Why Do You Want to Publish a Book?
Posted by David Duhr in 
Discussion questions: Why do you want to write a book? Why do you want to publish a book? Between process (writing) and product (publication), which is more important to you, and why? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
I’m thinking of hiring one of our wonderful consultants to help get me back to work on my novel, via book coaching. It’s clear I’m not capable right now of doing it on my own.
But why?
When I begin working with a new client, I often start by asking these two questions:
1) Why do you want to write a book?
2) Why do you want to publish a book?
The responses usually tell me which of the two the writer is more interested in. For some, the process of writing a book is what matters, and publication is merely some future consideration, rather than a motivating factor. For others, the writing process is the hulking obstacle standing between the writer and the writer’s ultimate goal.
Now I’m in a position to turn those questions to myself. So, here goes:
1) Why do I want to write a book?
I love writing. Fiction especially. When I really get into a groove and I’m in love with what’s pouring out of me, there’s (almost) no better feeling.
I love these characters I’ve been manipulating for more than ten years now. I love putting them into weird situations in short stories and the novel and seeing what happens next.
In the stories, I love watching how these characters resolve these situations.
When I work on the novel, I love watching these characters stumble toward their question mark of an ending. I hope together we someday get there.
Writing is fun, and it makes me feel good. And if I can chase that feeling and turn it into a full book, I’ll feel like I’ve achieved something.
2) Why do I want to publish a book?
Shoulder shrug. Because I’m not sure I want to publish a book.
Reasons to do so:
My better side would quote my friend Drew Smith: “I guess the best I can hope for is that someone will read [my book] and relate to it and connect with it, and feel less alone somehow.”
My worse side would say I just want praise heaped upon me.
If a new client said these things to me, I’d tell him or her that he/she cares much more about the process than about the product. I guess that’s where I am right now.
So why not get writing?
A few years ago I threw out a question on the blog, and some of the responses were fascinating. Now I want to pose it again.
Would you rather:
1) Wake up tomorrow morning with a finished, published book but no memory of having written it?
or
2) Experience the entire writing process but, when you’re done, throw your manuscript into a fire?
Why do you want to write a book? Why do you want to publish a book?
Let’s get into it below!
WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is fiction editor at the Texas Observer and co-host of the Yak Babies podcast, and has written about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others.
WriteByNight is a writers’ service dedicated to helping you achieve your creative potential and literary goals. We work with writers of all experience levels working in all genres, nationwide and worldwide. If you have a 2020 writing project you’d like a little help with, take a look at our book coaching, private instruction and writer’s block counseling services. If you have a manuscript that’s ready for some editorial care, check out our various critiquing, editorial, and proofing services. Join our mailing list and get a FREE writer’s diagnostic, “Common problems and SOLUTIONS for the struggling writer.”
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That 2nd question is the one that has stumped me for years. The 1st one two, to be honest, for the last 5 years. I retired from teaching and engineering five years ago and after we settled into our new downsized home, I took a motorcycle trip to Thunder Bay, ON where I spent two weeks in an AirB&B with the intent on rediscovering my writing muse. I set a goal of at least 1500 words a day on a fiction book I’ve fooled with for 20 years. It’s about 3/4 done, now, after that last effort. In the end,… Read more »
Thanks for the thoughtful response, Thomas. So after your self-made writing retreat, have you worked any more on the book? And do you feel like it’s something you want to finish, and publish, even if you don’t exactly know *why* you might want to do so?
