A writer's first book failed to sell, leading them to learn digital marketing and monetization strategies. They share how unrealistic expectations in college gave way to understanding what actually works for writers earning money from their work.
In college, I started writing my first book, and my goal was, I want to finish this book. And I kind of had the pipe dream that I think every writer has where you think, my first book is going to be my magnum opus, the world is going to notice my talent, and you just kind of think magically you're going to make a ton of money from it. And that first book did not make me a lot of money. I had a very real moment with myself where I spent four years writing this book, and you hit publish, and then you're like, cool, I made a thousand bucks. And then you start to realize that the way that you're taught to think about monetizing your writing, it's, I hope the world recognizes my genius. I don't even know what a publishing contract is, but I hope I sell enough copies so that I just magically have enough to live on. And then you start doing the napkin math and you're like, this is not going to work out the way that I think it's going to work out. So I spent a lot of time reading forums and studying other digital marketers and trying to understand, like, what is a funnel, what's a landing page, what's a free email course? And just year after year, I just kind of kept piecing all these things together, learning how to monetize.
What Every Writer Gets Wrong About Their Audience #writing #creator #writingtips
