Paying My Rent, One Poem At A Time

Tips for Making Money Creating Art

Big news, I’m now earning enough from my online work to pay the rent. That’s right, my poems are paying the bills baby!

Breaking this milestone came as somewhat of a surprise. Given that I have multiple sources of income, it took until tax time for me to do the math, and realise that I had, after five years, in-fact ‘made it’.

True, I’m not living off my work, I’m not uber wealthy or well known, but the fact remains, the rent is paid, and next year is looking even better.

It’s with this in mind that I wanted to give you a rundown of my approach. What follows are the techniques, strategies, and mindsets that I am currently employing.

Think of them as a realistic counter to the endless other posts claiming that you can make thousands of dollars online with little to no effort.

You can’t. It’s just a lie designed to get you to click on the article, buy a bullshit course, or view some adverts, and thus help the author make a small amount of money.

No, it’s not that easy. Particularly if you are a creative like myself; not wanting to, or knowing how to, employ sales funnels, click bait, google adverts, ‘do follow’ links, NFT’s, or the other trendy approaches to online income that simply put, isn’t art and feels like (and is) hard work.

This is what is paying my rent, and my hope is that it will help you to pay yours as well.

Long Term Focus

You’ve got to be in this for the long term. I’m talking many years here.

Yeah I know, this isn’t what you wanted to hear, but it’s the truth. If you want to get strong, you need to work out more than once. If you want inner peace, one week of mindfulness isn’t gonna cut it.

It has taken me six years to get to this point. The first two years were a complete write off. I had basically no sales, feedback, or recognition. I started making a profit in the third year, and by the fourth I had solid growth in all areas. The fifth year paid for my full home gym and by the end of the sixth year, book sales were paying the rent.

I’ve had many followers see my example and attempt to replicate it, only to quit after six months to a year.

They either weren’t getting the results, or else didn’t like what they were doing enough to persist.

Let’s take a look at those two.

You Gotta Love It

I write because I love it. I write for healing. I write to express myself.

It just so happens that I’ve worked out how to make some money as well. I look at the income side of things as a parallel project, one that is secondary to the art.

I do want to make money, but I want (Read: need) the process to be enjoyable. You know what feels like work? Work. I know I will be ‘successful’ (we will define this later) because I won’t stop writing.

If you don’t love doing your art, if you won’t do it for free, if you NEED a financial incentive to create, you won’t make it.

Case in point, I am currently selling an average of eight books a day – enough, when combined with my other online work, to pay the rent. This sounds amazing, and don’t get me wrong, it is. But if I was to add up all the hours I have put into my writing, then divide it by the profits I have made to calculate my pay rate, I would be on less than $2 p/h. A pittance. Had I have committed these same hours into my day job, I would certainly be in a higher tax bracket, and would likely have been promoted.

But my day job is work, and writing is my passion. If judged on pay rates alone, I have made a terrible decision, but judged on enjoyment and quality of life, my choice to commit so much time and effort is unquestioningly a good one.

Besides, over the long term, my book sales will increase. Every year I have seen exponential growth and expect this growth to continue. Why? Because I will continue to write. Eventually my writing will result in a disproportionate pay rate per hour worked. Unfortunately for both you and me, this process takes a long time to build up such momentum.

The money will come, but it won’t come quickly. Which is why you must love the process, and why you must enjoy making art for its own sake.

Define Success

How do you know that people like your work? By what means will you be able to say ‘yes, my work is good, loved, or enough?’

Seriously, you need to define it. Because if you don’t, the goal posts will constantly shift, and you will always need more before you feel like you’re appreciated.

How many likes on a post is good enough?
How many followers?
How many sales?
How many referrals, clients, or other markers of success?

The thing about humans that make us so successful is that we are never satisfied. We always want more. Unfortunately for us though, that drive makes us perpetually unhappy.

Even as we ‘make it’, we almost instantly are looking for the next achievement.

So, it pays to define success, and then to split that definition into smaller stages:
- Receive a comment from a stranger talking about my work.
- Receive a book review from a stranger
- See a post/comment/screen cap ‘in the wild’ of my work (that is, something about me, not shared or created by me).

You’ll notice that these aren’t financial, I have a separate list for those, the big one that I just accomplished being the impetus for this post.

I did the math on how much money I want to make off my work, the first is the, ‘I’m barely scraping by with my art, but I don’t need any external source of income’ (BTW I’m 1/3 of the way there!). The second is living my current semi-comfortable lifestyle. The third is my dream lifestyle.

