 What's shaking? My name's Cam. Welcome back to another video. Settle in, sweetheart, because today is like pretty much every other time I upload on this channel. It's just a very casual chat, writer to writer. So if you're not a writer, get out of here! Nah, you can hang out if you want. I want to chat about a topic that can be pretty scary for writers or creative people in general, people who are pursuing maybe your career in the creative industry. So you should be able to relate if you are an aspiring author, maybe you're a painter, a musician, an artist. Doesn't matter if that's the type of professional lifestyle you're seeking. This is a conversation that I feel like you're probably going to be able to relate to pretty well. And if you're a fellow author tuba or YouTube creator like myself, I would actually encourage you to even weigh in on this. You know, leave a comment or even make a video of your own, maybe as a response to this one. I would just love to hear your thoughts. See if you are on the same page as myself. Maybe you have a completely different outlook on it. Any and all feedback is welcome. I'm going to blow your mind right now ready just with one sentence. Writing is hard, really hard, like fully bricked up. As hard as a breast enthusiast at a strip club, you get the point. I'm in this weird kind of limbo at the moment where I know exactly what I should be writing. More than that, I want to be writing it. Those things that I want to be writing right now being a horror short story collection or putting the finishing touches on that. And the first book in a new fantasy series that I'm working on. I want to be writing those things, but I'm just not. But that's my problem. And procrastination is a thing that I've been complaining about as long as I've had this channel longer. So here's the thing. If you'd asked me 10 years ago or even one year ago, I would have told you that being an author is what I'm going to do. It's not just what I want to do. That's my end game. That's what I'm going to do with my life. That's my dream career. And that weird limbo I talked about is that that is still true for me. That's still the case. That's still what I want to do. That's still my end game. But I think if you asked me now, I would probably approach the question with a bit more hesitation only because I've been kind of confronted by just how difficult it really is to make a living in this industry, especially when you're writing stuff that most traditional publishers won't touch like, you know, most horror or serialized fantasy. Even a lot of very successful authors, traditionally published authors still talk about how they have to have a job on the side just to make ends meet, which is kind of depressing when you think about it. Thing is I don't really care a whole lot about being rich or famous. I don't never really cared about that. Like don't get me wrong. It would be nice if someone offered me a Tesla full of cash. I'm not going to turn it away. But I think I would be genuinely content or at least satisfied making just enough money off of my writing to live comfortably, maybe as comfortably as I do right now. If I could live exactly the same way I do right now, except instead of my full-time job that I have, I could just be writing and making videos instead. I think I would be happy. I know that rationally that is possible. If I try hard enough, if I actually do the writing for a start, it's not promised. Maybe it's even unlikely, but it's possible. Sure, that's something I've been thinking a lot about this year, especially every day when I clock in for my nine to five job. I've been telling myself for years that this job is just a means to an end. That's what I've always convinced myself of. And for some reason, this year's just felt a bit different. It's felt a lot more like, is this it? What if this is my career? What if this is it? What if this job is it? I'm still going to be writing books. But what if I never make enough money from my books to do that as my career? Don't get me wrong. My real job is perfectly fine. I feel bad even complaining about it because I don't hate it. I know I'm lucky to have it. It pays pretty well. And as far as jobs go, it's pretty easy, I guess. But I'd still rather not be doing it. It's most certainly not what I want to do with my life. I'm not passionate about it. It's not writing. It's not even creative, really. I know it seems like I'm just rambling. But I guess the big question of this video is, is wanting that career and writing enough? I've been at this for years now. And it's hard for me to say that I'm any closer to that dream coming true or not. But it's also pretty hard for me to say that I've actually been trying my best to make that happen. I know I've been kind of coasting and just assuming that it'll happen one day. I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that simply wanting it is not enough and I'm actually going to have to try harder than I am now. I'm not saying I'm not trying because I really am. But I think as creatives and as writers, we have this kind of weird thing where we're always told and we're always telling ourselves, like, you just got to hustle, you got to try as hard as you can. And one day it's going to happen. But we never really think about it and ask ourselves, are we actually trying as hard as we can? Like, truthfully, I know I haven't. Here's my dream scenario, right? Here's my dream career. This is what I want on an attainable level, something that I think is within reach. I'm not saying I know I can do it, but I feel like it's a bit more within reach rather than me being like rich and famous, you know, like a branded Sanderson or something. My dream scenario is that I would be making just enough money from my YouTube videos and my books to quit the job I have now and be making at least close to the same amount of money to be able to live with the same level of comfort that I have now. Enough money to have a roof over my head, food on the table, maybe a bit of money in my savings, maybe enough money to one day have a family of my own. Saying it out loud, it seems like I'm