Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why to Not Write a Book

gwern.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 215 posts

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#91

Post by aubanel »

In the collection of Rilke's letters "Briefe an einem jungen Dichter", he writes what I think one of the best advice about writing a book or not:

"This above all: Ask yourself, in your night’s quietest moment, Do I have to write? Dig deep down into yourself for the answer. And if it is yes, if you can meet this solemn question with a strong and simple “I must,” then build your life around that necessity."

It's harsh, but I think the necessity aspect is important: if you feel like a spring from which the urge of writing naturally flows and you could not repress it, then write. Else, don't.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#92

Post by asddubs »

dayjaby wrote: post #86
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He writes crime novels. Doesn't even like them, but if you want to sell, you either write smut (big gamble) or crime novels (less crowded). Reminds me of Chuck Tingle, who is an author but also a troll, writing books like "Pounded In The Butt By My Handsome Sentient Library Card Who Seems Otherworldly But In Reality Is Just A Natural Part Of The Priceless Resources Our Library System Provides".

Reminds me of about every single Japanese web novel... "I've been killing slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level" "I'm a behemoth, an S-ranked monster, but mistaken for a cat, I live as an elf girl's pet" The list goes on with even longer titles.

It's just clickbait titles, because it works. Wouldn't surprise me if we see more of that on books as well in the future rather than short and vague titles

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#93

Post by MrMikardo93 »

gizajob wrote: post #20

If you’re not completely driven to write a book, and there isn’t a book inside you that you just have to get out, then do not bother writing a book. Agents and publishers have nothing to do with it - you don’t need to ask for permission to write your book, it’s a piece of art. Agents and publishing come afterwards - and nobody is going to be interested really anyway, at least in the early stages. So if that is enough…

I believe Virginia Woolf wrote, "I write only for my own pleasure. I write to give myself pleasure." Which pretty much encapsulates this.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#94

Post by 082349872349872 »

asicsp wrote: post #24

On the flip side, converting my tutorials to ebooks saved me from having to look for a job again. Been selling them for 6 years (with the last two years spent just to update them to newer software versions, improve examples, new cover images, etc). Of course, I have the advantage of living in a developing country but selling to an international audience (just $200/month to pay my bills).

Living in a high income country, where $200 is well within monthly fluctuation, this situation makes me wonder if a little more telepresence might lead to us bifurcating into a world where the Eloi will know a tiny amount about how all of it works, and the Morlocks will know all about how a tiny amount of it works?

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#95

Post by probably_wrong »

hk__2 wrote: post #58
shahzaibmushtaq wrote: post #51

I never wrote a book. But we all live in the age of e-books and self-published books, so the money involved may be limited to 2-3 digits at most all you need is a strong online presence to be successful. Moreover, finding an audience is also not as difficult as it used to be in the past if you have a large active following base such as https://x.com/levelsio has self-published his book ( https://readmake.com ) and he…

> Moreover, finding an audience is also not as difficult as it used to be in the past if you have a large active following base Well, "if you have a large active following base" is the key here. If you don’t, it’s almost impossible to find an audience.

Finding an audience is not as difficult as it used to be in the past if you have an audience.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#96

Post by cubefox »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #37
cubefox wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's highly unlikely to earn money with a book...

It depends on how you calculate the "earnings". If I calculate my hourly rate to $200 and take the hours it took to write and market the book, I lost a lot of money. But would I have worked instead of writing the book? My book is $30 and I get 80% selling through Leanpub. So I got quite some money, and a trickle of money every week since it peaked. Can you earn money with a book through a publisher (if you're not alr…

Yeah, "Amazing CTO" does sound like something people would pay money for. But fiction very likely doesn't sell, and likewise most passion projects of the "I want to write a book" type.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#97

Post by cpach »

asddubs wrote: post #92
dayjaby wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of about every single Japanese web novel... "I've been killing slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level" "I'm a behemoth, an S-ranked monster, but mistaken for a cat, I live as an elf girl's pet" The list goes on with even longer titles.

It's just clickbait titles, because it works. Wouldn't surprise me if we see more of that on books as well in the future rather than short and vague titles

This fashion was not uncommon before the 20th century or so.

For example, Daniel Defoe’s seminal work from 1719: The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#98

Post by _tom_ »

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #77
QuesnayJr wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read some subreddits for authors for a while, and all of the advice was like this. A few authors get lucky writing what they like, but most of them find a niche and relentlessly optimize for it. Romance sounded like the most optimizable, because it's a bunch of microgenres, and within a microgenre the readers want to read the exact same thing over and over. Some authors were making good money writing a book a month…

It's partly a transition in the industry towards less risk taking. You see it in the movie industry as well. Certain authors are the equivalent of blockbuster movie releases. Publishers pay them huge amounts and market the ever living daylights out of them. Sally Rooney is a recent example, or authors like Salman Rushdie or Zadie Smith, where their books releases are "events". Many publishers are moving away from the…

The midlist has moved into self publishing. Many more books are published on amazon than by trad publishers. Many of them don't sell, but the numbers (guess) aren't probably that different from fad publishing in terms of success.

Many authors that succeed at self publishing move to traditional publishers. (Hugh Howe, E L James) Others (Tamara Taylor) like to control and much higher royalties and stay self published.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#99

Post by brudgers »

hengheng wrote: post #52

I've once talked to a semi-successful author. His day job was Mechanical Engineering at the local university. He eventually quit once he had his formula worked out. He writes crime novels. Doesn't even like them, but if you want to sell, you either write smut (big gamble) or crime novels (less crowded). Anything you actually want to write about, you have to shoehorn into the crime novel. You also have to keep your pr…

Writing is like any other form of creative expression: most people pursuing it need a day job too. Among possible day jobs for writers, most writers can and do do worse than writing.

Even a dream job is still a job and brings some resentment just for the fact it is a job. It ain’t gonna make you a trust fund baby.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#100

Post by _tom_ »

grecy wrote: post #88

I’ve self published three books now, with another in the works. Amazon print on demand makes it incredibly easy. They’re about my adventures around the world, with some lessons I learned and observations about whatever part of the world I’m in sprinkled throughout. The process was immensely satisfying, and I’ll never forget the feeling the first time I held the printed book in my hands. “Holy shit, I wrote a book!” M…

I don't see a date the article. The web has taught me to never waste time with an undated article. Odds are very good it's obsolete.
Post reply on HN