4 ms·

For me: Turning my hobby into a business made me hate it :( I loved writing fiction- novels, short stories, interactive fiction. At first, I would just self pu

For me: Turning my hobby into a business made me hate it :( I loved writing fiction- novels, short stories, interactive fiction. At first, I would just self publish them on Amazon, no care whether anyone bought them. Then I joined a few writer groups, and they were all like "You need to market your work". And so I spent hours every week building my email list, running ads, asking for reviews (as you need them to sell books), blogs/podcasts. And pretty soon, started hating it all. Quit 2 years ago, after 7 years of writing. Have tried to restart many times, but each time, quit. My advice is: If you love someone, do it for love, dont always try to make money from it. Yeah, not a popular opinion; as soon as you show anything to people (your books, pottery, calligraphy ) the first question is "This is good, why dont you make money from it?" As if the only value anything has is by how much dollars it makes. It doesnt help with all these online "gurus" who claim you can make the big $$$ by selling anything (yes sir, ANYTHING!) online, if only you buy their expensive course. (and yes, I bought the course. And no, it did f*ck all) Sorry if a bit cynical. Hope there was a happy ending to this story....

OJFord 5y ago
Can't you just ignore people telling you what you 'need to do'? (Or don't even go to such meet-ups, if people there are trying to make a business out of it and you know that's not what you want?) Just go back to writing for fun?
- shantnutiwari 5y ago
  Yes, I have thought about it. But it has been 2+ years, hard to get into the habit again. I tried a few times, but ended each time staring at the scren thinking "What the hell, this shit wont work out". I guess Im suffering from some sort of writing ptsd :)
  - Taylor_OD 5y ago
    Hey. Just want to say that if you enjoyed writing you should try again. Forget writing for anyone else. Write for you. Like no one else will read it. Even if its only a little bit. You enjoy it. I wish more people made things they didnt try to sell. It's for you. There is nothing wrong with that.
    - shantnutiwari 5y ago
      Thanks for the kind words, yes, I'll try it
insickness 5y ago
On one hand, you think: your work is good/great. You put so much effort into creating the product, why not promote it? It's unlikely to get any traction if you don't promote it. Doing zero promotion seems like a disservice to all the work you did in creating the art. But then on the other hand, as you demonstrate, the more work you do promoting in relation to creating, the more chance you'll start to resent creating. There's also the heartbreak of realizing that maybe your work isn't good enough, or at least appealing to a large enough audience. I make music and I'm struggling with this now. I've learned how to do promotion and have gotten some traction but it doesn't feel like enough and doesn't feel like it's catching on enough. It's much easier for self-doubt to creep in when you put yourself out there then when you do zero self-promotion and allow yourself the self-delusion that you are great and the only reason nobody knows it is because the world sucks.
- shantnutiwari 5y ago
  >> maybe your work isn't good enough, or at least appealing to a large enough audience. That is very true. In my case, I found the type of fiction that sells is in a few mainstream genres, and in series (so you write a dozen books, all with a hard boiled detective, for example). Thats why every book nowadays is in a series, because publishers (traditional and indie)have figured out this is the "formula" to success. I like to experiment and play-- one thing I didnt mention in the oriignal comment, a big reason that caused me to burnout-- writing for the "market", or trying to write in a way that appeals to the mainstream, or at least a large number of people. Forcing yourself to write a book in a way that would appeal to many people-- while you can do it short term, over long term, I began to hate what I was doing and one day, I just couldnt type anymore. It all comes back to doing it for the love, and accepting that perhaps this will always remain a hobby.

OJFord 5y ago

Can't you just ignore people telling you what you 'need to do'? (Or don't even go to such meet-ups, if people there are trying to make a business out of it and you know that's not what you want?) Just go back to writing for fun?

shantnutiwari 5y ago
Yes, I have thought about it. But it has been 2+ years, hard to get into the habit again. I tried a few times, but ended each time staring at the scren thinking "What the hell, this shit wont work out". I guess Im suffering from some sort of writing ptsd :)
- Taylor_OD 5y ago
  Hey. Just want to say that if you enjoyed writing you should try again. Forget writing for anyone else. Write for you. Like no one else will read it. Even if its only a little bit. You enjoy it. I wish more people made things they didnt try to sell. It's for you. There is nothing wrong with that.
  - shantnutiwari 5y ago
    Thanks for the kind words, yes, I'll try it

insickness 5y ago

On one hand, you think: your work is good/great. You put so much effort into creating the product, why not promote it? It's unlikely to get any traction if you don't promote it. Doing zero promotion seems like a disservice to all the work you did in creating the art. But then on the other hand, as you demonstrate, the more work you do promoting in relation to creating, the more chance you'll start to resent creating. There's also the heartbreak of realizing that maybe your work isn't good enough, or at least appealing to a large enough audience. I make music and I'm struggling with this now. I've learned how to do promotion and have gotten some traction but it doesn't feel like enough and doesn't feel like it's catching on enough. It's much easier for self-doubt to creep in when you put yourself out there then when you do zero self-promotion and allow yourself the self-delusion that you are great and the only reason nobody knows it is because the world sucks.

shantnutiwari 5y ago
>> maybe your work isn't good enough, or at least appealing to a large enough audience. That is very true. In my case, I found the type of fiction that sells is in a few mainstream genres, and in series (so you write a dozen books, all with a hard boiled detective, for example). Thats why every book nowadays is in a series, because publishers (traditional and indie)have figured out this is the "formula" to success. I like to experiment and play-- one thing I didnt mention in the oriignal comment, a big reason that caused me to burnout-- writing for the "market", or trying to write in a way that appeals to the mainstream, or at least a large number of people. Forcing yourself to write a book in a way that would appeal to many people-- while you can do it short term, over long term, I began to hate what I was doing and one day, I just couldnt type anymore. It all comes back to doing it for the love, and accepting that perhaps this will always remain a hobby.