For years people have been telling me "you have to write a book." I have wanted to believe them. Though I may not have the aptitude, I do have the time. I've got some ideas. But something in me (Laziness? Lack of motivation? Knowing too much?) just doesn't feel called to invest it that way.
I like to write. I love my faith. But I thank my sweet Jesus every day neither are associated with me earning my daily bread. I don't know of any other industry (publishing) in which one invests so much in order to gain so little. Maybe that's why I still write every few days and still have faith.
I know many people who churn out books because their families or career depend on it. They may have the discipline or aptitude for it. Maybe it is easier once you have a few titles under your belt to gain notoriety and increase sales. I don't know. I think the average advance for the average author is something like $5k...and that's an advance, not net. The average U.S. nonfiction book is now selling less than 250 copies per year and less than 3,000 copies over it's lifetime.
So why should you write a book? I don't know, really. Do people even buy and read books anymore? I'm sure some do, maybe the same percentage of the general population numbers-wise who pay for a New York Times subscription. "If one writes a book in the forest and there's no one to read it, does it really exist?" Any joe can write a book today and send it out via self-publishing to the universe. With this comes distillation and saturation.
Much like the 401k has replaced the traditional pension and shifted the risk from employer to employee, publishers have shifted much of the promotion responsibilities to the authors. So not only do you get the privilege of writing a book for what averages out to be $12/hr, you get to promote it to all the people you know (friends and family?) in MLM-type fashion.
But what if the world "really needs your message?" Can't I do that on a blog? A website? A Substack newsletter? An email listserv? Isn't that what I do here (and what I subsequently look forward to doing, offering free of charge, because I have no ulterior motive for doing so?)
But being a published author is "so cool." Really? Most of those I know who have published and built it up as a supreme moment of validation from the outside world secretly know the post-publication letdown and depression is real. You spent months and possibly years formulating, editing, honing...time away from your family, all the joy being sucked dry from the project to be met with the polar opposite of critical acclaim or affirmation: indifference.
Artists already know this: people don't want to pay for the the cow when they can get the milk for free. Prostitutes know this too, which is why they charge for pleasure and don't just give it away! We live in a world of unbridled content consumption. We are consumers in the appetite sense, not just the market sense. We gorge on podcasts and online articles, social media feeds, and videos. The result? There are no masterpieces anymore. No symphonies. No life-changing novels. We merely consume to distract, gleaning and extracting maybe 5% on average of useful content from any one medium, rinse and repeat.
I don't even mind pumping out blog posts once a week to feed those who consume content, because I do the same dang thing! No judgment, and happy to be of service. I just don't take myself or my blog too seriously is all. I'm truthful and sincere, but my investment in the work is admittedly small.
But a book is kind of serious, a commitment. The ISBN is a kind of literary tattoo attached to your name for life. Once you sell your song, your art, your writing in exchange for the feeling that you've 'made it' as somehow legit, you don't own it anymore. It's not yours to do what you want with anymore. There's a price attached to that, whether you admit it or not. Some people may relish in that.
For me, I don't know where the hesitancy comes from. I'm secure enough that I don't seek or need validation. Nothing I have to say is focused, coherent, or important enough to warrant the investment a book requires. I have no illusions about any glamour attached to being an author; it's akin to "being your own boss" and anyone who is their own boss knows there are some upsides...and a legion of liabilities.
Mostly, though, I think times have changed. The industry (publishing) is hanging on life support. Razor thin margins. Oversaturation. Lots of risk with minimal returns. People's attention spans have dropped off; the thought of reading War and Peace today is almost unthinkable, though twenty years ago I would have looked forward to it.
If you've written a book, good on you. This isn't a judgement post, and we all have different reasons and motivations for the endeavors we invest in. I don't think I have it in me, for the reasons outlined above, though I'm happy to keep blogging and being a largely unknown JV observer and recorder of life as I see it.
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