Thomas I recommend caffeine. gobs of it .It gets my juices going. Good luck
Answer 1: When I first began writing, I thought I had a story to tell. It was going to be critically-acclaimed, best-selling, and Pulitzer prize-wining. How little I knew back then. How many of us started out that way? Over the years, writing became therapeutic for me. It was an outlet where I could put things on the page I would otherwise be embarrassed to say. Now I write because I like it. I like writing and reading the paragraphs back and making them better. I like visualizing a setting in my head and describing it to my readers. I… Read more »
Thanks, Hans. I wonder if your initial response to question 1 is more a response to question 2: “It was going to be critically-acclaimed, best-selling, and Pulitzer prize-wining.” I definitely had those same thoughts, long ago. But like you, along the way I came to enjoy the process (it’s therapeutic for me, too) and paid less attention to the product. At some point, if everything works out (and when does that ever happen?), I’ll have a product. And maybe at that point my answer to question 2 might be similar to yours, sort of a “Well… why not?” It’s a… Read more »
I would love to wake up with a fully finished manuscript, but I do want to know that I wrote it and learned how to do it well. I couldn’t never throw it in the fire. It may languish on my computer, but I can’t destroy it. Maybe repurpose it into a different book would be better. I write because I love it. I publish because I want to share it with others who might like it, taking them away into another person’s life out of their own. Part of my reason for reading when I was younger was to… Read more »
I appreciate your reasons for wanting to publish as a means of connecting with readers. It mirrors what my friend Drew had to say about publishing his novel, which I quoted above, but in case you missed it: “I guess the best I can hope for is that someone will read [my book] and relate to it and connect with it, and feel less alone somehow.” I really like that.
I guess I want it both ways. I think, I am mostly a process oriented person. I like finding the story, especially as a new writer of creative fiction/historical fiction; I think the process of finding, feeling the story, listening to the characters develop is satisfyingly absorbing. During the writing, I love finding the right word and metaphor for the whole or part and carrying it through to its natural end. And hopefully, not over doing it. I would hate not remembering what I wrote, or the process that I worked through. Yet, I also love having a completed work,… Read more »
Seems that the process is more appealing to you, at least for now. Not that you can’t have it both ways, like you said. But at least for now, you’re writing with an aim to improve and enjoy, rather than with an aim to publish. I love that. That’s pretty much where I am. How’s it been going since we last checked in with each other?
I am writing more though not today it seems – holiday mode, albeit at home, has kicked in. When I moved in January, it was to declutter so I could have more of a focus on my writing. I had some goals and writing was the BIG one, but in January the decluttering and organizing seem to have taken precedence (I’ve placed the things in my eyes’ view so I can’t get away from them). Now, many papers have been recycled and books set in a pile to donate when it’s possible so it has freed up some space and… Read more »
When I write a character, I almost always base him/her on someone I know. Even when it’s not intentional, it still happens that way. Often enough, the character is me. Not because I’m self-obsessed (though that’s arguable), but because I suppose I find it easier to start with a foundation that’s familiar. And then it just kind of unrolls from there and spins off in fictionalized (at least lightly) directions. I’m not saying that’s the way to go. It’s just what works for me. When you write a new character, do you find yourself envisioning that character as a person… Read more »
Why do you want to write a book? To speak. To say something. Self-expression that unburdens my soul and, ideally, inspires-informs others. I think that’s at the base of any art done sincerely. Why do you want to publish a book? Second part of the above–inspire-inform others. Certainly, props are a big motivation, especially for the young artist. You reach a point, though, hopefully, where props are not so important. I think art suffers to the degree that the art is done for the sake of props and bucks. I don’t mean to overstate that. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with… Read more »
“Creativity is probably even closer to godliness than cleanliness.” I always appreciate your take, Ray. No exception here.
I want to publish a book for the same reason I want you to taste the blackberry pie I baked or to let you know that ground chuck is 2.99 at Shoprite and most likely, that I found these fabulous jeans 50% off at Burlington. I thrive when I share–that doesn’t make me special. It’s part of our humanness, maybe the grandest part. We’re all sharers. It just that some of us write. Why do I want to write a book? I never do…at first. But, then a ‘what if’ starts buzzing round my head like a blood thirsty mosquito.… Read more »
Writing as a way to trap the mosquitoes in our heads. I absolutely love that, and the images it raises. I was hellishly allergic to mosquito bites when I was young. Maybe that’s why I didn’t start writing until well into adulthood.
