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@Impossible_PhD
I write short stories but I've been a member of a local writers' group off and on for almost twenty years.
It's not genAI, well not just genAI. It was already drying up unless you were an established name with guaranteed sales or a workhouse churning out genre paperbacks like clockwork.
Amazon Kindle seemed to be the beginning of the end based on the slow change in our speakers presentations.
And traditional publishers were enshitifying before it was a word. You, as the author, have had to do all of the work for a long time. Build your audience, market yourself, practically plan your own press tours unless you were profoundly lucky or well-known.
I hear the old workhorses are being laid off now. They aren't saying "we'll just use genAI" but I think that's the direction. Rather, have genAI spit out a novel and then you, an actual author, get paid shitty wages to "edit" it instead.
Some authors are writing dozens of books a year and still barely making ends meet. The only ones I've known who are "making a living" as writers are older folks who are retired from regular jobs and that's been the case for at least ten years.
If I ever get enough time to put together an anthology of my own short stories, I'll just self-publish and be fine with it. I'll never make money at it. I still write because I love writing.
Replies (3)
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@jrdepriest Truuuuuth!
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@jrdepriest
To be true, I think there might be one more factor: people just don’t read that many books anymore. I mean, it takes _time_ to read a book. We all got (almost) as much time, as we used to have 20-30 years ago. But we choose to spend it differently. Social media, a little game on the cell phone…
I used to read a loooot. Now I am glad if I read 2-3 books during a 4-weeks vacation.
(Fedi and Pokemon Go is where _my_ time gets lost.)
@Impossible_PhD
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@jrdepriest
"unless you were an established name with guaranteed sales"
Exactly. The trad publishers, and before you get to them, literary agents, are VERY unlikely to touch you unless you ALREADY have massively popular books to your name, a huge fan following, and an established brand.
I do hope you decide to self publish. I am not rolling in sales, but I get a huge kick out of self-publishing. I am not about to publish my ninth collection of short stories.
@Impossible_PhD
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