80% of Authors Quit? Your Longterm Success Odds

[@priscillaabbott7231]

Something to keep in mind is not all authors intend to have long lived or prolific careers. They might only have one book they want to publish or one trilogy.

[@TheGeorgeD13]

Yep. Harper Lee is a great example. Wrote only book. Yeah, yeah Go Set A Watchmen is technically her second book, but it's really just her inheritors trying to cash in on her name by publishing an earlier and very different draft of To Kill A Mockingbird (which is the vastly superior book and there's a reason why she made huge changes that led to TKAM to begin with). By the numbers of publishing only one book, she'd be considered a failure, but we all know that to be false. She's one of the most successful authors of all time and wrote one of the most enduring pieces of fiction ever written. With personal anecdotal evidence, I know this to be true with my uncle. Only wrote 4 books, two fiction, two non-fiction. He only wrote those books in his spare time and never had the goal of being a career author. He was a great success in the field that he worked in his whole life which had nothing to do with writing books (which is what his 2 non-fiction books are about).

[@vampiregirl917]

That's what I was thinking. I don't get ideas for novels very often so I've had the same 7 or so ideas for the past 5 years. So if I'm lucky enough to publish those books and I don't come up with any new ideas in that time period, I'd be fine with having those out only.

[@bubblegumbishonen]

@@TheGeorgeD13 I immediately thought of TKAM as well because how she only wrote that one book always stuck with me (I mean it was her masterpiece, and she didn't want to write another one, so that's fine. Doesn't necessarily make her a quitter, as these stats would suggest xD).

[@platoniczombie]

I was just about to post the same comment. There's an assumption that not writing more than three books means you quit because you couldn't make it as a writer. Quitting isn't failing.

[@NathanMellor]

I am a software developer in my day job. Getting one novel published is more than I hope to accomplish in my lifetime.

[@carololxd]

When Alexa says: “And happy *sighs* writing” I felt that XD

[@urorazbojnik5678]

I just love her haha

[@ianmccombs5624]

I felt it a whole twenty states away.

[@autumnwinter1462]

@@ianmccombs5624 I felt that a whole Pacific Ocean away

[@DianaUrban]

Totally agree with your analysis; I flinched at the word "quit." And rebranding with a pen name is something that happens ALL the time.

[@SuperHappyNotMerry]

You actually made me feel a lot better about my chances of making it lol. I was working under the impression that even if I did eventually get published I would never see the success that I hoped for, but watching your videos (and one very good talk about expectations in a Brandon Sanderson video) made me feel better about my future in writing. Not necessarily because I think my chances are better than most but more because I now realize that even if I don't see the success I had hoped for, I will still have the experiences and passion that come along with it

[@neyo231]

this gave me anxiety and Im not even a writer. Im a STEM student browsing youtube. hmm good luck everyone

[@citizenothegalaxy]

Thanks lol

[@keaganfinaughty]

Thanks, I'm gonna need it for the horror book that I'm busy writing. :)

[@rebekahkier5563]

Lolllll

[@kerneywilliams632]

I had years where real life, i.e. a bad marriage, limited employment, dealing with the deaths of people in my life, where had I been published, I would not be able to maintain forward momentum. I wonder how many others this type of situation has happened too.

[@musicalneptunian]

But 100% of authors who wear red burn brightly.

[@MonaLisa-yb9bq]

I love red. lol

[@ramonarobot]

All the romance novelists I read have written and published dozens of books. Could the percentages differ a lot depending on genres?

[@AlexaDonne]

I think it would be very interesting to slice data by genre, but also by publishing avenue. If trad & self are throw together you'll see different trends for sure.

[@ramonarobot]

Alexa Donne Yeah. Would be good to know especially when the romance genre generates the highest sales among other genres. And for kindle ebooks, self-published books make up the most sales in the romance genre: Self-published: 49% Small/medium publishers: 11% Amazon: 9% Big 5/Harlequin: 30% Source: edwardwrobertson.com/self-publishing/self-publishings-share-of-the-kindle-market-by-genre/

[@jillkeller6113]

I would also love to see a genre breakdown for the numbers, especially as a romance writer. I grew up with romance authors producing so many novels and I know things have changed so much...but how much for romance?

