How CRY makes money

I realized that we’ve never taken the time to fully explain all that we do at CRY, including how we earn revenue. It’s fairly simple but does warrant some discussion.

First, we are a three-person team. It’s hard for me to give you titles because, for the most part, all of us do a little of everything. At our core, we are content creators. Whether it’s here on CRY Mag or our We CRY Together celebration, our goal is to create or curate stories that are in line with our vision of elevating emerging artists, building a connected creative community or navigating the emotional aspects of what it means to be a writer or artist.

How we make money

As much as we love what we do, we need money for our business to work. And yes, we are a business. As much fun as we have doing this, we’re actually very focused on driving revenue because we know that’s what it takes to give us the freedom to keep creating.

Ghostwriting

Our main source of revenue comes from ghostwriting. We help people write stories of accomplishment, overcoming some kind of obstacle, memoirs, or family histories that people want to capture. This means someone contracts us to write an entire book. The cost for this is tens of thousands of dollars so it’s reserved for those who are committed to telling their story and have the finances to do so. Not everyone who chooses this option is “rich.” You’d be surprised how resourceful people can be when they’re motivated.

Proposals (story structures)

We definitely understand that not everyone can afford for us to write their book in full. As a separate offering, we write proposals. A proposal can have different meanings, but for CRY, it’s more like an outline for your book. If someone who is not a writer has an idea for a book, it’s actually really difficult for them to understand how to get the idea out of their head on onto the page. That’s where we help. We provide structure, a succinct synopsis, chapter by chapter summary, along with other outputs so by the time we’re finished, our clients know exactly what to write and how to format their story. We do this for anywhere between $2,000-$3,000, depending on a few variables.

Editing

Sometimes, clients come to us with hundreds of pages of blog posts, journal entries and loose notes. We take those pages and turn it into a real book. The cost for this varies depending on the amount of work we have to do, but typically comes in around $6,000 — $8,000.

Why are we sharing this?

Because it’s important to be transparent about money. There shouldn’t be this secret around how revenue is earned, especially if it can help inform or educate someone who is trying to do something similar. We love what we do at CRY, and earning revenue through these streams allows us to create and curate content. We definitely have plans to expand our offerings, and when we do, we’ll be sure to share another update!