:D
1. Starting many drafts, years, and hundreds of thousands of words ago, initially started as my cathartic grief dealing process. Each little step after was, can I do this. Can I construct a plot? Can I create interesting characters? Can I go back and edit (remove) my precious words? Each draft, each year gone by my writing skills improved. Also, because I want to create a series of books, can’t ever do that, if I don’t complete and publish the first one. I was also concerned with what the shell will I do after I retire? I am glad I… Read more »
Thanks, John. I’m so glad to hear you’re well into Book 2! What’s the status of #1? Fully edited/revised? “Also, because I want to create a series of books, can’t ever do that, if I don’t complete and publish the first one.” Seems as if process and product are joined for you: You can definitely *create* a series of books without “publishing the first one,” or publishing any of them. You’re already doing it, if you think about it — you’re working on Book 2, and Book 1 isn’t published yet. But in your mental approach, writing and publishing are… Read more »
My time table, schedule is still on track. It is a lot to reread, edit, delete, revise, make as good as possible, show more, improve the clarity, that takes a lot of time, when the manuscript starts at 181,886 words. My plan is some time in Sept of this year, to reconnect with Justine and Nick Courtright and submit my finalized product to Atmosphere Press. My goal is to submit a novel, no longer than 130,000 words. At this stage that is a guess-timate. Though for the first time ever, I finally know which chapter(s) I’ll need to cut out… Read more »
Yeah, I remember us talking about the song lyric thing. I know that’ll cut a lot of words. It sounds like you’re keeping on track; well done, my friend. It’s been a long process.
So day to day, how do you decide whether to work on revising Book 1 and getting further into drafting Book 2? Mood/inspiration?
I am currently taking a writing course at UCLA Extension. Only three weeks left in that class. Teacher assignments target my second book. Because I took a four day, all day work shop with her months before, I outlined book #2, where as I did the entire book #1 as a pantser. Because of those assignments I’ve shifted much earlier when the love interest will take place, and shifted other elements as well. 90% of my focus is on book #1. The biggest difference in my process is that I’ve learned how to edit. In past years I’d write one,… Read more »
Yeah, who the hell knows what will happen in the fall. My feeling is, you’ll be one of the lucky ones, having retired just in time.
This will be a long post. My answers to those questions have changed over the years. Outside of school publications, I started submitting material (including my first novel, written at 15 and appropriately unpublished) when I was an adolescent. Since then my work has appeared in dozens of places. Mainly I wrote because I couldn’t not write. I wrote to explore and to get my mental “home movies” down on paper. I submitted material to share and to be validated; I wanted my stories to connect with others the way others’ stories had connected with me. Even my first rejection… Read more »
Excellent response, as usual, thoughtful but also funny. I’ve definitely been here before: “I can look at old drafts (I’ve kept a few) and feel as perplexed as the editor(s) who rejected them.” And “appropriately unpublished” made me smile. I’ve watched a few long videos of those mandala sand paintings being made; it’s so soothing to watch and listen to. Not long ago I lost a flash drive that contained a lot of early fumblings with fiction. That stuff’s gone forever. (Though it could be on the computer of some super-unlucky human.) But in a way, it was already gone… Read more »
Oh, my, that flash drive. I save my old fumblings, too, and I’d be hard-pressed to tell you (or myself) why. It’s like holding onto a pile of unwashed laundry: it’s a bad smell, but it’s my smell. Last night I started a story draft inspired by your second pair of questions, because they put an image into my head and I want to see if I can recast a thought experiment into an I-don’t-know-what. It’s the kind of story idea that keeps pulling me back to it again and again, with copious “what if?” journal notes, and I always… Read more »
I like that smelly laundry comparison. Thing is, I don’t really like my own stink. So I’m probably better off that the flash drive is gone. I find it hard enough to reread whatever published work I have.
I always love to hear it when our posts lead to some new project. It’s my favorite kind of comment.
More good news: I managed to pull off a poem draft from the idea. Writing a poem had been the first thing that came to mind but I thought Nah, trying to fit the idea into one would be too unwieldy. Then, after two failed story starts, I revisited the poem idea, tried a different format, and <em>voila!</em>
Oh, good. I actually wrote yesterday too! I hope we were doing it at the same time. Do you like the result?
Well done on your writing, too! I did both today’s 366 installment and then the poem in the wee hours. You might have been writing while I napped yesterday, after an insomniac stint of playing with the format in my head instead of sleeping. The poem is 48 lines of blank verse with two alternating speakers and I’m very pleased with how it came out. Much better focused than the fiction attempts. I’ll let it breathe and will revisit it later with fresh eyes, but am refamiliarizing myself with markets in the meantime. It’s been years since I’ve submitted poetry to a zine.
