for free … but how could I justify taking the time to write all I wanted if I couldn’t earn money doing it?

I stared out at those foreign lands in 2023, wondering when someone had swapped my unicorns for a world of TPS reports and officiousness. When had writing become such a grind? All my old hopes fell away in a heap. I suddenly realized that the WOPR computer from the movie Wargames was talking about authoring as much as global thermonuclear war when it said, “The only winning move is not to play.”

More and more, what passes for “normal” among self-published authors is unpalatable for someone like me — someone who wants freedom in what I write, genuine connections with readers, to enjoy my work instead of burning out, and to actually make a living instead of selling my books for pennies. Maybe you’re like me. Maybe you’ve done your research, looked out into the wide world of writing, and decided it sounds no better now than it ever did — even back in the query-and-pray days.

Fortunately, though, there’s another way to make a living as an author — a way that almost nobody is talking about in our faster-faster world.

There is an alternative to the Rapid Release race to the bottom. There is a way to write what you want, charge what’s fair, court loyal fans who love you, and build a writing life in which you come to every day with all the rainbow-loving unicorn joy you were promised.

No more rules.

No more rush.

No more selling your heartfelt stories for pennies on the dollar.

No more worries that you’ll be left behind and forgotten.

If what you’ve just read strikes a chord, then it’s time to buckle up, buttercup — because I’m about to share an evolutionary writing renaissance with you.

Come with me, dear writer, into the way of the Artisan Author. You can’t possibly imagine the creative joy you’ve been missing.

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If you’re interested in reading the complete Artisan Author book (the introduction to which you’ve just read), go here to follow its Kickstarter campaign and read more about it. The campaign launches on July 15 and will offer a ton of cool shit beyond just the book for those who want it.