I know the exact dollar amount needed for those goals to be achieved, thus I will know exactly when I have achieved them.

I suggest that you take some time to work out your figures, as well as some of your non-financial markers of success.

Realise That No One Will Care

It came as quite the shock to me that no one cares. Okay, maybe not no one, but most people won’t care about your art.

Your family and friends, for the most part, will think little more of your work than, ‘Oh that’s nice’. Most won’t purchase it. Most won’t even acknowledge you are doing it. This isn’t to say they don’t care, but they probably just don’t ‘like’ the genre of your art.

Think about it. Of all the different types of art, and all the genres and sub genres of each, how many do you actually like? And of those, how much money have you spent buying them? Fact is, if you’re looking for them to purchase your work, most won’t, unless you straight up ask them to do so. This is true for me and many of my fellow creators. And likely will be for you as well.

If you keep producing art, you will get a following. But that will take time, patience, and an acceptance that most people you know simply will not like your work, based on type and genre alone.

Even world-class, best-selling authors have this problem. Their friends and families are simply too close to the person to be able to see their art for what it is. They struggle to see it as detached from the person they know deeply.

Beyond all of this is the fact that making art itself and especially monetising it, isn’t a ‘normal’ profession. Most people simply won’t have a frame of reference to even begin to understand what you are doing, nor the effort you’re putting in, nor the validation you need.

So many times, I’ve had to repeat, break down, explain, and simplify what I’m doing to help elucidate those around me. And when they finally do ‘understand’ they tell me…

You’re So Lucky

People will think that your hard work is actually luck. That your persistence, perseverance, self-doubt, emotions, and everything else that you’ve sacrificed wasn’t that much, and that you got all your success based on a lucky break.

What they don’t realise is that from the external perspective, everyone seems lucky. Writing a book, building a following on a certain platform, making a key connection or whatever else it took for you to get to where you are will seem like luck, only because it is the thing that worked.

Forgotten or ignored will be the hundred other failures that taught you about how to ‘be lucky’.

Point is, I have had to accept that only those who are on this same path will have any concept of what I’m doing and how much work I’m putting into it.

This was a lonely realisation, but once made, it helped me to let go of some of the resentment I had held onto; in the same way that I can’t, and don’t, understand how someone can work a ‘normal’ 9-5 job, I shouldn’t expect them to understand what I am doing.

No matter how much you attempt to explain yourself, some people simply won’t get it. They will claim that you are lucky, or privileged, or give some other reason to explain away your success. You know what it took, and so do I and the many other people forging that same path. My parting advice on this topic is to either waste as little time on this as possible, or else use it as inspiration to create even more. Whatever you do, don’t let them talk you out of your passion, particularly before you’ve ‘made it’ – whatever that means for you!

You Are A Nobody, Until You’re Not

With hard work and success, or even just an ego, comes the belief that we are far superior to what we are. The best piece of advice I’ve come across in relation to fans and critics is:

‘You’re not as good or bad as they say you are’.

I repeat this every time I get an extremely positive or negative review. It helps keep me level-headed, not so up that I’m only ego, and not so down that it all feels pointless. But beyond this, is a tactic that I employ, one that recognises exactly who I am and where I am.

I am a nobody.

Despite making enough sales to pay the rent, relatively speaking, I am unknown. Thus, I give my work away for free…

Give Your Work Away For Free

Think about it, would you risk your money on an unknown author?

I know I don’t. Never have. The only books I buy are by authors I love, or those who come highly recommended, or who’s other work I’ve liked from a different medium.

Let’s say you’ve discovered the fact that I’ve written a book. Would you buy it? Perhaps after reading this article, you might. Perhaps not. But what if you could read it for free? What if you could try it before you buy it? How many chapters of my book, or poems, would you have to read before buying?

This is my logic and it’s working.

People either want to support my work, or else have it conveniently in their possession. What’s more, I get to tell the world that everything I write is available for free and that I believe information that can help those in need should be available – not hidden behind a paywall.

Beyond that however, it gives me endless blog fodder and social content to share. And it allows my readers to share specific pieces of my work with others.

Over the short term, I’m losing sales, but over the long term, I’m transforming from a nobody into a somebody. Eventually, all I’ll have to do will be to tell people I have a new book out and they will purchase it. But until then, I am playing the long game. The long long game.

This logic runs counter to most authors who I see in online groups. They are all excited for their new release, only to be upset when they get little to no purchases.

