So I have a new book out there in the world, a collection of essays and blog posts titled You Don’t Want To Be Published (And Other Things Nobody Tells You When You First Start Writing). It’s available for sale at all good ebook retailers as we speak, but I’m going to suggest you hold off on purchasing it for a moment.
Because I don’t want you to buy this book. I want you to subscribe to my newsletter, Notes from the Brain Jar, where I’m giving the book away as a special bonus to all new subscribers. If that sounds like a deal you’re interested in, you can sign up here and you’ll get your copy of the book mailed out all neat-and-easy.
If you’re not the newsletter type, you can still purchase the book. Or, if you’re so inclined, read everything for free by copy-pasting the titles into Google and finding the original blog posts or essay publications, almost all of which are available for free online if you’re willing to put the time and effort into tracking them down.
WHY I’M GIVING THIS BOOK AWAY
Offering a free ebook to newsletter subscribers is a pretty standard tactic these days, and I’m definitely offering this book up in order to give people who are on the fence a reason to give Notes from the Brain Jar a try. While I run hot-and-cold on social media and blogging, I’ve discovered that I really enjoy the process of putting together an email full of interesting thoughts and things on a regular basis. Given how much time I spend thinking about writing and publishing, this naturally tends to filter in and adds a level of synchronicity with the essay collection.
But my reasons aren’t just tactical, though. There’s a strong ideological reason for allowing cash-free access to the book: I want us to talk about writing in a different way.
I want us to accept that writers, like publishers and agents, can be in this business to make money.
I want us to accept that we can build a writing career that fulfils us, over time, instead of banking on the idea that it’s a one-in-a-million shot. Not everyone is going to become JK Rowling or Stephen King, but there’s a significant amount of space between “international best-seller” and “starving artist” that doesn’t get much play when people talk writing careers.
I’ve been blogging about this sort of thing for years now, which is were the core content of You Don’t Want To Be Published emerged. People kept reading certain blog posts and suggesting it would be useful to have them in a compiled format, and I elected to make that happen via the magic of ebooks (with bonus commentary when I look back from 2018 and re-consider my old opinions).
I’ve also been speaking about it at my QWC gig, taught courses about it specifically, and programmed four major writing conferences with the goal of pushing this conversation forward. This isn’t a message that comes naturally, given the rhetoric around writing and creativity, and lots of people resist it, which is why so many blog posts I write are framed around seemingly contradictory statements.
It’s not that I have all the answers, or that I represent some brave move forward. I’ve just spent the last ten years helping writers, in one form or another, and seen the impact that “luck, inspiration, and creative genius” message has on the decisions writers make and the advice we give the new writers coming after us.
Giving the book away for free to newsletter subscribers isn’t just a tactical decision, it’s an invitation to be part of an ongoing conversation about the craft and business of art that I believe we need to keep having.
You Don’t Want To Be Published is the summation of all the stuff I wish I’d figured out earlier and the knowledge that helped me make better decisions about my career. It’s the best advice I’d offer someone interested in being a writer, rather than someone who simply wants to learn how to write.
You can sign-up for the newsletter (and a free copy) by entering the details below, or purchase a copy of the book at the retailer of your choice.
So I’d ordinarily show up here and talk up