I've never written a book, but I'm interested. If I do will it make me money?

[Kaiji]

As gamers I think we're more inclined to enjoy or want a good story in our games if we're to spend 10+ hours playing it, some more than others.

Thing is I've been wondering, why don't I make a world of my own, publish it and make money off of what I did. Now I don't mean hundreds of thousands of dollars, I'd be happy if I got anything at least compensated for my work...I'm a selfish prick I know.

I'm not looking for it to be a job or anything, just something to do with the amount of spare time I have.

What I'm looking for is to combine anything and everything I've come to enjoy story wise, in all the games I've ever played and build a totally unique epic world. With settings, compelling stories, rich atmospheres and likable characters.

Thing is, I've never written a book ever. I'm interested, but it makes me wonder if its even worth it.

But I'll be honest with you, I think I'm a pretty smart and creative person. Most of the books I've read are crude and don't compare in any caliber to games I've played, i.e. Twilight, Harry Potter, and etc.

I think if I put my mind to it, I could make a book, a better one then the ones mentioned above..
That if I put down the pr0n and do something worth while, I can do it.

Thing is... I don't know what I'll get after my hard work. I wouldn't want it lying down on my desk or to end it up as a fan-fiction.

Can I make money off of it or would it be a complete and utter waste of time?

 

[Ando85]

My advise is, if you are going to do it don't do it expecting money. Especially if it is your first book. I understand what you mean, you want people to actually read it and get something out of it. But, just keep plugging away. You will get better as you go along. Maybe one day you will be able to make money off of it. Do it cause you like to and enjoy doing it. Expressing yourself creatively is still rewarding if you don't make money. Don't turn it into a chore.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Much as what Ando85 says, don't expect much money out of your first attempt. In this current day and age, publishers will only run with projects that are 'safe', so genuinely original stuff will generally fall by the wayside, they're not willing to take the risk.

Having said that, for now, write for yourself, for fun. Get a few short stories/novellas on paper, and come up with your own writing style. This usually comes as a combination of factors: vocabulary; grammar; prose/dialogue bias; story-type (based on target thought: cerebral; intellectural; visceral; or emotive); and so on. This way, you can write in a much more fluid and assured way. It'll help in the future if you have a library of sorts of ideas, sketches, stories written down (even if you don't personally like some of them), the more diverse the better. You sort of need to write several different genres to be able to tell which one you write best for.

But, as with all things, enjoy.

 

[Erana]

Can I make money off of it or would it be a complete and utter waste of time?

I know I shouldn't be mad over something someone on the internet says, but this definitely rubs me the wrong way.
Writing is an art that gave rise to modern civilization. Everything around you you probably owe, in some way, to writing.
Show it some respect.

What makes writing "worth it" is if you grow as an artist from it. I can't really say "Enjoy it," because there are too many examples in history where people have made art and suffered, only gaining anything developing themselves as creators.

Hell, even those kids on deviantart who draw their fanfic Naruto characters get some kind of enjoyment from the act of putting pen to paper. (Or whatever else their medium is)

But I'll be honest with you, I think I'm a pretty smart and creative person. Most of the books I've read are crude and don't compare in any caliber to games I've played, i.e. Twilight, Harry Potter, and etc.

I think if I put my mind to it, I could make a book, a better one then the ones mentioned above..

You have absolutely no concept of what it takes to write, do you? A single Harry Potter book takes years to get a single draft done, when it was Rowling's job. Not to mention the gauntlet of editors and others in the publishing business who sift through every word to make sure each is right and in the right place.
I mean, how much does it take for you to write one page of text for school?

More to the point: if you're looking at Twilight, of all books, and am saying, "Oh, it can't be that hard," I have to ask you: do you really think anyone's reading Twilight for the eloquent storytelling?
Please, read something better. Representing all literature with Twilight and Harry Potter is like representing all video games with Farmville and Pokemon.
Just doesn't do games justice, now does it?


To write your first novel is to pour your heart into an idea and set it up for the world to knock over.
Just go into a bookstore- you'll see thousands of books all around you, all clamoring for someone to buy them. But how many do you see anyone even glance at, let alone even touch?
And these are the ones with the big publishers backing them.

I don't care if you think you're pretty smart and creative. Unless you're a one-in-100-million prodigy of writing, you aren't going to make anything worthwhile if you don't believe in what you're creating.