Who Tells Your Story?

dianapublishing, tv/film, writing

While two studios run half of Hollywood and five publishers control 80% of books, indie creators are quietly making six figures through crowdfunding and outlets such as YouTube and Substack—proving you don’t need gatekeepers anymore.

Picture this: Sarah’s spent three years perfecting her literary fiction novel about immigrant identity. She’s queried 100 agents. Got 47 form rejections, 15 “close but not quite,” and radio silence from the rest. Meanwhile, Jake’s been shopping his indie horror screenplay for two years—the one that cost him $12,000 to option his own short story for proof of concept. Studio executives love it, but “horror’s not testing well this quarter.”

Sound familiar? Welcome to 2025, where a handful of corporate behemoths decide which stories get told, who gets to tell them, and—plot twist!—whether you’ll make any money doing it. Sarah and Jake aren’t failing because their work sucks. They’re casualties of an industry that’s been systematically consolidated until five publishers control 80% of the book market and two studios control half of Hollywood.

But here’s where this story gets interesting. While the gatekeepers played merger roulette, creators found secret passages around the castle walls and some are making serious money doing it.

The Monopoly Game Nobody Asked to Play

Let’s start with the numbers that’ll make your head spin. In the 1960s, the United States had over 500 independent publishing houses. Today? The Big Five publishers control roughly 80% of the US trade book market: Penguin Random House (37% market share), HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster (11%), Hachette, and Macmillan. When Penguin Random House tried to swallow Simon & Schuster for $2.18 billion in 2022, even the Department of Justice said “whoa there, cowboy.”

Hollywood’s consolidation story reads like a corporate thriller. Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox created a media Death Star that now controls nearly a quarter of the US media market. Add Warner Bros. Discovery to the mix, and two companies effectively run half the entertainment universe.

And the plot thickens daily. Paramount is reportedly preparing a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, while Netflix has thrown its hat into the ring with potential offers targeting Warner’s studio and streaming assets for $40-50 billion. If either deal goes through, we’re looking at media consolidation that would make Standard Oil blush.

Here’s the gut punch: within Penguin Random House’s vast catalog, only one-third of their books even make a profit, and 4% of books account for 60% of profits. Translation? Unless you’re writing the next Harry Potter, you’re probably not making their cut.

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Genre Wars: What Actually Works (And What Doesn’t)

Not all stories are drowning in this brave new world. Some genres are thriving while others are getting steamrolled:

Romance: The Unkillable Genre

Romance sales grew 52% in 2023, largely driven by “Romantasy”—that irresistible blend of fantasy and romance that Gen Z devours like literary crack. Why does romance survive consolidation? Because romance readers are loyal, voracious, and—revolutionary concept—actually buy books.

Self-published romance authors can realistically earn ?50,000–?1,00,000+ per month by their third year with 8-10 books and solid marketing. Romance dominates Wattpad’s 90 million monthly users, and Substack romance writers are finding creative monetization through serialization. Alexa Tuttle hit #1 bestseller status and nearly tripled her income through multi-author romance series.

Horror: The Scrappy Underdog Champion

For filmmakers, horror remains liquid gold. Horror and thriller rank #1 and #2 for indie film profitability. Consider Jordan Peele’s Get Out: $4.5 million budget, $255 million worldwide gross, and $124.8 million in profit—making it the most profitable film of 2017 with a 630% return on investment.

More recently, Zach Cregger’s Weapons (following his 2022 hit Barbarian) has crossed $100 million domestically and is approaching $200 million worldwide. These aren’t fluke successes—horror fans are “loyal as hell” and will watch anything in the genre. Plus, effective horror can be created on shoestring budgets without CGI dragons or A-list stars.