[@mjfleming319]

ramona robot this could be a sort of self-fulfilling observation. When I was reading Westerns I read tons of Louis Lamour and Zane Grey...Lamour had 120+ titles and I read pretty much every one in the course of about three years, which squeezed out any thought of trying to find obscure but excellent one-hit wonders.

[@nocturnus009]

GRADITUDE for sharing Alexa, it's important to start this particular discussion. Not sure what else to add, but I need the algorithm to see this is an important topic.

[@RibbonVintageGirl]

Ngl I am kind of scared and I am still on my first draft of my first novel 😭

[@itsrose129]

Same!

[@lpearse1]

Same!!!!!

[@RibbonVintageGirl]

And honestly, I know one French author, Annie Ernaux, who published 21 short books all traditional publishing. Sure, she's not New York's best time seller but she's well known in France but js she's probably one of the 10%

[@THE_SOVEREIGN1]

Everyone's journey is different, if writing is truly your passion, go for it with confidence. Keep a constant visual of the outcome you want to keep yourself in a positive headspace. What does being a successful author look like to you? Its different for everyone. Statistics in mind, you could very well be part of the 20% yet discouraging your success by focusing on "odds rather than the possibilities."Trust that if your soul (not your ego) is guiding you to pursue this path... you're meant to shine in the end, regardless of how long it takes. Best of luck to all of you in following your dreams. 🥰🌈🤗❤

[@rummagingchaos]

same! it’s such a vulnerable feeling to think about someone critiquing something you worked so hard on

[@samijenkins9607]

Can I just say I'm so happy that I found your channel all those months ago! Prior to finding your channel, I was one of those people who dreamed about writing but never actually did it and if I did write, I'd write maybe only one chapter. Thanks to these videos I've finally started writing my first book and am proud to announce, I'm halfway through my first draft. Thank you so much for making these videos, I love the mix of harsh advice and encouragement!

[@augabachoo]

Another thing to consider, how many of the writers in the database are active writers? As in they have 3 now but are in the middle of getting a new contract. That wouldn't be counted right?

[@leifaudrey8975]

I’m curious if this data also includes authors who consider themselves “part-time” or only ever want to write one book and willingly leave the industry? To me, that’s not quitting but it’s just not considering writing a priority or “career” aspiration and that’s okay! I feel like there’s no way this database is removing the authors based on their “intentions” and that would definitely skew the data to show such shocking results.

[@LucieReads]

This is what I was thinking the whole time! I feel like there must be a good amount of authors who just felt like writing 1-2 books. They had an idea, they wrote the book, got lucky enough to get published and they're just like "I've accomplished what I set out to do" and don't write more.

[@leifaudrey8975]

@@LucieReads Yes, exactly! Some authors only have one story they want to tell. On top of that, everyone I personally who've published only wrote one or two books - once they wrote these books, they had nothing else to write. I feel like this is a common thing with many authors, and it's not necessarily comparable to the experience of authors who want to be published consistently for the rest of their lives.

[@nevisnebis1207]

I don’t think I’d ever want to publish more than one or two, I’m more focused on learning about the publishing process than money or a career. I have no problem sharing the rest of my work for free online, like on WattPad or a personal website (although I think my work wouldn’t fit in too well with the “My billionaire boyfriend” or “My overprotective alpha” stories, I stay hopeful that people might appreciate a change of pace ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

[@brittanyvinz8043]

I love this kind of information, I almost find it kind of comforting to know what to be expecting if I ever reach the trad publishing stage.

[@megalopath]

What about just "not having another book in you"? I've got several books I want to write, but beyond those I see nothing. It's not for lack of not wanting to write, I do want to write, it's that there's an end to the stories I want to tell.

[@claireblunt5500]

I appreciate the realistic approach you take. Writing to be published is the long game. This was informative, I always enjoy your videos!

