Ok, several points.
- surviving on a South African pension - being a creative person myself I've always dreamt of being able to live out of the royalties paid for my creation, as you should be able to do. I've read a post or two from a guy nickname etcmike where he talks about getting an income stream from Steemit. I think that is more or less the very philosophy of this platform. His explanation is pretty complicated, I could not yet make sense of it all but I'll try harder.
- never heard of Baen. I've kinda stopped reading fiction about 10 years ago, I can't bring myself to it again as I feel guilt - I feel I am wasting time and that I should be reading something more important. When I need to relax I play strategy games (mostly boardgames nowadays).
- blockchain is fascinating and has the power to lastingly change society. The fact that it's persistent is just one aspect. Think that done right (steemit is trying) it could allow you to live from your writing without the need for a publisher acting as a gatekeeper and perceiving a hefty toll in the (happy) event that it allows you to offer your writing to people who enjoy it. Blockchain can allow people to "monetize" their work directly by supporting a world where each of us pays with his or her work directly (as circulating personal IOUs but we are maybe going too deep into economics)
- I guess the lesson of your story is: never give up!
- I hope a dolphin, orca, narwal, cachalot or blue whale reads my articles too, one day ! :)
Thanks.
For most people, it takes about six months to a year before we arrive at the point where we have enough people interested in our posts, for surviving from steemit income to be viable.
As I said, all I'm now interested in doing is posting my stories. I will also create a site where they can be found in pdf and rtf form. The truth is, I love the idea of knowing that the worlds I created exist also in other minds.
You have seen a couple of political posts I've made. I make them, but have no interest in discussing them, it takes too much of my time from my stories. So I cut you off when you decided to argue with me. Now you know why.