The Casualties: Literary Fiction and Drama

Literary fiction and drama? They’re getting pummeled. Publishers openly admit that consolidation has “killed literary fiction” , while independent dramas “frequently struggle and don’t get enough credit” without star power. Unless you’re the next Donna Tartt or have celebrities attached, these genres face Sisyphean struggles in both traditional and independent markets.wfcn+1

The Platform Revolution: Where Real Money Lives

While studios play merger musical chairs, creators are building direct audience relationships and making bank. Here’s where the actual money is flowing:

Substack: The Serial Fiction Goldmine

Substack hit 5 million paid subscribers by March 2025, growing by roughly 1 million per quarter. The platform’s most successful fiction writers aren’t just selling stories—they’re selling relationships.

Numbers that matter: Elle Griffin made $19,000 in her first year serializing novels, while Simon K Jones built 6,000+ subscribers through consistent serial fiction. One successful writer calculated earning $156,960 per year from 1,962 paying subscribers—that’s roughly $80 per subscriber annually.

The secret sauce? Hybrid models offering free chapters to hook readers and premium content behind paywalls. Serial fiction creates deeper engagement than traditional publishing because readers anticipate weekly releases and provide real-time feedback.

Pro tip: Simon K Jones’s Substack offers masterclass-level serial fiction strategy—he’s been perfecting this for nine years and answers reader questions.simonkjones.substack+1

Critical Role: The $10 Million D&D Empire

Here’s a plot twist nobody saw coming: Critical Role earned $9.6 million from Twitch alone between September 2019 and September 2021, making it one of the platform’s highest earners. That’s just streaming revenue—it doesn’t include merchandise, sponsorships, or their successful animated series funding.

Critical Role transformed from a group of voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons into a 40-employee media company with no outside funding. Their website sees 400,000+ monthly visitors, their YouTube channel has 1.7 million subscribers gaining 4,000 weekly, and they partner with major retailers like Funko and Penguin Random House.

The lesson? Find your niche, serve it religiously, then scale. Critical Role proved that passionate communities will pay for quality content, even if it’s “just” people playing tabletop games.

Film Funding: Beyond Traditional Gates

Wefunder has funded over 100 film and entertainment projects, allowing unaccredited investors to buy equity stakes starting from minimal investments. Unlike reward-based crowdfunding, equity platforms offer actual ownership pieces of projects such as From the Heart.

Seed & Spark combines crowdfunding with distribution guarantees—projects attracting 1,000+ followers receive automatic press coverage and distribution to Netflix, iTunes, and Hulu. They charge only 5% fees (often covered by contributors), meaning creators keep 95% of funds raised.

Republic has facilitated $2.6 billion in funding across 2,000+ projects, with investments starting at just $50. This isn’t monopoly money—this is change-the-game money.p2pmarketdata

YouTube: The Streaming Giant Everyone Ignored

Plot twist: YouTube captured 12.4% of all TV viewing in April 2025, officially becoming America’s most-watched streaming platform. Major media companies are feeding YouTube’s growth by posting full-length episodes, entire movies, and original content on the platform.

Channel 4, Fremantle, and other production companies are finding “pretty much passive income” from their back catalogs on YouTube. Shows that flopped on traditional TV are finding massive audiences on YouTube, creating entirely new revenue streams.

Fremantle has 1,500 channels on YouTube with 32 billion views across YouTube and Facebook combined. For creators, YouTube offers direct distribution without studio gatekeepers—and the audience is already there.

The Self-Publishing Reality Check

Here’s some tough love: self-published titles outpaced traditional publishing by over 2 million books in both 2022 and 2023. Indie authors published 2.6 million titles annually versus 563,019 traditionally published books.

But before you quit your day job: 90% of self-published authors sell fewer than 100 copies, and the average self-published author earns $1,000 per year. However, successful self-published authors earn 60-70% royalties versus the 4-15% traditional publishers offer.

The difference? Strategy. Genre selection. Marketing savvy. Understanding platform algorithms.firebrandtech+1

Learning from New Line Cinema’s Indie Playbook

Before Warner Bros. absorbed it, New Line Cinema built a $2 billion empire starting with $1,000. They stay hungry and scrappy, even their big tent films like the Nightmare on Elm Street films were done on shoestring budgets (having worked on a few, I know this from experience — good experiences, btw — yes, New Line really was a fun company to work for/with). Robert Shaye’s strategy? Find underserved audiences and serve them religiously.

