Professional science fiction writers, as you know, became extinct in Russia sometime in the second half of 2011, when everything began to pour to hell with the publishers. Sales of the "artist" then sank sharply, and in almost all positions, with the exception of children's literature. The publishers grabbed their heads first, then their pockets, and, ringing a trifle unoptimistically, turned to the people.
To the majority of authors published by them, they said about the same thing that one harmful grandfather said to his subsequently popular granddaughter: “Well, Lexei, you are not a medal, I have no place on your neck, but go to people ...”.
And they went. In people, or somewhere else - the story is silent. But it was precisely 2012 that mowed down the undergrowth of professional writers from the second tier and lower. The fees have fallen so much that only stars of the first magnitude could afford to “live off the pen”.
Russian science fiction, of course, has not died - it is not easy to remove it with dust - but writing has ceased to be a profession, becoming a pure hobby.
However, not even five years had passed before the extinct population was restored: professional science fiction writers were resurrected in the best traditions of the phoenixes and renaissances. Resurrected their magic word "sell."
Amateurs who were not taken to the publishers, hanging out on samizdat sites, usually spread their novels not in a single piece, but in a cut, gloriously. I wrote a sequel (product) - posted it on the site, wrote the next product - posted it.
Once someone's ingenious head added money to this scheme.
At first, everything goes as usual, the author lays out one chapter after another, readers are fond of more and more. And at some point, the author says: “Stop! Further sequels will be seen only by those
It was this simple scheme that revived people living on the income from writing books. The process of transforming a profession from breaking the thresholds of publishing houses to online freelance (just like describing the specifics of getting money with just kind words, without a gun) is extremely exciting, very instructive and draws on a whole series of articles on Habré.
But today there will be only a brief reference - something like the simplest guide. It just so happened that I, as a curious person, hung out at these venues from the very beginning, and, moreover, I watched the process, from the inside, so to speak, about which later. And so my friend, a rather famous science fiction writer, asked me to write something like a guidebook. The result is a dozen abstracts.
The first one. “Writers prod” hang out mainly at two venues - “Litnet” and “Author.Tudey” (Litres, who launched the draft project, is also trying to straddle the wave of prod, but they have not succeeded so far). The difference between the two sites is sexual, sorry, gender. They are called so - “blue” and “pink”. The screenshot of the “blue” at the top, and the “pink”, aka “Litnet”, looks like this:
As you may have guessed, Litnet is the realm of naked male torsos, cubes on the stomach, "powerful plastelins" and female fiction. Immediately make a reservation, I know little about this sector. This is a different party, other money (much larger) and other rules. Therefore, the discussion below will mainly be about Aftor Tudey (AT), where not smack-smack, but vdysh-vdyshch.
The second one . The question that interests everyone the most is whether writing books can really make money? Yes you can. Today, an author who has guessed with a book at AT can get about 250 thousand rubles in his hands. True, top network authors sell so much in the first couple of days of sales. SuperTop - in the first couple of hours. On Liteete, as I said, the tops have higher incomes - women read more and pay more willingly. But the competition there is much stronger.
The third. This profitability is provided by the audience of the site, most of which are young people who are used to paying on the Internet. This habit distinguishes them from the previous generation, who lived in the 90s, when they were saturated with bones with greed and stinginess. "Children of the Fat Years of Russia" do not see anything unusual in paying 100-120 rubles for the opportunity to read an interesting book. Achotakova? A set of stickers in Kontaktika costs 63 rubles.
Fourth. All the disadvantages of working with this audience result from their willingness to pay. The main one is their attitude to reading is absolutely consumer. Former merits, for example, are not worth a penny. For them, there are no “classics of Russian science fiction”; in general, they don’t really care how many awards and titles you have. They are only interested in one thing - what kind of product do you offer them, what kind of books do you have. If interesting - then I will buy. If not, sorry, brother. Sit shaking your medals further.
Fifth. What kind of books is a very important question. This audience is interested in a very limited pool of genres. This is the Literary and Political Party, anime boyars (this wild phrase means conditional adaptation to the native aspens of multi-volume East Asian novels that have become fashionable in recent years), to a lesser extent - novels about "fellow travelers" and fantastic action films (female "lyrys" and "academics" out of brackets). Everything. Everything else goes to the forest. And to knock them off this consumer diet is impossible with nothing. They do not feed and do not peck on another bait. And no loud glory will help. One of our most interesting young science fiction writers, Andrei Krasnikov, became very popular while he was writing a truly talented LitrPG-tetralogy. He was a natural star, apparently, earned very well - tens of thousands of people read it, and this is not a figure of speech. Then he decided to write classic fiction. A couple of hundreds of the most loyal fans signed up to read the book, and they seem to be solely out of politeness.
Sixth: Due to their obsession with a very limited number of genres and the constant consumption of primitive and badly written books, most of the readers there are very low-skilled readers. The reading skill of them is practically not pumped. If they slip a book with several storylines, they will drop it on the first chapter - it is difficult for them to keep several heroes in their heads. I am silent about all sorts of games with chronology or verbose philosophical digressions. Only one main character, only linear plot, only fights, only
Seventh. Another important feature of this audience is that it does not give a damn not only about your long-standing achievements, but also about recent ones. Your book can become a bestseller, you will earn several hundred thousand rubles and the same number of readers, but if you decided that you got a stable audience and took God by the beard - congratulations, Sharik, you are crazy! Your new book may “not go in,” and you will sit with two hundred readers, howling plaintively: “Where did you go? Come to mind! This is me - your idol !!! ". That is why, by the way, the local authors write multivolume epics - if you are lucky, you guessed the chip and straddled the wave - row while there is enough breathing room. A new series may not come in.