shooting kind of low, but realistically, I don't think I am. To be able to live with that level of comfort just off of creative stuff like YouTube and writing is really hard. What's your dream scenario? Is being rich and famous your end game is like, is that the level of success that you would have to reach to know that you've made it, that you've been successful as a writer? That's the kind of question I would love to hear you respond with in the comments or on your own video. Is that the level of success that you're chasing or are you just writing for the love of it? I know a lot of people don't even write with the goal of it being a career. Is it just a side hustle? Is it just something you do for fun? Talking about money when it comes to anything creative, like writing always just feels a little bit icky, especially when it's coming from someone like myself that has this platform because that's when people start getting suspicious. I mean, you watching this video right now might be a little bit suspicious. Like, what is this guy about to try and sell me? Is he asking for money? Is this a cry for sympathy? I can tell you that it's none of those things, but in order for you to believe that, you'd have to trust me. And it's kind of weird, right? Because it always seems to come back to the topic or the dispute of self-publishing versus traditional publishing. We know that there are self-publishing success stories, but to be taken seriously, do I have to break through to the traditional publishing side of things? Is that the only way that I could realistically make enough money to live with that level of comfort that I was talking about? The type of stories and books that I write aren't very commonly published, so would that mean I would have to change up what I write and how I write? I would actually love to be really selling short stories through Kindle Vella right now because I think that's a brilliant idea. I have tons of ideas for stories that I would love to be posting there that I think people would really enjoy. But as of right now, it's still only available to people in the US as a writer and a reader. And that was okay at first, but I'm a little confused. Like, it's been a year now. I mean, at what point does it stop being a trial? Just release it. We know it works. We know people like it. Let the rest of the world have a whack at it. I think I'm making this video really for two reasons. One, I like having these real conversations with people like myself, like you. That's what this channel is for. You know, it's not just for me to hop on here and tell you how to write and how not to write. It's primarily for me to kind of sit down and just talk about being a writer and documenting my journey to hopefully that career that I keep talking about. And secondly, I think I'm making this video because I'm telling myself that I finally need to start taking this more seriously. Not that I've never taken it seriously, but I think I just need to take a very real look at how much I'm putting into this and where I'm setting my expectations. I want this career, but wanting it doesn't seem to be enough. I can't keep telling myself, ah, it'll happen one day. I've always known that it's something I need to make it happen, but I've never really understood it, I think. And all of this starts with me actually writing. So that's a goal I'm setting for myself first off this year is that I'm doing a lot more writing. I've always had a very blasé approach to it, which I think is still fine. I don't like the idea that people need to pressure themselves into writing this much on this many days. But I do need to start setting some kind of rules for myself. And also, I need to start trying to learn how to market my books more because that's always been my weakest point I do next in no marketing whatsoever. And as a self-published author, that's just not feasible for the end game that I have. But hey, what about you, mate? How's your writing going? Here's a question. How optimistic are you for your goals? I would love to pop in the comments and tell you that we're all going to make it and you're definitely going to be a successful author, but I'm not going to bullshit you. I don't know if you will. I don't know if I will. I hope so, but it's not going to happen for everyone. But the people that it does happen for are always going to have one thing in common and that's that they gave it their best shot. So I know most of you are only here to talk about writing, not particularly for my writing specifically. But I do just want to give you a quick update. I will be publishing my very first and very own collection of horror short stories in just a couple of months, I think in early May. So that's really exciting. I've been working on this for a while and I'm really proud of the stories. I'll have plenty more updates on that as we go, including a cover reveal, maybe some arc reader reviews. Also planning for the next anthology is happening very soon. It'll be the next anthology in the series that we did, We Are Not Home, which is a collection of short stories from different YouTubers who write horror. I'll be making more announcements in the next one in that series pretty soon. And one of the authors included in that anthology could be you. So stick around. As of right now, though, what I'm actively writing as we speak, I am hard at work on the very first in an ambitious new fantasy series. I'm really, really trying and promising myself that this isn't going to be another book like the other ones I've done where I'm talking about it for years before it finally happens. I'm very excited about this book. It's kind of a very different approach to fantasy storytelling and I'm going to be releasing it in a very different way as well, which could be a terrible idea, but I think it works for the type of story that I'll be telling anyway. But that's it. That's that's all I really wanted to talk about today. Again, I would love to hear your thoughts on anything that I've chatted about. Otherwise, best of luck with your writing. I really do wish you the best and hopefully I'll see you in the next video. Catch ya.