Why to Not Write a Book • Hacker News Board

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#141

Post by ruthmarx » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:27 PM UTC

greenie_beans wrote: post #126

ruthmarx wrote: post #115

I have several books I want to write - I'm definitely bursting with idea, intent and motivation, and not just idea as a concept, but rather fully fleshed out. The hardest part is fighting ADHD or whatever and actually doing the work. These days if I were to publish I'd probably setup an LLC as a publishing company, do a little work to make the company look a lot bigger than it is and try to find some bookstores to se…

> try to find some bookstores to sell to directly bookstores don't wanna carry your book if they can't buy it from a distributor with standard discounts and the ability to return. good luck getting your books from your brand new publishing company carried by ingram. (see https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/p... , which would've been the best chance you had at being distributed, and even then th…

Interesting, thanks for the info and link. So what, it would be basically impossible to get a distributor to take books from a new publishing company? Or is it that they could be convinced to do so but likely if the new publishing company made a deal where they picked up more of the costs and/or risk than usual?

Any reason the new publishing company couldn't just be a distributor themselves, and make deals with bookstores allowing for discounts and returns?

I have no issue with the idea of taking losses before making a profit, and if anything I produce is good, I would have faith it would sell eventually. Any returned copies are copies that could be donated to various places, which might hopefully allow word of mouth to spread.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#142

Post by ghaff » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:28 PM UTC

taptak wrote: post #123

modernerd wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What happens when you walk up to a publishing agent and tell them you don’t have anything to show them… They told him to hand over whatever he'd got: "Douglas happily built his reputation for (at this stage, merely) sailing close to the wind when it came to publishing deadlines by telling interviewers that he had been ordered to literally stop writing and hand his manuscript over to a courier no matter where he had…

> "All of my life I've been attracted to the idea of being a writer, but like all writers I don't so much like writing as having written. … each time I meant to try to write something, I'd miss the deadline by two weeks." Having written several works without ever completing or publishing any of them, I find this comment from Adams particularly resonates with me. That said, I’ve had success with a narrative podcast, w…

I had a coauthor once who loved to show off and give away copies of "his" book once it was published. But getting them to do work on it? That was pulling teeth.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#143

Post by ghaff » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:32 PM UTC

sundarurfriend wrote: post #124

a_bonobo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard this many times before (I think Charles Bukowski used to preach this?), and I have to say I disagree. Famously Douglas Adams had to be forced to write every sentence in the Hitchhiker's Guide. He certainly didn't have a book inside him that had to get out, he had external deadlines and rent to pay. Can you imagine a world without HGTTG?

> Can you imagine a world without HGTTG? Yes. Maybe an unpopular opinion here, but the book form of HGTTG is a mess. You can tell that it was converted from an episodic weekly-gag-based radio show into written form with very little effort to make it into a coherent whole. It's popular because it has brilliant one-liners, but as a book it's not nearly as good as its popularity would suggest.

Adaptations of loosely-connected episodic material to book form is tough even with editing. I did it once and it didn't really work very well. Look at most compilations of newspaper columns too.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#144

Post by taormina » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:37 PM UTC

sph wrote: post #122

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Most drama today sucks" --- "This is called write-to-market" Yes. I doubt you disagree, but I needed to point that out. These two, along with writing-by-formula, are intricately related. There's nothing wrong with writing being a racket. If you want to feel depressed and lack a sense of optimism in humanity, spend some time learning about the publishing industry. Woof. It's nothing but formulaic conservative market-…

> "She's a gay little person goth time-traveling alien, he's an autistic left-handed incel Quaker. They live in Portland, and together they solve crimes." I'm pretty sure a Netflix executive would have signed on this concept based on this sentence alone half a decade ago. Now it seems the entire world is waking up to these formulaic data-driven products that have been pushed by media conglomerates for a decade. This…

Check out how Snow White has been going. The film industry is absolutely there, but the good news is it's going exactly as horribly as you predicted.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#145

Post by MetaWhirledPeas » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:37 PM UTC

a_bonobo wrote: post #43

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've heard this many times before (I think Charles Bukowski used to preach this?), and I have to say I disagree. Famously Douglas Adams had to be forced to write every sentence in the Hitchhiker's Guide. He certainly didn't have a book inside him that had to get out, he had external deadlines and rent to pay. Can you imagine a world without HGTTG?