[@magicalbooknerd]

Good discussion, Alexa! Those numbers were a little scary until you broke them down. 😰

[@dellamcewen5470]

I love your make up. Also I'm using your video to procrastinate editing my book. Thank you

[@theelizaaguilar]

I also agree that the word "quit" is inaccurate. I believe I read a Twitter thread this past week discussing some reasons why authors leave or are pushed out of the industry. One that stuck with me was that sometimes writers only have "that one book [or series]." Not everyone has multiple ideas they are passionate about or can work on. But it's also possible that the types of stories a writer has just aren't selling well and publishers don't want to take that risk.

[@lesleybarklay798]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Or authors for whom writing is not their primary career.

[@reginaduke7451]

Ten years ago, I signed up for an on-line webinar with Jane Friedman on Indie publishing. Lots of scary information, but I credit her webinar for the courage to plunge in. The scariest part was that 50% of it all would be marketing. LOL 35 titles later, I remember her fondly. :D

[@LariTanner]

Yah, let me go get a carton of ice cream now so I can wallow. :( On another note, "The Ivies" sounds interesting, since I teach at the university level! I'm on a wait list to read "The Stars We Steal" at our online local library, Been waiting for 8 weeks, that's a good sign for you that people are waiting to read your books! ;) Thanks for all your great videos even the ones with harsh realities, they really do help!

[@pigilinlin1309]

I typed "writing advice" into KZbin and this video was in the second spot. The algorithm nailed it!

[@bobbiholmes]

I just skimmed the blog post from your link-and I didn’t see where it discussed “traditionally published” authors quitting, just published authors. I understand your channel focuses primarily on trade publishing-and I respect that. But, I am not sure that blog post was just about trade-and if it was, it was not written that way. Which, in my opinion puts an entirely different spin on the story. While I agree with you that a trade published author may not have as much control getting picked up by a trade publisher, it doesn’t mean the end of a writing career, unless the author chooses to quit. I know countless authors-successful authors-who have chosen to leave trade and pursue independent publishing. However, an author pursuing the independent route should know six books are not going to cut it if you intend to do this to make a living-some say it takes twenty. Which is one reason many authors eventually quit, IMO. One thing I have noticed the last couple years, statistics thrown out regarding the publishing industry are never going to reflect reality as long as those doing the evaluating only look at one segment of the industry and not publishing as a whole.

[@AlexaDonne]

Well if they do include everyone isn't that more sobering? The stats mean even most indies give up before they reach volume...

[@bobbiholmes]

@@AlexaDonne That is sorta the problem with stats in the publishing industry these days--often self-publishing is left out, because there doesn't seem to be a reliable way to collect them. But then when reporting on the data--as the blog post did--there was no distinguishing between self publishing and trade. So for some, they read the post and assume it is talking about trade...and others, assume all publishing. I would be curious to learn more about the actual data collected. That being said, a writer who wants to pursue self-publishing needs to understand that rarely does putting out a book a year earn a sustainable income, unless of course you have other sources of income, which many authors do. So for me, when I interpret the data you shared, it makes me think that the Indies in the bunch who quit, quit because they found it daunting to publish 3 to 4 books a year--or they didn't earn money as fast as they thought they should, which I think is often the case.

[@MelissaTreglia]

I'm working on book #3, myself. Book #1 was a poetry collection (in 2015), and book #2 was my first novel (released last year). Also, I'm an indie author. I will continue publishing my work for the foreseeable future, as long as I am able to.

[@jflsdknf]

I'm struggling with this right now. My dream has always been to be an author, and now that I've written a few novels and have learned not only how hard it can be to write an entire book in the first place, but to also write it in a way that fits market demands, hits tropes, is grammatically correct & edited, etc. and at the same time won't get you reamed by readers... it's discouraging. I don't know how long I can keep repeating this, and throw more pressure and deadlines into the mix if I were to get an agent? Yikes. At the same time, it amazes me and makes me envious to see self-published romance authors somehow cranking out a book every month or two with thousands of 4-5 star reviews and making big bucks. I honestly can't figure out how they do it. Unless they're using ghostwriters, but even that is an insane amount of work to coordinate. It makes me wonder why life has to be so hard. Depressed rant over lol.