Why? They know they are amazing writers, and perhaps they are. But until they prove it, they are nobodies in the eyes of the world, and thus doomed to obscurity, or else they really will need luck to be successful.

Treat Followers As People

For some reason, many people assume manners don’t matter as much online, or that followers are somewhat lesser/lower for the fact they are following them.

Do your best to treat online conversations as if it were happening in real life. Respond to all the comments and messages you receive, taking the time to give people your attention.

Switch perspectives and you will see the reason why. Imagine you messaged your favourite author/actor/sportsperson etc and they actually responded. Imagine if they chatted to you as if you were a human? Like they actually cared about you?

Your followers both enjoy your work and took the time to message you. Hell, they are probably purchasing it as well. They are literally your life blood! Make sure to treat them as such. Who knows, you may also make some good friends along the way.

A Problem You Want To Have

Extending upon the previous, it is easy to worry about ‘not having enough time’ to respond to everything.

Good.

That’s a problem you want to have, one that you will deal with, if and, when it arises. Until then, don’t use it as an excuse to not treat people as people.

And don’t use it as an excuse not to do other things as well. I’ve seen many people worry about how they will handle many aspects of their potential future careers to such an extent that they never act.

- How to deal with international tax.
- How to manage a book publication deal.
- How to handle movie rights?

The list goes on, and the solutions are all different, but the one thing that remains true is that these are problems you want to have. When they arise, it will signify a level of success so high that you’ve entered fantasy land.

Don’t let fear of failure or success hold you back!

Get Social

The point of social media isn’t to sell, it’s to make people interested in you as a person. DO NOT use it just to sell. Think about it, would you follow someone who’s doing nothing other than screaming at you to buy their products?

My ratio is about 95% content 5% sell, if that.

I make sure all my posts are either educational or entertaining, preferably both. I like, share, comment and engage with people, treating them as people. And interestingly enough, my following is growing.

Just recently I’ve hit another milestone. I’ve had multiple people respond to my messages with a shocked, ‘omg a massive account like yours took the time to respond to someone as small as me’.

Numbers are irrelevant. Everyone is a people. Except for the bots and trolls - they get blocked instantly.

My advice to you is this. Get on every single social media platform, both mainstream and niche. Look at what people post and try it out for yourself.

Document your process, play, connect, joke, and have fun. Don’t look at it as a ‘way to sell’ but rather as a way to connect with other people. Some of which, if you’re lucky, will care enough to give you some money for your art. Maybe. Eventually.

Remember, we are playing the long game. You must love the process. So, get comfortable and try them all. Keep what works, and every so often experiment with the ones you’ve discarded.

Who knows, perhaps you will ‘get lucky’!

Try Different Mediums & Cross Promote:

My main sources of income come from book sales, Skill Share and Insight Timer.

I attract people through social media and then send them there, or they find me on one of those places then follow my social.

The more different social media platforms I’m on, and the more mediums I use to sell, then more cross pollination I get. The growth potential here is exponential.

If you liked my Skillshare course on writing poetry to heal, chances are you will like my three poetry collection books. If you like those, you will probably enjoy my creative writing course on Insight Timer and the content on Medium and Poetizer. If you found me on Poetizer, you’d probably want to check out my website. Maybe you have a kid, and that kid would enjoy my kids books. Did I mention I have a popular podcast? If you like that you’d probably like my blog and may enjoy the little snippets I put on my email list.

You get the point right?

If you apply this across all my different channels, mediums, outlets and websites, the cross-pollination effect is real.

0.1 % For Success

I originally wanted to ‘be the best writer ever’ or some similar nonsense. I wanted to be at the top, figuring that only then would I be successful. But as I mentioned above. Success can come far sooner than that.

To live off my writing, I don’t need everyone to know my name. I don’t need super stardom. No. I only need 0.1%.

0.1% of the world is approximately 7.8 million people. Fact is, if I had that many fans, who loved and purchased my work, I’d be set. That’s still a crazy amount of people to be sure. But as a percentage it’s minuscule, and importantly, it’s attainable.

Imagine a room with 1000 people in it. What are the chances that one of those people would find you and your work interesting enough to follow you on social media? Boom, you’re good enough for a 0.1% follow rate, relative to humanity. Now all you gotta do is keep creating, posting, and sharing. Speaking of….

Be Your Authentic Self

I am convinced that people disproportionately respond to genuine people. Those who express themselves openly, honesty, and unashamedly. I am also convinced that the best art is created by them as well.

This is my approach. I share my truth. The good, bad, ugly, and the odd. I lean into my insecurities. I share my successes. I discuss my life.

