5 Reasons You Must Write That Book
The first and most important question you should ask yourself if you are an aspiring author is: “Why do I want to write a book?”
Knowing the why behind your dream, particularly a demanding and lofty one like writing a book and getting it published, is absolutely essential. There will most certainly be a time in your publishing journey when you will need to resort back to your why. The sheer vulnerability required when writing and sharing your story, the isolation and determination essential as you persevere and craft words, the potential for repeated rejection, it’s not uncommon for even the most experienced already-published author to flirt with throwing in the towel a dozen or more times in the course of book writing.
You need to know your why.
Incidentally, why is also one of the first questions we ask when we are interviewing an author about potential representation. We want to know her motivations, that anchor she latches onto when the waves are getting rough and criticism comes. If she’s previously published, we tweak the question slightly, “Why should you write another book?”
As a leading literary agency, some of the responses we’ve heard include:
- I need to.
- I’ve always wanted to.
- Now seems like the right time.
- Because I can.
- Because I have a story that needs to be told.
Here are five whys for reasons we think you must write that book.
Reason #1: You must write that book if it is leaking out of you. Some book projects are like pulling a tooth not even the slightest bit wiggly. But every now and then, a book idea can be like a tooth just begging to fall out. The book is pushing itself through the gums, desperate to be penned, and there’s no way to stop it. When that happens, a writer becomes so enthralled in a story or idea they cannot help but sit at the keyboard and write 5,000 words on a given day. They are holed up in their writing cave, and they couldn’t leave if they tried. They have a vision where they want to take their book, and it’s so accessible at this moment, they cannot set it on the shelf for a later date. If that is you, WRITE. Don’t choke it back.
But with that said, just because you are ready to write it doesn’t mean a publisher is ready to publish it. There are a lot of factors that come into play when it comes to getting your book published – what buyers are buying, what others are writing, what is going on in the world, what is happening at publishing houses, what other titles are in the works, etc. Some things you cannot control. Write now anyway.
Reason #2: You must write that book if you have an idea, message or story that has proven to resonate with a certain audience and you are ready to reach a broader market. The fact is, publishing a book can expose your message to an audience you may have never engaged with before. It can take your story to a much wider, more diverse population. A prime example of this is a pastor with a well-received sermon series. The pastor preaches to the members of his congregation week after week on a certain subject. The message has a dramatic impact on the church. If taken to book format, perhaps it could extend past the four walls of the church building and into homes and neighborhoods all over the country, or all over the world!
Perhaps you have honed and cultivated a successful YouTube audience like our client Jefferson Bethke, and you are ready to break into book publishing because the message is clearly resonating with the culture. Maybe you have a thriving speaking career and you are traveling the country speaking to businesses, corporations, or conferences and you are ready to deliver your message in a book format. Perhaps you have a well-trafficked blog and a social media following where you are writing and delivering content regularly, and your audience is engaged and ready for a book to follow. If you are at a point in your influence and career where a book is going to enhance and deepen your impact, then that’s your why.
Reason #3: You must write that book if you have a beyond remarkable {and preferably redemptive} story. The tricky part is, not everyone has a remarkable story. And sometimes it can be hard to tell if our story is really as remarkable as we think.
The first time I read my friend Katie Davis Major’s blog, I read the ENTIRE blog from start to finish over two days. Then I cut and pasted her blog link and sent it to a bunch of friends, including my husband, with a message saying “YOU MUST READ THIS. DO NOT DELETE THIS.” Katie’s story was that good. Likewise, when I read the first five chapters of The Color of Rain, a manuscript from an ordinary couple in Michigan written by our now friends Michael and Gina Spehn, I had to get the rest of the story. Katie’s book, Kisses from Katie, hit the NYT Bestseller list for 33 consecutive weeks, and The Color of Rain premiered as the highest rated and most watched Hallmark Original Movie of all time. They had truly extraordinary stories that needed to be told.
Reason #4: You must write that book if you are a nonprofit organizational leader and you want to introduce your organization or it’s issue to a larger audience. I actually thought of writing a separate post related to this, “5 Ways to Use Your Book to Benefit Your Organization,” because so much can happen when a nonprofit organization has a book to leverage. Through a book, you can lend perspective, educate, entice, explain, describe, show the heart of your organization, and introduce the people who support you to the remarkable people your organization serves. Not all donors read your fundraising letters. Not all advocates read blog posts. But a book can be a tool to introduce your organization to new partners, to explain the need and how you are responding, and most of all, to tell stories – to help other people understand complex issues and start to understand how they can make an impact.
For several years I worked for Open Doors, a nonprofit organization serving persecuted Christians in over 65 countries. Their founder, Brother Andrew, authored a famous book, God’s Smuggler. Not too long after starting work there, the organization decided to publish a 35th anniversary edition of the book and include a new afterword by Brother Andrew about his current work in the Middle East. The book helped introduce the organization (which had an aging donor base) to a younger audience. Through the help of a drop-in mailer inserted in the book, we also were able to grow our newsletter subscription and educate a younger generation about the reality of religious persecution.
Reason #5: You must write that book if you have honed your voice, reached an audience, and want to edify the lives of others. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to know your aesthetic as a writer. Imagine your “writing voice” as your house. You want a person to walk into your house and get a feel for who you are. But if every room of your house was a different style – if some of the house was blue and some of the house was fluorescent orange, and some of it was modern and the next room country, it would be quite confusing to your guests. In the same way, readers need to know what we’re going to get when we read you. A writer needs to cultivate his voice before he enters the world of publishing.
Also, having a proven audience for your book is quite important. In fact, it’s pretty much essential today. When you can demonstrate you have an established reader base, it reduces the publisher’s risk and makes them more confident to invest in your book project. It shows the publisher your words have already made an impact. As an author, it’s encouraging to launch your publishing career with an army of supporters behind you rather than wondering, will anyone even buy what I’ve labored over? Keep the end goal in mind. You don’t just want to write a book and get it published. You want people to buy it, read it, and to see lives changed because of it.
So before you get started, take some time and brainstorm your why. Ask yourself why do you want to write that book? What is your motivation? Post it at your writing station. Set it as a screensaver. Write it down to refer back to when the work gets hard and you start questioning. Let your why be your reason to hang on and enjoy the ride!