[@DrWolfenstein313]

Sometimes you tell me stuff I don't want to hear, Alexa. But I appreciate it. Keep on, girl.

[@popscope6896]

I really feel like the competition has never been so harsh. The system is too competitive considering the number of good and even bankable authors and I'm actually quite worried about the long-term effects on writer's mental health, self-esteem and wellbeing. Sigh... Thanks for your videos anyway :)

[@victoriac.4430]

I definitely think you would be right in your assessment about the data. There's so many factors that can go into it that probably aren't accounted for. I would be interested to see a reassessment with those factors in play, too.

[@Gerod253]

Thank you for this video. It was a nice kick in the rear to get back at my writing. 😁👍

[@annaread3558]

Depressing stats, but as always, Alexa’s eye shadow game is on point!

[@queendsheena1]

I thought this video was informative. I agree that some of the percentages can be off because of considerations that were left out. For example one of the things that can end an author's book streak is gender. Both Rowling and Schwab have versions of their books with initials. And one of the reasons for that was the ensure boys/men were not turned off to read because they were women.

[@uui219]

That's not their gender harming their career, that's sexism harming their career.

[@cctwin5537]

Yay upload!!!! 💜💜💜💜💜

[@livmilesparanormalromanceb6891]

Ah, yes. Ye olde Pareto Distribution, also known as the 80/20 rule. This statistic applies to literally every domain of information that exists. Seriously: how many trees in an orchard produce fruit, income levels across various occupations, Amazon book sales... the list goes on indefinitely. Here's the formula: the square root of employees in any given company produces half the product. Put simply, 20% of people in any given domain do half the work. The remaining 80% do the other half. To make things even crazier, if you apply this rule to companies, than this ratio of productivity gets even worse. In large companies, only 10% of the people do half the work while the other 90% do the other half. I suspect this is where Jane's 10% comes from, because publishing is huge. *shrugs*

[@solarsailer4166]

As a scientist by day, the data sourcing is key (glad you pointed that out). Susan Dennard has been very candid about her struggles. She nearly took up a pen name when her first series tanked, but she found a publisher that was willing to take a chance on her Witchland series. She's talked a lot about how bad sales can work against an author, even if their books are objectively well-written. But this business is highly subjective and publishers won't take a chance if they don't think a book can earn money. However, I'm wondering how much (%-wise) of this can be on the authors. Why? I've read books and blogs written by agents discussing this very subject. One in paritcular that I think is a good read is Donald Maas' "Writing the Breakout Novel". He writes about how he's seen some amazing new talent have a successful debut novel, but then after a 1-3 books the quality of the writing starts to suffer. He attributes part of this to lack of effort on the author and as an avid reader, I can certainly get behind this perspective on some series that I love. Amazing 1st book and by book 3 it felt like the writer just didn't care about their readers anymore. Another thing to consider, which Maas does point out and I know Susan Dennard has written about, is the downside of writing in some genres like YA, which have a very demanding schedule. Susan talks about her "incubation period", which I totally get behind, and how incompatible that is with her publisher, who doesn't care. So there's that element to consider. Anyway, I agree the numbers are suspect and a more thorough break-down would be helpful. How many swtiched to pen names? How many suffered a drop in quality? What caused the delcine in quality? How many suffered a shift in the market? I don't think I could write 1 book a year and I have trad published friends who admit their writing/editing rate is every 2-3 years.

[@bethanylaurell8081]

Do you think the publishing industry will ever adapt to become a bit more writer-friendly? Or what that would even look like, if it could/did happen?

[@ChromaticTempest]

Like, easier to access agents or editors friendly? The publishing industry is based on making money and that has never been writer friendly. Only a handful of writers are well off from their career. Most are broke, or work other jobs to avoid the aforementioned broke-ness. The reason I write is because I love to write and I've so far been able to keep my expectations low.

