Really Simple Writing & Publishing 17 - How to Stop Feeding the Beast

Want to Quit Sacrificing Your Book Income? Would you like to start making a decent living from your writing instead? This is the story of how any author can get their life back. Just stop "Feeding the Beast." The one that has been consuming their livelihood, novel by novel. As our story begins: The great beast Zon has been playing favorites again. It's preying on naïve and innocent writers. The ones who dare enter its chamber with offerings of their works. With a single withering glance, a rapid pounce, the gnashing of teeth, your author-dream is dead. The hope of a livable passive income from vast numbers of readers buying your masterpiece is spit out. It joins the massive, growing bone pile at the beast's feet. We all should have taken warning when we had to pass through miles of depressing ebook graveyards that line the entrance to its chambers. The long lines moved fast, though. The beast must receive its food. One observer from years ago saw that the beast consumed two books per minute, every hour of every day, year in and year out. The beast never sleeps, stays always hungry. Regardless, we stayed the course. Hearing the clanking chains, smelling the rank musk of decay, we steeled ourselves and swallowed our fears, at last to stand before it. You raised up your offering, just to see it snatched and shoved into the massive maws of Zon the Beast. Your hopes then quick-crushed along with the bones of your darling. All these now lay down in the murky depths of the Unknown Tomes. While leaving the chamber, you see a special line for those precious few who the beast recognizes and fawns over. Their offerings prized as tasty morsels. And yet the wary eyes of those offering testify that they recognize the beast can revolt anytime it wants. It can deny them their riches as…