You Do What You Can Do…

Standing Outside Looking In…

So many fiction writers who want to make a living with their fiction feel like they are standing outside a huge house looking in at all the writers making a living and just not know how to get inside.

There is no secret other than having fun with your writing. All the writers who are making a living longer term have a few things in common (not the flash-in-the-pan ones who appear and vanish.) They all love to read, love to keep learning, love what they are doing with both the publishing and writing. They are all hungry for knowledge concerning anything to do with writing and publishing.

But many writers on the outside looking in have those same traits.

So what is the difference?

Sometimes time. If those looking in are driven enough and keep going, and are motivated by those making a living, eventually they just find themselves inside.

Writers making a living do what they have to do. They know how to make a book able to sell, to tell a story that readers will come back for more, to learn cash streams that might not fit them at first. They build fans and readerships and discoverability. They do what they have to do.

I get letters and comments from many, many writers who want to make a living with their fiction, but just can’t do what needs to be done. The basics.

Branding to author on covers, sales copy that actually sells a book, learning advanced storytelling, and so on.

No writer rewriting, or imitating other writers, or writing only 150,000 words per year will ever make a living in fiction writing in 2026. Just not possible.  And now no writer using AI in their fiction will ever make it either. That is too stupid and lazy for words.

A writer standing outside looking in at the masses of writers making a living with fiction are also looking through foggy windows because they have yet to bother to learn copyright, trademark, or branding, the things the writers make money with. While most inside know those things and make money from them.

Standing on the outside looking in at all the writers making great money with their fiction is a right of passage. All of us go through it, and if getting peaks and learning from those on the inside spurs you on to learn more and work harder, you might find yourself inside one day when you least expect it.

But if looking at all the things writers do to make a living discourages you, then you either switch your attitude or decide to be a part-time writer, which is fine as well.

Writers making a living with their fiction do what they can do, and need to do. And they want to learn everything and try anything. And most are not afraid of change. If that sounds like you, you are on the right path.