[@LauraOtermat]

I wonder if the statistics include books written by non-authors. Books written to support consulting careers or books written to publish research. It makes sense not to write 6 books if it takes a decade to do the research for one.

[@beequeen2556]

^^^

[@AlexaDonne]

These particular stats were fiction only, so wouldn't include non-fiction. Rates for those writing non-fiction are definitely different! Historical too, I would imagine. And literary fiction.

[@CharlieHorse4363]

Honestly I feel like Daryl Dixon on all this: "Am I the only one with zen around here?" These r interesting, but really so what? If anything I've learned about publishing so far, it's unpredictable and based mostly on luck and hard work. All these statistics and stressing over them doesn't give any productive assistance to the grit of the journey. Don't worry about it. You do your work, give your best shot, work hard and learn as much as you can and work smart, hustle, and pray and that's it. You make it or you don't, what will be will be, what's supposed to happen will happen. Relax and enjoy the journey, even the hardships. It isn't a rat race to the top, to be a "unicorn" statistic. Chill out and just do your author thing and it'll work out, and if you're not meant to have a career that's ok too, it wasn't a waste of time because you learned and grew a lot through the experience!

[@MichaelRichardson36]

Really interesting and informative video. I am curious your thoughts on authors who don’t get to a third book through their own fault...authors like Patrick Rothfuss who gain a huge platform but then stop producing.

[@harulestokeswrites2284]

Keep dropping the truth Alexa. It's always best to know the facts as opposed to having smoke blown up your whohaa.

[@johnu1100]

I am more encouraged when I hear that writers 'quit' instead of being told their work wasn't in demand. There'd be more success if agents decided to look for writers ahead of content instead of content ahead of writers. As well, stats out of context are numbers.

[@evelynbasham1673]

Self-publishing seems more and more likely, for the first books at least.

[@evelynbasham1673]

@Salve to Cat Overlords (Love the name ;) ) I agree. I am saving up to self-publish. And before I pay for edits, the cover, formatting, and marketing, I intend to have my work critiqued and beta read. You can't just put a first draft on Amazon and expect success.

[@evelynbasham1673]

@Salve to Cat Overlords Also, I read TSC. Yes it has problems, but I think it's made for a certain type of audience. In that audience it seems to be doing well. And she did do the critiques and pay for the edits. I think you just can't please everyone. Some people love Stephen King. Others think his endings aren't well thought out. Some love J.K.Rowling. Others think she just got lucky and has ruined her own franchise with the movies. Some think Brandon Sanderson's books are engaging, while others think his prose is blah and he shouldn't have romance in his books because his couples are awful. So much of this is subjective and luck. I think that if I do at least give my novels the best shot and work on being a better writer every book, I will be content no matter how well the books sell.

[@uui219]

@@evelynbasham1673 You may have the ability to do all of that yourself, at the very least the editing part.

[@uui219]

@@evelynbasham1673 Just saying, the girl you guys are talking about paid for edits and her book was still trash.

[@evelynbasham1673]

