7 Reasons to write a book

Writing is by nature a solitary sport. Writing a manuscript requires hours and hours and hours of sitting down and putting one word after another after another. And then hoping 80,000 of them all make sense in the order you placed them. It can take years of hard work to finish one complete manuscript. It can take thousands of hours of writing to complete a story.

When I first started writing my novel I thought I was doing the difficult part. I found out later that writing is the easy part of the process.

It is after writing 80,000 to 100,000 words that the fun part begins. You then get the joy of reading those words yourself and tearing them apart as if they were written by your nemesis (this barbaric process is called editing). After a year or more of writing and editing and rewriting and editing over and over and over (while locked in a room like a Guinness book solitaire champion) you get to send your work to complete strangers (for them to judge) in hopes an agent or publisher will like it enough to read it. Unless you happen to be related to Stephen King, this looks a lot like cold calling. Most people ignore you. But a few people will take the time to politely (or impolitely) let you know that all your hard work isn’t for them. This is the point when even you start to hate your own writing. And after hundreds of negative responses you figure you will never write another word as long as you live.

Then, (finally) someone seems interested. And maybe you get a publisher to take a risk on your book even though John Grisham, Ted Dekker, J.K. Rowling and James Patterson all still write books and no one is going to pick your book up off the shelf instead of theirs. But you persist. And your book gets a publisher. Which is great because you might see your book in a bookstore (might, because experts say only %1 of traditionally published books ever make it into any bookstore). So you are excited. But then you get worried. Because if your first book doesn’t sell really well then you can bet no publisher is going to take a chance on your next one (i.e. you have one shot so you better make it count).

So you found a publisher, yay! But at that point writing is no longer a solitary sport. Now it’s a team activity and you have to start getting help from people.

First, an editor goes over your hours and hours of work (read: blood, sweat, and tears) and gives you helpful advice on how to improve it (read: takes a lawnmower to it). Ouch. But necessary. Then at least two more editors take a whack at it. Double ouch.

Then, you have to start finding endorsements. So unless the quote on the cover can say, “the author couldn’t stop turning the pages of this novel!” and  “His mom thinks this is the best thriller she’s ever read!” then you need help from actual authors or other well-known individuals. So, now you are back to asking people for help (triple ouch) and getting turned down because well-known authors are pretty busy writing and selling millions of their own books. (Fortunately for me, some wonderful people read my book and liked it enough to say they liked it.)

The next hurdle you’ll face is knowing that it’s difficult for an unknown author to make it in the very competitive business of writing books. Big name authors sell books on name recognition alone, so starting from scratch with no name recognition is difficult. And because Amazon sells millions of books and there are thousands of new authors writing books, publishers don’t put the same effort into marketing new authors that they used to. Marketing has changed. Advertising is a word-of-mouth interactive game in the twenty-first century. So after going to all the work of writing a book and getting it published, now you have to try to market it on your own. Which basically means you have to get your friends and family to purchase a copy and to tell their friends to purchase a copy (and try to do so without annoying everyone). Then you have to get them to fill out reviews on sites like Amazon so that strangers who wonder across your book in the sea of great (and not so great) books might purchase a copy.

Whew!

Congrats, you published a book!

Now let me give you the bad news: Writing a book probably won’t make you rich. Writing a book probably isn’t going to make you famous. According to Publishers Weekly the average traditionally published book only sells 250-300 copies the first year it is published and only 3,000 copies in its lifetime. And you won’t get very much of the money if it does sell. (quadruple ouch)

So if writing a book is such a huge investment with a questionable payoff, why would anyone write a book? If writing a book is a mountain of work that only leads to more work, why do it? Good question. Here are a few thoughts from someone who did it:

1. Because you have a story that must be told. A famous comedian/actor/writer friend once told me, “everyone has at least one good story.” I don’t know if that’s true, but I like the thought. Everyone has one good story. If your story must be told, tell it. You are the only one who can.
2. Because of the support. When you write a book you will be excited when some people buy the book and you will be disappointed when some people do not. Some acquaintances will buy multiple copies of your book in order to help you succeed and some of your friends won’t buy one at all. You will be amazed at the people who support you and you will be amazed at the people who don’t. But most of all, you will be thankful for each and every person who forks over the price of a movie ticket or two Starbucks coffees to buy your book.
3. Because you have to. Writing a book is hard. Getting a book published is even harder. Opening up your heart and mind and soul through writing is difficult. Opening up your personal work to public criticism is tough to do. But if you are truly a writer, it’s even harder not to.
4. Because you inspire other people to tell their story. The most common thing I have heard since writing my book (besides how amazing my book is, haha) has been how I’ve inspired people to write the book they always said they were going to write. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy hearing this.
5. Because there are things that last longer than you. Words are powerful. And good words have a much longer lifespan than the humans who write them. Benjamin Franklin is often quoted for writing, “If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth the reading, or do things worth the writing.” In fact, now many years after his death, his quote has proved his point.
6. Because you can. Sometimes writing a book is about doing that thing you always wanted to do. No one may ever read it. It may never get published. It may not be any good. But if you want to write a book, write a book. And if you do write a book, write it for you. Because you are the only person who is guaranteed to read it anyway.
7. Because you enjoy it. Writing is fun. Sure, it’s A LOT of work, but in the end, if you don’t enjoy the writing process, you shouldn’t do it.

Buy my book!

The author couldn’t stop turning the pages and his mom said it’s the best thriller she has ever read!