Why do I want to write a book? What a killer question. As an answer; because I have five of them started and I finish (usually) what I start. I don’t like not finishing projects, be it a 42 inch bastard sword or the bathroom, or a new wine rack, or another book-shelf. I have quite a few unfinished or, as yet un-started projects, about half of which are wife’s “suggestions” both indoor and outdoor. In the last few years I’ve been getting behinder and behinder, from back problems and surgery and the coronavirus motivational meltdown which seems to affect… Read more »
Thanks, Dave. The first reply jumps out at me: “Why do I want to write a book? … because I have five of them started and I finish (usually) what I start.” Fair enough. But why did you start them in the first place? It had to be more than “to see how they end,” though that is a great motivating factor, one I’m heavily invested in with my own work right now.
Watched the Buddy Holly Story yesterday. What motivated him start a band, write, produce and perform music was there was little out there on the airwaves that that he like and nothing that matched his vision. When I was writing my first book Intrusion,” that was true for me as well. I’ve done that. Not enough people are reading it to change the world…maybe someday after I’m long gone. “Cult of Devay” came from a dream. It needs to be finished. “The Cat Complained” is a story about a newbie writer writing a close encounters novel, but the two worlds,… Read more »
Maybe you’ve read this before, but regarding your comment about Intrusion — “Not enough people are reading it to change the world…maybe someday after I’m long gone.” — you may like this piece my friend Drew wrote about literature and posterity:
https://electricliterature.com/youll-fete-me-when-im-gone/
Also, a murder mystery about a writers’ group?! I love that. Will it be funny?
Originally called Novel novel and then LCD, (latitudinal continental divide) There is a myth that Brookfield sits on the LCD, so I put in a humorous request to chang e the name of the Senior Scribler to the Latitudinal Continental Divide. When I started the story, LCD became the name of the writer’s group and Daye Trapper, the leader, a millionaire author with the group meeting Saturday mornings at his English Estate transported to Calhoun Road. Mr. Tripper is a no show and it takes some time to search the house find the body. The members of the writers group… Read more »
Is there a character based in part on you, and do we learn that this Dave character is the killer? Because I kinda hope so.
I never started writing to publish. I wrote to shed angst and to quit smoking. I made 3 rules, stuck to em, and got 210 short stories. I recognize 3 writing patterns in my life. All my life has been a game of 3. Find the magic number for you and right write. My other observation is blockage offers the third option.
Can you tell us some more about how writing helped you quit smoking? It’s really interesting, and might trigger some people here to try the same thing.
Hi, thanks for asking. Here’s what happened, 6 weeks of intensity… I set my quit smoking date. April 26, 2019. Started writing furiously and smoking more….I realized that I was smoking to stop my voice. I used the 6 weeks to yell and cry on paper, smoke in hand. My deadline was looming. I wrote 150 short stories, cried and smoked through all of them. April 26, 2019, I quit, never re succumbed…and it’s been over a year now. So, to write helped reset and reclaim my mind and my voice. They belong to me again. Hard as it is… Read more »
“I realized that I was smoking to stop my voice.”
This is interesting. I know I keep saying this, but can you tell us more about that?
I love the writing… when I do it. I like rewriting even more. and Wow getting a story published is the best. I want people to read what I wrote, although I am not sure why. I guess I like it all. But if I had to pick one or the other I would throw it in the garbage. I did that with my only novel and even though I loved writing it for 5 years when I read it all I though UGH. I would NEVER buy this book. (thrown in the garbage figuratively you can bet I have… Read more »
I didn’t know you like rewriting even more than writing. Can you say more about that? Once you get your nose out of Coast of Chicago. If memory serves (and when does it, ever?), these characters made their first appearances in short stories. Then I tried to turn some of that into a novel. It got ugly. A few years later, I started rewriting some of those stories, then… tried to turn it into a novel again. It got ugly… but a little less ugly than the first time. Now? I’m doing both. I’m writing these characters into stories that… Read more »
Ha. The eleventh time. You must be a rewriter rather than a love the first draft type too. I hate the first draft. I am a terrible writer and it all is just horrible. I used to be in a writing group and would share it, get feedback, take everyone’s feedback so no one would feel slighted and make a huge mess which sometimes entailed switching pov or tense in the middle just to do what everyone said. haha. Then I got better about rewriting and keeping my own voice. But I do, what so many must, I rewrite the… Read more »
I haven’t read Nick Dybek, but I feel like you and I talked about him? Maybe that was Aaron.