@@uui219 I don’t claim to be an expert. I am still trying to figure out how I should go about self-publishing. I have learned a few things. Make of what I am about to say what you will. You cannot do the editing by yourself unless you are a rare snowflake. I have followed dozens upon dozens of authors, both traditional and indie published, over the years. I can only think of one and a half that could publish a professional-looking story without an edit. I say “a half” because one of those authors produced several books that could have used an edit. So really only one author and she only published one book, so maybe in her later books she will make mistakes. I don’t know. Authors miss mistakes in their work all the time because we know it too well. When we go over the manuscript our brains will put back in the parts we know are supposed to be there even if they really aren’t there. This is why they say you need to put your manuscript away for a few months or read it out aloud. Even still, you will miss things. Critiques will catch a lot of it, but not enough to publish. Beta readers won’t tell you what to fix, only what bugs them. You need an editor, specifically developmental, copy, and proofread. Maybe more depending on the project. Now I have heard that you can drop the developmental editor after several books but considering there are many professionals who still use a developmental editor even after decades of writing, I’m not so sure. I will just have to see how I feel after I publish several books. Unless you have a short story, you will need a proofread and copy edit. Grammarly is not going to catch everything and gets things wrong all the time. Yes, there are some great programs out there for grammar and spelling, but they won’t be as good as human eyes, at least not for some time. My shortest novel is currently 45K. It’s really short, but I don’t have time to go over every sentence and word like a copy editor and proofreader would. I am also not that good at it. So, for me, I see myself always paying at least for a copy edit and proofread for every book I self-publish. I could learn to do the formatting myself and will, but at least for book one I will pay for that, so I can see how it looks when it is done right. I can’t draw to save my life. So, I will have to pay for a decent cover, but you can get good deals on that. As for Jenna Moreci’s book, “The Savior’s Champion.” It’s rated decently on both Amazon and Goodreads. It has problems that I would not emulate. It’s also for a certain, female romantic fantasy taste. It’s not how I write, but I like it. I’m a woman into that sort of thing, even if she overuses the word “cock.” It’s a guilty pleasure. It’s as much trash as the Twilight series is trash. So, you didn’t like it. That’s your taste and that’s okay. It looks good enough that the author made something people enjoy reading and will buy more of. You can have disdain for it if you wish, but we should all be as lucky to produce such successful trash. Jenna is crying all the way to the bank.

[@likesunset03]

Hey Alexa! Thanks so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge! I was wondering if you have a video or would make a video on networking as an unpublished author (or an author without a big following). Personally when I try to get involved with the writing community online, it feels like a lot of people are promoting themselves and it's hard for me to find "friends," so to speak. Maybe these platforms just aren't for me, but I was wondering if you had any tips. :)

[@abdullamaseeh5828]

We live in a hyper-capitalistic world. What a shame.

[@OroRosa9]

There's also so much racism, homophobia, and sexism within the publishing industry which is a huge factor in marginalised authors not being able to get published after 3+ books and/or have long-lasting careers than their white cishet counterparts.

[@MonaLisa-yb9bq]

If we're serious, we'll keep going. I have a voice now, and I'm not giving up no matter what. Yippee!

[@SiiKei]

Paula Hawkins also published some books under a pen name before publishing "Girl on the train" under her real name.

[@mical7582]

@Alexa, could you try to do an interview with : 1. 'Bookouture' publishing 2. Something with a movie/tv rights agent please❓

[@siuzannavyshneva6312]

Shatter me series author is shooting at 5% just by choosing to write the longest series, that also happen to be a hit

[@vampiregirl917]

Tareh Mafi is her name, I love the first 3 books of that series, I don't acknowledge the other 3. And she's def milking that series/world/character for all it's worth. She has novellas, companion novels for that series. As far as I know, she has one book published that has nothing to do with the shatter me series.

[@mcaskey358]

I know someone's probably said this and you might even say it in the video. But I also know that a chunk of that 80% is people who wanted to write A book (just 1). They wrote it, they published it, and they were happy with life. I think that skews the results.

[@Lilitha11]

I feel like if you get your first book published, it is highly likely you are good enough that you can have other books published. To say otherwise kind of implies that a lot of people get published by random, or it is just a fluke that you wrote an entire novel that a professional thought was good enough to risk money on backing. I don't think it is so easy, that you can say people just stumble across publishing a book or two if they can't cut it. Rather, I would say the vast majority of these people are capable of making a living from publishing books but choose not to. A large chunk may be people who just find it very difficult, or perhaps the results are not entirely what they were expecting or hoping for. I think if you got two books published though, you can probably get a third published if you put in the work and persevere. If you got those first two books published, then likely you are at a level of writing that you can publish again.

[@cakebatterclay]

I have published over six ebooks/published since 1996. Most are out of print. These were not vanity. I quit for while to take for my family and become an artist. I have a new pen name.

[@sinlifemedia4759]

I really love your eyeshadow!!