My logic is simple. If people like me in real life, then people will like me online; provided I can express myself effectively that is.

In a world full of fakes and frauds, I just share who I am. And it’s working.

They get to know me, and eventually, decide to purchase. Why? Because I’m no longer unknown. I am real, and thus my artwork is real.

Don’t Stop

‘If you want to be a good writer, read, and write daily.’

I first heard this from Stephen King, but almost every successful person mirrors the sentiment. Keep creating and learning and you will be successful. I have tried many things. Most of which are abject failures, or else, only moderately successful. But all that experience provided the groundwork for my next project, and the one after that.

I know that if I just keep writing and studying the craft, I will get better. I know that if I get better, eventually the sales will come.

Thus, I persist.

Remove Barriers To Creativity

There will always be a reason not to write. There is always a life problem, a drama, or some other thing you could be doing: The kids. Work. Parents. House. Hobbies. Partner. Health. Political strife. Geopolitics. Time. There’s always something happening. Some reason that could stop you from writing.

When I realised that everyone has these same problems (not my problems, but their own) I stopped complaining and started writing.

Remember, successful people aren’t lucky. They wrote in spite of all the red lights in their lives telling them not to. They persisted, when all others didn’t, and thus they grew a talent and a following and crafted their career out of the mess that this life offers us all.

True, some of us are born with more privilege than others, but regardless, we all must put in the work. If there are success stories from your demographic, then it’s possible for you. Hell, if there isn’t, you can be the first, someone has to be, right? Why not make that person you.

I ‘didn’t have time’ to write this. In fact, I never planned to do so. However, a follower of mine asked me for some career advice. I gave them and version of this post (remember - treat people as people and help them out). That inspired me to flesh it out more fully.

I didn’t ‘have the time’ to write it though. I had to cleave it out of my life. I wrote this on my phone, whilst travelling, eating, and at downtimes at my day job. Then I emailed it to myself, did some quick edits and posted it.

Boom - awesome content, that will certainly help you, and perhaps sell some of my books as well. Speaking of, and finally…

It’s Okay To Sell

Some people are born salespeople. I’m not one of them.

Perhaps it’s a personality or a self-belief thing, but for whatever reason, I find it hard to sell. Yep, I’m the clichéd artist. I see all the flaws, what ifs, and if only’s, of my work. I see the vision and present to my readers my pathetic approximation to it. Put simply, it has taken me years to get comfortable talking myself up, or more specifically, to feel worthy of having another human even read my work, let alone spend money to do so.

Over time, I have been able to see the quality of my work improve. I’ve had a bunch of people I’ve never interacted with compliment it, and importantly, pay for it, despite it being available for free.

The world has helped me see my worth and thus enabled me to feel far more confident promoting it. This will happen for you as well. You will improve technically and your confidence will grow accordingly.

It’s a self-perpetuating cycle, one that only begins when you do. So, take the leap!

Speaking of…

Call To Action

It would mean the world to me if you purchased a copy of my latest book, ‘Bound to the Wings of a Butterfly’.

Bound to the Wings of a Butterfly is a collection of poetry, written as an act of writing therapy. It is about healing, recovery, and self-acceptance. About the journey of discovery that comes with true internal healing, and about transforming our lives, towards positivity, beauty, and love.

It introduces the process of writing poetry to heal. Breaking down the barriers to artistic expression, empowering the reader to pick up a pen, look inside, and let the words flow. Encouraging them to brave the darkness and to discover the light.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been struggling over the last few years. Stopping the chaos of the world from seeping in is a constant battle. I see people withdrawing, inebriating themselves, and struggling in almost every way.

Not knowing where to turn, feeling lonely and having no outlets to express themselves. Personally, I turn to writing poetry. The page listens, it doesn’t judge, and it’s always available.

So, one thing led to another, and my thoughts over the last few years turned into a poetry collection, ‘Bound to the Wings of a Butterfly’.

In it I share my poems, as well as my process of writing therapy. My hope is that it will help people to process their emotions, heal, and move forward.

I’m asking all of my readers and followers to do me a small favour and grab a copy. The eBook is only a few bucks, but there’s also paperback, hardcover and audio versions available. I’m really happy with how it turned out, and want it to be read by as many people as possible.

To do this, I need your help.

So please, grab a copy, give it a 5 star review, and let me know so I can thank you!
Better yet, send me a picture, I’ll post it as a story tagging you! And if it inspires a poem, please do send it my way.