Why Write?

If a writer knows enough about what he’s writing about, he may omit things that he knows.

- Ernest Hemingway

Why write? Why not?

Well, I’ll tell you why not. The money. Yes, that’s right, the money, or lack of money if we want to be accurate. It’s shit. And when I say “shit,” I don’t mean it sucks. No, no. I mean it’s pretty much non-existent for most authors. In fact, for many, writing and publishing is done at a loss.

Did I know this when I started writing my novel? Aww, hell no. Would I still have written it had I known? Aww, hell yeah.

That said, if you’ve perused this website at all, you’ve probably figured out that I completed my first manuscript only a short while ago. I printed it out and held in my hands recently. It was like I was a real life author and everything. So surreal. (I realize some of you may say I’m a writer, not an author. That fascinating topic will be covered in the next blog post.)

But once your manuscript is done and the hats and horns are put away, the research on publishing must begin. And so it has. As many of you might already know, we have both traditional and self-publishing nowadays. There are options, far more now than years ago. While that’s a good thing, it can be a tad overwhelming for a noob such as myself.

And I’m still researching. I haven’t decided which route to go. Traditional publishing might earn me more money, or maybe even just some money, but there’s no guarantee it will. Many of the smaller publishing houses don’t offer advances and few authors earn royalties. And the odds of getting picked up by one of the big five publishing houses, one that might actually provide a decent advance? Well, I realize I can dream, and even fantasize while hovering in that blissful state between consciousness and unconsciousness every morning; but I do try to keep my waking hours filled with more pragmatic expectations — and 99% of all manuscripts are rejected. Yup, you read that right. That’s ninety-nine percent, folks.

99% of all manuscripts are rejected

The Hunger Games haunts me. I can’t help but hear the words, “May the odds be ever in your favor.” in my head while knowing they’re anything but.

It gets better.

According to Statista, “675 million print books were sold last year in the U.S. alone.”

That’s a ton of sales, right? Authors must be making money hand over fist, right? Not so fast, Jack. Think again. That number means the competition is insane and the market oversaturated, so the average book sells a paltry 250 copies. (thank goodness for friends and family) Meanwhile, it usually costs around $2,000, and can be as much as $10,000, to self-publish a book depending how much of the work you can and want do yourself and how much you want to spend on a team to help you with cover design, formatting for e-book, paperback, and hardcover mediums, multiple stages of professional editing — you get the idea.

So, why write? For the love of writing, of course, or maybe because you have a story to tell, or maybe a little of both. I think, for me, it was a little bit of both. Plus, writing a book has been a bucket list item of mine for a good many years, one that, admittedly, I never thought I’d actually accomplish. I tried and failed twice when I was somewhere in my thirties. That said, I’m only in my late thirties now… plus a few anniversaries. Okay, maybe more than a few; but who’s counting?

Nonetheless, now that I’ve completed a novel, what am I going to do with myself? I’m going to write another, naturally. What else? I’ve already begun jotting down notes that are the seeds of my next outline. So, stay tuned. Money or not, this girl ain’t done yet.