You wrote, “Take everyone’s feedback so no one would feel slighted.” So, any feedback you get, you implement it into the next draft? Even if you think it’s a ridiculous idea? That sounds exhausting.
Publishing a book is easy, it is the writing of the book that presents the problem. Many of my clients want to be writers, I am writing agency so they come to me. Problem some of them have NO knowledge on how to write nor enough imigination to produce good materials. My quest is how to let them down easy or just put it together and publish. Because after it is published they expect it to sell and be the next hottest piece on the market.—I can publish alright! But how can I get writers that are worth their salt?… Read more »
How do you let them down easy, when that’s the choice?
First I read their material and try to determine if it is salvageable. I offer them some lessons in writing if their big problem is grammar, and organization. If it is content I try not to be to harsh but do try to let them see that they need more/less and better organization. When all else fails I just bluntly tell them that I don’t feel what they have written is publishable at least not by me. I have had very few (2) to be exact but most all my clients can be helped, retrained, then set in spot to… Read more »
I love this! Well said.
When I first saw this post, I thought that is a couple of challenging questions, but then when I typed the question, the answers were obvious and immediate. Why do I want to write a book? To remember. I like fiction so remembering is about maybe a better version of what happened or maybe a worse version that turns out better. Why do I want to publish? I want to share with people so they do not have any regrets. Recognizing that the choices we are making may haunt us is not obvious because we don’t have hindsight. I want… Read more »
Thanks, Janet. I love this answer. “I want people to read my stories and relate to them” seems a common theme here. Connection. Maybe that’s why it’s been proven that readers of fiction have more empathy than non-readers.
I write when I feel a compulsion to get something out of my head. My first effort, which my then girlfriend now wife read, was never finished (because I never figured out where the story was going). After Hurricane Katrina, I wrote weekly letters to friends about what our life and community were like, and what had changed during the week. When the lock down hit, I felt a need to write a story that had been bouncing around in my head for over a year. I knew where the story ended, and figured out where it began, and enjoyed… Read more »
“Because I had a story to tell” is always among my favorite answers to this question. It’s not quite where I’m at right now; for me, it’s more like I *want to* have a story to tell, and so I’m trying to write my way into one. I’m trying to find a story. And the only way I can do that is to keep plugging away until the story makes itself known.
David, you just almost touched on a question I have. In outlining a story, is it better to use the outline style I learned in school (a bullet list of major headings and topics) or to use a more narrative style? (Telling the story, but with a lot of dialog, detail, and minor events left out.) Does it help to do that before writing the story, or to use the outline to summarize it later?
If you asked ten writers, you’d get ten different answers. Really, the best answer I can give is, Whatever works best for you. I almost never outline fiction. My brain doesn’t work that way, for one thing, and for another, when I outline I end up feeling restricted, as if I’m bound to the outline, even though that’s not true. I wish it worked for me — life would be easier — but it doesn’t. Instead, writing for me is like walking through dense jungle with a dull machete: I have no idea where the hell I’ll end up; it’s… Read more »
Like walking through a jungle with a dull machete. I love it! That is a vivid metaphor I can really identify with. (And living in the Philippines for three years gave me a chance to actually try that.) The few times I tried outlining, I did feel like I was weaving the vines together around me. The method that finally worked for me was to type out the story as fast as my fingers could keep up with it, then go back and fill in what I missed, and then go back looking at revisions. Yes, three passes through the… Read more »
David, I just read your lead in to both discussions. I guess maybe I did have an outline of sorts? My story covers a period of about 14 months or so. So, I started with a sort of calendar, giving dates and major events. I also started keeping notes on the characters, starting with their names and role in the story, then adding in details as they came up. Then, when I needed to redo a couple characters, I used those notes to figure out who to change and how. I also made notes of mosquito-borne diseases, and other notes… Read more »
It sounds like you have a good approach, one that works. Maybe you’d feel trapped if you wrote out a point-by-point outline, so instead you take some notes, do what resembles character sketches, and, it seems, mentally work through the story a bit. In this way, you have some direction but you also have plenty of freedom to stray, since your path isn’t entirely mapped out. I don’t remember where I read or heard this, but a writer once used a road trip to Baltimore as an analogy for writing, something like “If your goal is to get from here… Read more »
I write because I am disabled and was taken from the working world too soon. I treat each day as if I am working .I read for three hours and write for four or five With the hopes of 1,000 words a day.I publish because I pray nightly that my books will sell and also to become a very good writer.
