Last month I began a monthly email newsletter, which is sent out the first of every month. This month, I am rounding out 2024 with the first of my Authorly Advice blog posts. Every fifteenth of the month, I will be posting a now blog to share some sort of advice I have to share after my years of experience in this industry. Sometimes this will be publishing tools, editing guidelines, or event musts. Sometimes it will be about the writing itself. This first Authorly Advice blog is about our motivations for our writing.
Everyone has something that has driven them to write, positive or negative, and everyone has goals for that thing they have written. I should preface this by saying that, at the end of the day, these views are simply my opinion—though from experience—and if I make a disparaging remark about something that you feel strongly against, do not let my opinion deter you.
Why to Write
Your motivation behind your writing can really be anything. Perhaps you want to write a story like the books you’ve always loved. Perhaps you’ve never read the story you want to read and are now writing that story yourself. Perhaps you are learnéd and wish to take down an account of this expertise. Perhaps you’re writing a memoir. Your reason to write is your own, and whatever causes you to write is for you. That is the intrinsic motivation.
I write because I love it. I have always been a daydream adventurer. I grew up reading stories of faraway lands, and I created my own stories as a way to visit those lands. As I grew older, I created my own lands and then my own world. I love to tell stories, and I particularly love to immerse myself in fantasy worlds. Now that I have finally delved into Ambergrove with both feet, I write to compile the tales of Ambergrove. When I write outside of Ambergrove, it is typically to nail down a deep emotion I have that I can only name through writing.
Why to Publish/Share
We write for us—for whatever intrinsic motivation pulls us to write. The drive to publish that work is a push. It’s an extrinsic motivation. We want others to read what we have written, and we want them to approve of that writing. This is often where our motivation becomes skewed. What we choose to focus on as out extrinsic, or outside, gauge of our worth and success will determine whether we feel—and often whether we are—extrinsically successful.
Your intrinsic goals are for you. Because they are only for you and only for how you feel, the thing that pulls you to write is very rarely something that would pull you astray. Metaphor aside, when we are being pulled by something, we go exactly where that thing guides us. If we are pushed, we’re likely to stray off course. That is what sharing our work can do.
What are some good reasons to share your writing? Well, perhaps one of the best is because it will help people. If you know that others’ lives will be better for what you have said or it will raise their spirits, that is a good reason to share your writing.
If you are deeply connected to the subject matter—quite simply, if you care about what you have written—that is usually a good reason to share your writing. Because caring deeply for something means that you want others to care about it too.
If you just believe what you have written is good, that can often be a good reason to do it. You want others to read what you have written because you are proud of what you have achieved.
These reasons, and the effects of these reasons, all end at the same place: sharing your writing because you want someone to have a positive response to it is usually a good reason to share your writing.
If I mention good reasons, that should mean I’ll mention bad reasons. It does. Foremost, if sharing your writing to help others is the best reason, sharing your writing to harm others is the worst reason. The next worst is sharing your writing just to make money or become famous. Wanting to profit off your writing is not in itself a bad thing, but if the only reason you publish is to make money, that will be clear to any potential readers and will ensure you are dissatisfied with your publishing journey.
The authors who are famous, the household names, are outliers. The only authors who can live off their writing or become rich from their writing are ones who have their books adapted to film or television—and that is an extremely small number. Most published authors will never make enough money to live off the success of their books alone, no matter how amazing those books may be. Publishing is not likely to turn you into the next Stephen King. It is not likely to allow you to retire at thirty. It may earn you a few hundred or a few thousand dollars per year … if you work at it.
If all you want is to make money, you will likely discard potential readers along the way. When you push for people to buy your book, you come across as the typical “pushy salesman” rather than a passionate author. A little while ago, I read a complaint from an author about an event. This author was frustrated that potential readers came to their booth, asked about the book, and then left without buying it. The author said that if they weren’t going to buy it, the author would have rathered they not come to the booth at all.
This is a profit-centered and ego-centered frame of mind. Potential readers owe us nothing. If you make it clear that the people who express interest in your books only have worth to you if they buy them, you may find yourself deterring potential readers who would borrow the first book from the library just to see if they like it, discover they love it, and then buy every book you write because they know they will love it like the others. Not having a sale now doesn’t mean you won’t have a sale later, but if your motivation to publish is chiefly to make money, you may sabotage yourself along the way.
Sales are important, yes. Having sales helps us to continue to share our work, but sales should not be the reason we do it. That is what your “day job” is for. Unless you write because you’re a journalist or columnist or another whose profession is periodical writing. If so, crack on. My profession is technical writing and editing. I do these things because they are my professional fields and, with a few minor exceptions, I do these things chiefly to put food on the table (and in my pets’ bowls).
I write because I love it. I have always loved it, and I have always been drawn to fantasy. I publish because I love the world I created and want others to love it too. I focus on library availability over sales. My books are available for free from public libraries in a dozen states and a handful of countries. I have focused my publishing journey on sharing what I love regardless of profits, instead simply hoping to break even (I usually don’t). However, my books are read and enjoyed by thousands of people of all ages all over the world. I was able to travel back to Scotland on a crowdfunded book tour because there are so many people who believe in Ambergrove as I do.
My chief goal as a published author was to have someone put off something they were supposed to do just so they could read my books, as I put of sleep to read others’ books and got myself in trouble by putting off my math homework. I achieved this goal only a few weeks after Ranger’s Odyssey was published. It wasn’t from a sale; it was from a teacher purchasing the book for her classroom library and a student reading her copy—for free—and staying to finish the book when he should have run for the bus. He asked her repeatedly over the school year when she would have the next book.
I value all my readers, and I would happily work long weeks and steal time to write my books and attend events just to break even if that means that a single person reads every single one of my books. My “whys” are extreme. Yours aren’t expected to be, but strive to ensure that the thing that pushes you to write is a good thing.
Write for you. Publish for your readers.
May your writing and publishing journeys be grand adventures.
Tales of Ambergrove 