Writing SHIP fiction - Can you support yourself doing it?

[DrDominator9]

I know there are a few writers here who post their for-pay stories on either Smashwords or Amazon or other sites (not sure which others there are?) My question is whether, if one's writing is good enough, a person can make enough money on a monthly basis to make a sustainable living on such income alone?

I don't want to pry into specifics if the writers here are uncomfortable with offering such numbers but whatever insights you could provide on the topic would be most welcome. I suppose there's also the Patreon route. If you have insights about that, they're welcome too. Thanks for your replies in advance.

[ksire_99]

Dear Doctor D,

Your writing is enjoyable but not ready for prime time (pay for me to read). If it isn't 'fill in the blank' so you can churn it out you will fail. Besides, I have read from your stories (most more than once) you will fail! Until you are capable of putting out Trope on a continuous basis, then you will be powerless to pay for the 40 watt light bulb in the dingy basement you will find yourself in.

But, if it gives you hope and makes you write more. Please do!

[Bert]

That's a complicated question. If you mean heroine peril, the issue isn't so much the quality of your work as the audience size. If you mean fiction aimed at a wider audience, well, that would depend on your ability to do it well AND attract that wider audience. Daunting and not for the lazy, but not impossible. The thing is, can you maintain interest in writing not-peril work?

[DonShip]

What Bert said. I earn all my income writing. Not an impressive sum since the summer of 2016 (WTF happened to sales. Jesus).

There are writers earning a livable income writing about super heroines (their own OCs). But SHiP is what I write, and the audience is much smaller. I don't make a livable income just on SHiP, but it is a significant percentage of my income. Patreon is not really friendly to SHiP. I've received a warning about my content being outside of TOS, so you'll live under the ban hammer every day. Some sites won't sell SHiP at all. I have to write other fiction (zombie, SF, Fantasy) to make ends meet. But, like I said, it does provide a significant side hustle.

And in all things, YMMV. You might be the prophesied champion of SHiP and change the world forever. If so, mind if I ride on your coattails?

[sneakly]

50 Shades of Grey was a Twilight fan-fic. So, yes, you can. I wrote an erotica novel that was published by a small romance style press. I am not an expert, but at least took a look at the problem realistically.

Most authors make very little and work very hard at it. There are two parts to being a successful author. First is volume. Your typical title needs to be a minimum of 50,000 words to call it a novel. I forget the specifics, but shorter works are novellas (25k), short stories etc. A typical sci-fi novel needs to be 250k. Very few authors make money with their first novel, you need to build a catalog of books, because you need to keep readers engaged. Turning out a new title every year won’t keep readers engaged unless you have a copyright on Harry Potter. Most of them are turning out four titles a year, because any reader that gets hooked needs to be fed regularly.

Second, You need a big readership. Lots of people willing to pay $4 over and over again. Building that takes a lot of work because you need to keep readers re-engaging your work. If notice how people like Kendra James come online and post to a forum like this, it is to keep engaging buyers to keep buying and she may only have a dozen customers on given site that are willing to pay. E-books are not different.

Finally, if you want to make money, you need to start creating original characters. Something new, different that catches attention and will not attract lawsuits. Batgirl is awesome because everyone knows a version of her. DC probably couldn’t care less about all the Deviant Art stories and pictures. That changes as soon as money is being made and you take their intellectual property in a direction they don’t like. Unless you have very deep pockets, your entire library could be pulled because DC decided they aren’t interested in competing with you.

To make any significant money, you need to write, edit and market every day.

[DrDominator9]

Thanks for all the suggestions to those who commented here. It's been very enlightening.

[heroinehunter]

No. I approached a producer about setting up some kind of income for the writer since, essentially, the producer is making money off of my work. Producer shot it down immediately. Very simple - greed. Unwillingness to share. That's why you have all these riots going on in America ... uh, sorry - protests (but when you're assaulting people, vandalizing, burning and looting in a mob mentality it's called a riot)

[Damselbinder]

I made a very anaemic, feeble attempt at getting a Patreon going, and it didn't attract that much interest - though this was basically because I didn't really offer prospective patrons anything because I didn't want to stop putting stories out for free. I think a Patreon-model would be one in which writing stories about established properties might be easier to get away with, but Patreon are pretty happy with the ban-hammer when it comes to sexual content, so that's the risk you'd run.

[Abductorenmadrid]

If so few are prepared to comment so little on what I produce then what chance would I have on getting money from my work instead? I know my limits, and being paid a living wage off of what I put out is well out of my reach! No doubt there are people with actual real talent out there who are struggling, so ... yeah ... I won't give up my day job, LOL

[Visitor]

Back in the mid 1980s, Piers Anthony wrote in a book introduction about living as a writer giving from his case the need to write two books a year with expected sales numbers and percentage of sales he received as pay. This was in his popular Xanth series long after it was a successful series and he was getting work doing movie novelizations. It isn't easy until you are established and even best selling authors like J. K. Rowlings had many rejections before getting a publisher.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/piers-anthony/