Keep at it, my friend. Your dedication to reading and writing voraciously, and to getting better every day, sets a great example for the rest of us.
I want to write a book because a story needs completion, tension needs resolution. I think I started to write when I was young because the world never made any sense to me, and most of the messages I was getting about what’s what and who I was supposed to be, etc., didn’t make any sense. Only stories and poems made sense to me–and music. That’s where the beauty was, and I like beauty. Then in the process of writing I discovered that creativity is healing, and if you are lucky it is healing not only to yourself but to… Read more »
It’s interesting to look at this distinction between finishing and publishing. Sometimes the answer to “why publish” is something along the lines of, “I want something I can show to people,” or even “I want something I can show to *my* people.” Well, you can show someone a Word file; you can print your book on 8.5 x 11 paper and hand it to someone. I’ve finished a fair amount of short stories, and I’ve felt a sense of accomplishment each time, and people have read them. But I’ve never tried to get them published. And I’m glad for that.… Read more »
I had always had the hope of being able to write full time by earning enough money with a few successes to quit the day job, but…well, life gets in the way. Maybe you and I could collaborate on a book Promoting and Marketing Your Fiction for the Shy Writer with an Aversion to the Word ‘Novel’. I suggest maybe wearing a mask to interviews, or cover your face with hair, like Sia. You could probably hire my cousin as a stand-in too. He is very gregarious, funny, and smart (oh, just like you) and sells a lot of books.… Read more »
I love this story.
Also, before we write this book together, we have to land on some alternatives for the word “novel,” so we can offer some… alternatives. (Me write pretty today.)
My nickname in my family is Anne of 1000 stories. My grandfather was the person to whom I told my stories. After he passed away, when I was 14, I started to write the stories down. Until this question, it had not occurred to me that I might not want or need to publish at all. I am just writing to Papa. I am going to sit with that for a while. Thank you, David.
I’m glad this gave you something to think about. Let me know what comes of it! Have you published any of these stories, or tried to?
While I have not published these stories, I still have them stashed somewhere in storage. I remember two stories vividly, Levy the Leaf and Shoe Boat (the musical). There is even choreography! Thanks to you and Susan, I am now out of the well.
I love that, Anne of 1000 stories. I think you just gave us a beautiful suggestion for one way to overcome writer’s block–just write to one person. I know one of the things that trips me up is wondering, “Is this going to be good enough to be published?” as I write. But I bet if you just aim to write a story that Papa would love, you get a better story.
From our friend Mr. Vonnegut: “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”
Thank you so much, Susan. I was down a well with this realization and could not see what a gift Papa gave me by asking me to tell him a story.
The first. Definitely, definitely, definitely. I love performing, and I love having written, and I even love editing once I’ve written the first draft, but the first draft itself has always taken a lot of effort to get down for me.
Reminds me of that old line, attributed to a lot of writers over the years: “I hate writing, but I love having written.” Not that I’m saying you hate writing, but yeah, it seems like having a product is more satisfying for you than the act of it having produced it. Nothing wrong with that, especially because you keep doing it.
The second set of questions first: My completed, published work, which I could feel the weight of, and the texture of, and read. Even though the memory of writing it is lost, I could experience the process through the book. I would choose this rather than a perfect memory of writing a manuscript, but nothing to show for it but ashes. Re: First set of queries: This story… The reason for wanting to both write and publish seem to be intertwined in my reasoning. I can not help but develop this tale, with or without my conscious attention, it grows,… Read more »
I really like this part: “Above all, I will create this WIP to fruition because… I want to read it. I want to curl up in a window seat on a rainy afternoon with a blanket, a good cup of tea, and this book.”
It’s foreign to me, the idea of wanting to read my own work. I wish I could experience it.