Eighth: About “rowing while you can” or about lengthy writing. It should be clearly understood: "Author.Tudey" and similar sites - this is by no means a bookstore. The stupidest thing you can do when you get there is to put your books there and sit there, waiting for sales. The local inhabitants are not very interested in the result; the process is much more important to them. They read not books, but the sequels laid out by the author, "prod."
This is not a shop, this is a workshop where people work live, and crowds of curious people roam from machine to machine and stimulate the masters they like with hard currency. Well, or a fair, where vagantas amuse themselves with songs of good people. Everything is fair - both sang and received. The song must be new, the song must be incendiary, the song must be sticky and not letting go. The second Suite of Dvorak began to play - the fool himself. And each performance is like anew.
Ninth: “And if you don’t immediately put out the books, then how?” - you ask. Naturally - completely. If the calculation exceeds 15 thousand characters, your book will look for some time on the main page of the site in the section “Recent Updates”. It is likely that some curious cranks will click on her and so - old lady to old lady - you will gain some kind of audience. There are, of course, writers who have 78 published books, it is certainly more difficult for them.
The main publication should not be limited, the legs are fed the wolf, and you should remind yourself of yourself in all possible ways. They say that an influx of new readers contributes to the release of smart, interesting, or at least resonant articles at a local forum. Yes, yes, even Oldie don’t disdain to
Tenth: But all these two swoops are three tributaries, of course, mainly for cashless Don. Will you thus gain an audience sufficient to at least obtain the status of a commercial author (and the opportunity to collect money from readers is given either when a certain level of popularity is achieved, or with published paper books in history)?
Unlikely.
To gain popularity by gravity, it was necessary to come to this party at least two years ago. Now the competition for a place in the top is strong enough and every day more and more. Well, or you must very well guess the topic. But if you just have good books ... No, not that. If your books can arouse interest among local residents - but popularity is growing slowly, you can save the call to advertising specialists. This market has not yet been oversized and investment efficiency can be very high. 10 thousand rubles invested in advertising in a series of two books, of which only one is paid, in two weeks they produce self-four productivity without commission on the site.
The eleventh. Relatively low reading qualifications and low quality books on these resources. I understand that any competent author would prefer to be addressed to readers who do not need to explain what Mensura Zoili is or at least the meaning of the word “squaw”. But we have no other readers today. The ability to read texts more complex “Oh and Ah go to swing” arises and improves on interesting books written by highly qualified authors. Qualification rises qualified, it does not happen otherwise. If professionals do not come to feed this flock - for God's sake, a holy place does not happen empty.
Everyone will survive.
But no one will get better.
Twelfth and last. What is holding back the influx of good professional authors? As a rule, there is one simple factor: “I have absolutely no pride to get into this cesspool? Why am I, a subtle thinking author, able to write overflowing with allusions and stylistically impeccable texts, should, like Ostap what, dance in front of a dense but arrogant schoolboy, unable to appreciate the quality of work? Why should I write a moronic litRPG?
To this I usually answer - write non-profitable.
(Next comes the frantic self-PR, purists may not finish reading)
For me personally, when I first came to the site where books, cut into slices, are laid out, it was a challenge. I have never written literary texts in my life - only non-fixation. But after about two weeks, I bet I would write a book that would satisfy four conditions.
- It will be written in the most despised science fiction genre - LitRPG
- I will write it under a pseudonym so as not to travel to an existing readership
- The book will become popular
- I will not be ashamed of her
I won the argument - all four conditions were met, although the last condition, of course, is extremely subjective. But recently I received some confirmation to her - quite unexpectedly for me, the book came out on the long list of the prestigious literary award "Electronic Letter" with a very good prize pool. As far as I know, this is not only the first, but also the only Literary and Political Party, which appeared on the lists of non-amateur literary prizes.
I did not build any illusions — the expert jury, consisting of professional literary critics — I could not pass at all — the criteria by which they evaluate books do not meet my criteria. And so it happened - I did not go on the shortlist. But, fortunately or unfortunately, I am stubborn and used to follow the principle "if you sit down at the table, then play to the end!".
There is one nomination in which I can still try to shrug my shoulders. It is called "Readers' Choice," and all the books that have appeared on the long list participate in it.
Here is the award site
This is what the book “They Are Going to Battle ...” written by me under the pseudonym Sergey Volchok looks like this.
Here is a readership site . Now I am the third there with a margin of several hundred votes.
If you have not read the book, you can download it on the site for voting, or on the site Author Tudey , on which all my books are posted. And there, and there it is in the public domain. There is time, vote until November 15.
And then - everything is like in Kipling’s poem “If”.
If you read it, and if you liked it, if you have a desire to support my book and if it does not contradict your moral principles, moral and religious standards, I will be very grateful for your support.
Always yours, Vadim Nesterov.
(The author thanks the native university of NUST “MISiS” for providing a corporate blog for laying out this article)