Reefer Madness earned $2 million from college campuses. A Nightmare on Elm Street cost under $2 million and grossed over $26 million. New Line succeeded because they understood their audience better than anyone else.

Today’s successful indie creators follow the same blueprint. Simon K Jones built his Substack through horror and sci-fi. Romance authors dominate by understanding reader desires. Horror filmmakers succeed because they know their audience craves genuine scares.

TO-DO: The Brutal Reality Audit

Time for radical honesty about your project and its commercial potential:

Step 1: Research your genre’s actual market performance on target platforms. Check Wattpad trending lists, browse Substack’s top fiction newsletters, analyze successful Kickstarter campaigns in your film genre. Don’t research what you hope is true—research what’s actually working.

Step 2: Calculate realistic earnings based on harsh math. For Substack: assume 1-3% of free subscribers convert to paid. For self-publishing: assume you’re in the 90% earning under $1,000 unless you’re writing romance/horror with serious marketing chops.

Step 3: Identify your actual competition. You’re not competing against Stephen King—you’re competing against other indie creators in your specific niche. Find five creators doing exactly what you want to do. Study their strategies, pricing, engagement tactics, and revenue streams.

Step 4: Test before committing months of work. Write three pieces in your chosen genre, track engagement and revenue potential, then decide whether to proceed.

T-DO: The Platform Portfolio Revolution

Successful creators don’t rely on single platforms—they build content ecosystems:

Step 1: Map your content across multiple platforms strategically. Novel chapters work on Substack, behind-the-scenes content builds social media following, exclusive material becomes Patreon rewards. Short films become proof-of-concept for Wefunder campaigns.

Step 2: Create platform-specific content calendars. Monday: Substack serial chapters. Wednesday: Instagram writing tips. Friday: TikTok book recommendations. Each platform feeds others without duplicating effort.

Step 3: Build cross-platform conversion funnels. Use free TikTok and Instagram content to drive Substack subscriptions, then leverage engaged Substack audiences for crowdfunding campaigns. Your email list becomes your most valuable asset.

Step 4: Track metrics ruthlessly. Know your cost per subscriber, conversion rates between platforms, lifetime value of different audience segments. If something isn’t working after three months, pivot or abandon it completely.

The Creator Revolution is Already Here

The entertainment industry’s consolidation freight train isn’t slowing down. Paramount might buy Warner Bros Discovery. Netflix might outbid them both. The Big Five publishers will keep squeezing out midlist authors. Streaming services will merge until three remain.

But here’s what the monopolists fundamentally missed: audiences don’t just want stories—they want relationships with storytellers. They want to feel connected to creative processes, influence what happens next, support creators they believe in.

Critical Role proved that passionate communities will pay millions to watch friends play D&D. Jordan Peele proved that $4.5 million and genuine creativity can obliterate $200 million franchise movies. Romance writers proved that direct reader relationships beat corporate marketing every time.

You can wait for permission from gatekeepers who think only 4% of stories deserve success. You can keep querying agents who receive 40,000 submissions annually and sign maybe 20 new clients. You can pitch executives who greenlight projects based on algorithms and market research.

Or you can build your own audience, tell your own stories, and keep your own profits.

Sarah doesn’t need 200 agents—she needs 2,000 readers willing to pay $5 monthly for her serialized novel. Jake doesn’t need studio executives—he needs 5,000 horror fans willing to invest $50 each in his Wefunder campaign.

The question isn’t who tells your story anymore. The question is: are you brave enough to tell it directly to the people who actually want to hear it?

Resources to Get Started:

  • Substack Creator Resources: substack.com/browse

  • Wefunder for Filmmakers: wefunder.com/explore/film

  • Seed & Spark: seedandspark.com

  • Draft2Digital (self-publishing): draft2digital.com

  • Republic Equity Crowdfunding: republic.com

  • Simon K Jones’s Serial Fiction Masterclass: simonkjones.substack.com

  • Critical Role Business Model: critrole.com

  • YouTube Creator Academy: creatoracademy.youtube.com