[@kathleenschwab4645]

I am working on my first novel. Also have a day job, and a family, and am chronically ill. Whether I will make it to six novels is so far down the road I have trouble having feelings about it.

[@junkyard1ns764]

wow,,, that really reminds me of taekwondo! we have a saying about how about 10,000 people who start, only 1 reach black belt or higher,,, the numbers might be wrong but it's basically a very low number of people 😭

[@johnnyv7898]

I think another major component is time. How much time without publishing is considered “quitting?” Perhaps a better analysis of the data is that 80% of writers have only published 3 or fewer books.

[@clareagrippina6569]

Me: Dang, I really wish I had something to be depressed about aside from covid. Alexa: publishing statistics videos Me: Ahh, yes, that's the good stuff.

[@rosieradcliffe5578]

Thanks Alexa - that IS cheering. A bit. It does leave me wondering why right now its so damn hard to break in? What is it about the current climate (before pandemic) that makes it so?

[@meganellis748]

I agree we need more data... What about deaths and pen names?

[@sarahpaige161]

I agree that the word "quit" isn't portraying the real state of things in the writer community. How many of those authors would still be in the game of traditional publishing if say, deadlines weren't as strict, or they were allowed to write outside of their original genre without having to jump through the rebranding hoops. I'd be curious about the statistics of self-published authors, those in control of their own work. Maybe this brings out some inefficiencies of the publishing industry, rather than the failures of writers.

[@ParanormalRomanceBooks]

I assumed this would be a database for trad-pub, but I found me in the list but categorized incorrectly. It has my novel listed as by "K. Sampson" which is interesting.

[@Fuliginosus]

I bet most of the writers who 'quit' after 1 - 3 books feel they have expressed all they wanted to, so they have no reason to continue.

[@sherryme3810]

and I guess there are people who only want to write a single book

[@specialtwice4975]

Most of the YA fantasy self published authors I like have written 30-35 books and are not stopping. Some are successful, like millionaire successful, but that is only 6% probably. The rest 94% make barely any money or just enough to live on and write full time. They are self published though soooo 🤷‍♀️

[@AuthorTrentonNezzy]

Can you do a video on structuring act 2? My act 1 and 3 are near perfect in my outline, but act 2 seems to be harder to implement.

[@cnj122000]

you should check out abbie emmons' series on outlining a novel! she goes into depth about each of her typical story beats

[@AlexaDonne]

I do have a middles video, where I discuss some of the Save the Cat act 2 beats. Generally I would recommend looking at Save the Cat if you haven't already.

[@crlake]

Those are terrible odds.

[@ReverendWin-id9gp]

Odds in life are terrible in general.... ...we are thrown into a lion's den at birth....

[@crlake]

@@ReverendWin-id9gp --- Well, that's actually true.

[@martinbadino626]

I am also a YA autor and I think it's a very comercial kind of book nevertheless...

[@emilyrobersonbooks]

this one was BLEAK...

[@daisyhinojosa23]

80% authors quit within 3 books 10% authors make it to 6 books 5% make it to 12 books

[@CharlieHorse4363]

And like you mentioned these statistics likely aren't even fully accurate representations of the reality. So imo don't sweat over them

[@Erika_NP]

It’s harsh but I love this publishing game. I’m a masochist haha

[@ianmccombs5624]

Sweet! I've already written a bunch of books! =D Oh wait, none of them published. =C Ah well, just keep writing, just keep writing.

[@ramonarobot]

Ian McCombs perhaps you could self-publish on platforms like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing?

[@ianmccombs5624]

@@ramonarobot I appreciate the thought. Sadly, my writing journey is just getting to readable material rather than trash. I'm hoping this or next year.

[@Catholicmusik]

@@ianmccombs5624 try asking someone to read a bit of it. 🙂 might not be as bad as you think.

[@a-troller-on4chan421]

the publishing industry only allow certain books to become successful. the odds are against you on the day you put pencil on paper, fingers on keyboard.

[@jflsdknf]

What do you mean, what certain books do they "allow"?

[@a-troller-on4chan421]

@@jflsdknf the market is rigged