I used to make a living with helping artists stepping up to a higher level. I’ve seen a lot fail but a few succeeding.

Don’t look for your niche, create it. Write something that is too unique to be replicated easily - not by humans, not by AI. This applies to both content and style. It’s also important to be present as an author so (possible) fans can get in touch with you (“The artist next door”). Try to get a foot into other fields as well. How about writing stories and scripts for video games for example? This also helps with networking and slapping your name onto all kinds of products.

Another tip: Attend business classes. Learn how economy works. You would be surprised how many successful artists did that silently. This alone gives you a huge advantage over most artists who don’t know anything about starting (and keeping) a business (Heck, they don’t even know anything about taxes). Turn yourself into your own company. With this mindset you will work more efficient and effective. It’s no fun but it’s very helpful in the long run if you want to make a living with art some day.

Now that’s some advanced trolling.

It’s the same as with fictional horror. It gives you a sense of control. You can play and you can stop at any time.

Thanks for answering again. Good to hear that.

I can recommend it. Works really well.

Thanks for answering.

Another question: Do people get punished who protest against the Netanjahu regime and its actions regarding Gaza? If so, how serious are they?

How tense is the situation among citizens regarding Gaza? Does it divide friends and families?

Such a complicated way just to add more RAND() to formulas.

You mean per day, right? Please don’t tell me for an entire year. Because that would be worse than what I assumed. That’s nothing, that’s not even enough to pay a tax adviser. Sorry, but… are you still just a kid or teenager?

There is still a chance but it’s so tiny that you better leave it out of the equation. Almost nobody makes it to the top, with the top beginning at “I can focus purely on writing my books and don’t have to do side jobs like lecturing, writing bogus articles for tabloids, teaching writing at evening school, making covers and frying burgers anymore”, but you’re still sitting in a tiny broken apartment and eat cheap ramen, you’re still forced to shit out 300-page-books every 1-2 months for some niche genre and you’re still working at least 80 hours per week and you’re still only self-publishing using Amazon’s print-on-demand service and you still have to crawl all kinds of social media groups and forums to advertise your books and to remind your audience that you’re still alive. This is how it was before the AI boom. How many decades can you go like that, hoping to reach the point where you get an actual contract with a publishing house? Twenty? Thirty? And even then you’re still far from that point when there’s a demand to translate your books into another language (which would be the point where you can actually rent a small house and earn enough money to feed a pet like a cat or dog too). Do not fall for the apex fallacy. This is hard work. Ask yourself how much shit you can eat and if shit cakes are your favorite thing in the world. Because this would be your life then. Most authors give up because they want to live at some point.

So ask yourself: How much are you willing to sacrifice? If the answer is “Everything!” without any doubt or hesitation, then you might get somewhere in a few decades. If you’re talented enough, insane enough and very lucky. And if the AI bubble bursts too of course. This is the hard truth.

I worked in several art-related industries. You obviously didn’t. You don’t know anything.

I have experience. You don’t.

Around 40, mostly bots. The community block list is much longer.

You either give it away for free or nobody’s ever going to see your work. That’s the hard truth. You’re never going to make money with your stuff no matter how good you are.

It’s not naivity. It’s a very particular mixture of stupidity, insanity, egocentrism and megalomania.

That scene with the dead Alice walking up to the camera really gets me every time I watch the movie. I guess because it subverts horror movie tropes. It’s like an anti-jumpscare. And the photos in the end are a “good” downer.

That’s an issue on its own. He’s just a typical streamer. I already had enough from looking at thumbnails.

I better not watch this, it would make me angry. I hate people who could have hired someone like me for the same or even less money and get a working product. But no, they always throw money at fraudsters. Because wasting resources is their very nature.

You’e welcome!

That’s depressing. This is so obviously fake because of how entertaining it is written and how the conclusion gets shoved in your face. No subtlety.