I write to communicate that state of mind, to actually communicate period, and communication requires someone at the other end. It’s also nice to be able to make a living doing it (which I’m far from), so that the communication can continue. As writers, maybe we need to sort this out. Exactly why do we write and is there a good reason our work should be on the shelves?
I’ve drifted afield from the nuts and bolts of my self-publishing process, but I think we need to start here. Exactly why do we write and whom does it serve? Things became clear to me when a good friend was visiting from Pennsylvania several years ago before I published my book. He wanted to know what I was writing so I printed out about half the manuscript for him to take home. He in turn gave the manuscript to a woman in Pennsylvania to read. I received an email about a month later from the woman asking for the second half, because the first half had moved her beyond words.
After I sent her the second half she wrote to me of her experience, of how she had come to herself in a new way from reading my work, that somehow my story was her story. But strangely, it’s also other people’s story. This is why I write. This is why I risked self-publication. It was for those moments when someone spontaneously says, “You touched something in my experience and my experience of the world is better for having read your work.” I risk making a fool of myself to experience the moment of communication. This is why I clutter up the shelves.
Next: Back to the nuts and bolts (I hope)
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
very eloquent and sensible John, I really enjoyed it - thanks!
2 - Mark Saleski
keep it up john. i'm totally lovin' where you've gone so far.
3 - John Spivey
Thanks.
4 - Victor Lana
John, I am enjoying the series. As someone who wanted his book published as it was written (instead of the way agents and traditional publishers wanted to corrupt its very nature), I chose self-publishing as a way to protect the sancity of my work.
I'm looking forward to more of your series.
5 - bonnie wren
John - I was moved to tears at the way my totally spontaneous response to your manuscript really served your creative process - I am the same way when I get that with my music.- (I am "the woman from Pennsylvania" right?) Your heart-and-soul-felt writing really did serve me in inexpressable ways but I guess I expressed it well enough - You knew I meant it
love,b
6 - Nicholas Stix
Some poll results are credible, and some ain't. If "80% of the U.S. population wants to write a book," but considerably less than that percentage reads books, either the poll result is nonsense, or the notion of authorship is in even more trouble than I thought. Either people are making claims that have no connection to their future conduct, or armies of the semi-literate and functionally illiterate are marching off to "express" themselves, at which point virtually no one will take any self-published work seriously.
7 - gypsyman
Nicholas, have your read the majority of what passes for writing on blogs these days? If those are them same people who claim that they want to write a book, is it any wonder that there is a proliferation of "self publishing" sites ready willing and able to exploit that delusion?
One of the most unfortunate things the internet and blogging has done is allow for the ridiculous notion of everybody is an artist to extend even further to the idea that everybody is a writer.
While it's true everybody can sit down at a keyboard and type words on a screen and put them up on the internet, that does not make them a writer.
The truely unfortunate fallout of this is that people like John who have the real motivation, drive and talent to write are lumped into that faceless morass of dross that is called self publishing.
Fewer and fewer publishers are looking at workd unless you have an agent, and fewer and fewer agents are looking at work unless you have been published...Why, because they are sick and tired of reading manuscripts by people who assume they are writers because they have a blog.
There has always been a percentage of people who have suffered under the delusion that they can write, for one reason or another (who knows I may be one of them) but with blogs that number has increased exponentially.
I wrote a piece a while back called "The Difference Between Writing and Blogging" or something along those lines, and boy were those who chose to comment upset. Maybe I'm a snob and an intellectual elitiest, but there has to be a benchmark for what is considered worthy of being bound in a book form, or the whole idea becomes worthless and demeaned.
If everbody is a writer than writing is no longer something that is an art form or anything special. If publishers are able to maintain a level of quality that preserves the integrity of writing to a certain degree, then I'm all for them.
What's needed is a means of new authors being able to access that apparatus for a legitimate assesment, and not just be lumped into the mass of non writers. Supposedly that was the job of the agent, but they now have become more interested in signing the next ten digit advance author to their rosters, than contributing to the quality of growth of the industry.
What will they do when all their "favourites" die out? If they have not developed a new crop of writers to follow in the footsteps of who's current, or at least encouraged that development, what will become of literature?
Thoughts to ponder.
gypsyman
8 - Scott Butki
If you haven't read it, read Stephen King's book on writing. Unlike most of his writing this one is good from start to finish.
9 - John Spivey
gypsyman-
I just read your comments on both Part 2 and Part 3. Thanks. I share your frustration as voiced above. I wish we had a web place where quality of writing was paramount. In many ways the web has created a democratization of mediocrity. Even more I wish that we actually had a chance to be heard and represented in the book world. I'm a good writer with something to say.