> I disagree. Famously Douglas Adams had to be forced to write every sentence

Who says we all need to be Douglas Adams? If the book is only for you then the bar is very low.

With creativity there's an overlap between creating for oneself and creating for others. You might start with the former but end up craving the latter. But most people creating things don't require validation from others; it would just be nice.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#146

Post by achenet » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:38 PM UTC

d--b wrote: post #49

Great read and you could totally translate it to “Why to Not Write an App” almost verbatim. The following passage is I think the most interesting: > Now of course, there is a second kind of author: authors who write books with little discernible impact on their newsletter or blog. They sit down for an hour (statistically, in the morning), pound out their quota, and turn to the next task. The book does not weigh on th…

I actually wrote a novella over the summer, using the "just write a bit every day and then go live your life method".

It works quite well ^^

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#147

Post by hiAndrewQuinn » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:40 PM UTC

interludead wrote: post #62

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #23

>I suspect that if many writers took seriously writing a book as a real project, rather than an aspirational cultural ideal of ‘being an author’ along the lines of ‘being a foreign language speaker’ or ‘being a PhD’, they would realize that it is a serious risk which can backfire. Ha, I feel called out. I'm in the latter camp, I was always terrible at languages as a kid and it was part of the reason I decided to move…

Your language-learning journey with Finnish is cool

Shhh you'll make me blush

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#148

Post by achenet » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:40 PM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #36

Wow, I really love this site design, and the features like the floating annotations / footnotes. > same way one might want to have ‘learned to read Mandarin’ or ‘become a bodybuilder’, but not to actually sweat through memorizing (and then forgetting) endless arbitrary characters or hours in the gym (followed by gluttony as cruel as the starvation). Having done both of these things to some degree, I wonder where the…

I found Dawn of Everything to be very accessible, personally.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#149

Post by ghaff » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:41 PM UTC

tinybrain wrote: post #121

vouaobrasil wrote: post #10

The main reason not to write a book is that the topic doesn't need a book-length treatment, and would be better as an article. Fiction of course is one thing, but even then, some fictional ideas and personality combinations are better as short stories. Personally, as a reader, I find a lot of book ideas interesting (especially in the realm of popular science), but I can stomach very few of them because they are exces…

This is my #1 gripe with non-fiction books. Way too wordy, too many anecdotes, just spit it out already. Please value my time as the reader. I read a lot of books, but I feel like I’m allocating more mental energy skimming half the content than I am absorbing knowledge. 37signals/Basecamp had some illuminating things to say about their book experiences. They kept fighting with the publisher to make their book short,…

Publishers in general want books that are 250+ pages. And that's probably too much for a lot of topics.

The one time I went through a publisher I definitely felt I was padding things. The second edition was better. I took out some of the padding and I fleshed out other topics that deserved it. It still barely made it to the 250-ish page point though.

Re: Why to Not Write a Book

#150

Post by greenie_beans » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 1:42 PM UTC

ruthmarx wrote: post #141

greenie_beans wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> try to find some bookstores to sell to directly bookstores don't wanna carry your book if they can't buy it from a distributor with standard discounts and the ability to return. good luck getting your books from your brand new publishing company carried by ingram. (see https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/p... , which would've been the best chance you had at being distributed, and even then th…

Interesting, thanks for the info and link. So what, it would be basically impossible to get a distributor to take books from a new publishing company? Or is it that they could be convinced to do so but likely if the new publishing company made a deal where they picked up more of the costs and/or risk than usual? Any reason the new publishing company couldn't just be a distributor themselves, and make deals with books…

ingram is about* the only game in town. it's very hard to get them to take your books as a small publisher. you'll be stuck with their terms. your venture will need a backlist and proof that you can move books, otherwise it makes no sense for them to go into business with a small publisher who doesn't move much product. you'd be better off using ingram spark if you're a self-published author who wants to be carried in bookstores.

*asterism books is trying to fill the void left by small press distribution. they distribute independent presses. but they're picky about who they carry, and also require you to have some semblance of successful sales.

you can certainly diy distribution, but some bookstores don't want to work directly with small publishers unless they're a fan/friends of the press. they already have business processes in place for handling distribution. they don't want to deal with a bunch of self-pubbed authors who created a brand to self publish their books. it's too much work for something that most likely won't sell enough to make up the cost of doing business with the press.

bookselling is a low margin endeavor (like a 2% profit margin according to one recent ABACUS by the american booksellers association), so it makes sense for them to be this way.