Should I Write A Book?
The most frequent question I've been asked this month!
So, as you may have heard, I’m teaching a new workshop! So You Want to Write a Book starts in May, goes all year, and you can sign up either for the full year or by quarters (you want to take it! It’ll be great! I promise!)
My mom and I share a Kindle account, and she texted me the other day because she was so mad at the book Yellowface she didn’t know if she should finish it. So of course I had to read it. And phew, I’m not sure what kind of genius RF Kuang is (and I’m pretty sure she’s a genius—Babel was easily the best book I read last year, and she is…wait for it…27 years old). But it takes a special kind of commitment to write an entire book in first person where there isn’t a single likable or redeemable character or moment. So, maybe read it? And tell me what you think? And if you want a palate cleanser, In the Lives of Puppets is gorgeous.
Anyway, books! Should you write one?
I have another book coming out in June (more information on that soon, and I’ll give you a peek at my book cover in early April!), and a few more book ideas in the works. My first book, as many of you know, came out of my dissertation and took about a year to revise. This second book will have taken seven years from conception to publication (and, you know, a pandemic and some babies and a new business and a cross-country move or two). I’ve also worked with dozens of authors over the past several years on their books from ideas to drafting to proposal to publication.
So among all of this, I’ve spent some time musing about why people write books, and what “good” reasons for book writing might be. Of course, just like other daring and questionably worthwhile undertakings (marriage, PhD programs, trips around the world) a combination of internal motivation, external motivation, and productive delusion goes into making the decision.
10 reasons you might write a book
Job security/demands. You’re in a book field, or a field that privileges books, and your tenure and promotion depend on writing the book. This is a great reason to write a book (though makes the stakes feel much higher).
Vanity. The moment has come for you to share your great ideas in the world, in a format that your enemies can hold in their trembling hands (more on that below).
You really love writing. Writing articles can sometimes feel utilitarian, particularly for folks in science fields. If you love the craft of writing, and working at your prose and your argument, doing so over the course of a book can feel satisfying.
You’re frustrated with articles/journals/traditional publishing. A lot of things fit under this umbrella, including wanting to explore ideas beyond the constraints imposed by journals. There’s more creative freedom to experiment with argument, form, storytelling, etc in books. You have more space, which means you can cite the people you want to cite and build the argument you want to build. The politics and ethos of academic book publishing are also different (and sometimes less hostile and more constructive) than journal publishing. And you can have both, spinning off articles as you write the book.
You want to reach a different audience. You may not be in a field that values or requires books, but are interested in entering into a conversation with a different group of folks than you generally reach with your articles. This might be communicating about your research to the broader public, or this might mean that you want to write Sci Fi love stories in long verse under a pen name. You only have one life—live it.
You want to use a book to think through a topic. If you have a topic that you’ve taught about for a long time, or published articles about different aspects of a given question, there may be a real value in bringing together all of your expertise under one umbrella. A book can be a great way to do that.
You want to keep your dissertation from getting dusty. If you’re not publishing articles out of your dissertation, it’s possible that it could become a book (or an Element) instead. This could be your moment to take the dissertation, dust it off, and rewrite it with you (not your committee) in the role of expert.
You have something to prove. Part of being human is the folly of setting seemingly impossible goals for ourselves. I know someone who is trying to step foot in every county in Texas (and they’re not even running for office). I heard an interview with a woman who spent COVID running every street in her town. A book can be one of those goals! Maybe some asshole told you that you weren’t a good writer. Maybe a snotty grad school colleague told you only real scholars write books, so you should stick to articles. Don’t write a book to prove them wrong, but do write a book to assure yourself that you’re awesome—and spite can be a powerful motivator in getting that done. (In this case, fantasizing about sending them a signed copy of the book counts as writing).
You want to hold a book in your hands. There is something lovely about opening a box of books with your name on it. Article publications are somewhat ephemeral (you google your name enough and one day the link to the online version shows up) and there’s a nice materiality to a book that you wrote.
You want to make money. Lol. We’re academics, remember? Someone I know just got a royalty check for…$3.43.
So, should I write a book?
Maybe!
If you need a book for tenure or promotion or to improve your job prospects, then you should probably write the book (I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news).
Otherwise, this decision, like many others, rests at the intersection of rationality and vibes. If the idea of writing a book feels like something you “should” do, but nothing I wrote above resonates with you and the mere thought makes you cringe inside, don’t write one! There are tons of other ways to satisfy your scholarly impulse without committing to putting 60,000-80,000 words on paper in one place.
But if there’s a voice in your head telling you that writing a book is something you might want to do, give it a try! I can help!
Okay fine, but can’t I just write the book by myself? How hard can it be?
Of course you can! Many (maybe even most) books are written by people who work alone on their books. And that might work well for you in terms of having time in your life to save for the writing, a skillset to support the writing you want to do, and the self-control to keep those two in motion over the course of book writing.
But here’s the thing—just because you can do hard things alone, doesn’t mean you have to. If you want to write a book but are worried about following through, this group might be for you. If you want to write a book but don’t know how—the mechanics of putting together a book-length project and then executing it—this group might be for you too. If you’re on sabbatical and worried about how to use unstructured time, this group can help you structure it. And if you’re teaching a 4-4 and still trying to get research work done, the workshop can help you stay in touch with your project even when you have other stuff going on.
That’s my pitch for today friends. If you want to chat about the workshop, let’s set up a time to talk!
All good things,
Kelly
Housekeeping
This newsletter will always be free, but if you like it you can always forward it to a friend or nudge a colleague to take one of the super fun classes coming up! If you have friends who are starting new faculty positions and trying to turn their dissertation into a book, or who are going on sabbatical and trying to make book progress, could you forward this to them? You’re the best!
Book writing workshop! So You Want to Write a Book: A Yearlong Book Writing Workshop. I couldn’t be more excited about this workshop, and I hope that all of you with great book ideas will consider applying! All of the details you need, including scheduling and payment logistics, are here, and you can apply here. I’m also very happy to set up a quick chat to answer questions about the workshop and see if it’s a good fit for your project.
Free writing challenge! If you’re looking ahead for some end-of-semester accountability and camaraderie, sign up for our free AprWriMo challenge, where we’ll write together every day from April 15-April 30. We’ll also have a full-day minimalist writing retreat on April 19, where we’ll open Zoom up at 8 am eastern, and keep it open until 8 pm or the last person logs off. Sign up here. It’ll be great, I promise.
Editing and coaching! If you think you’ll need editing or coaching support this summer or fall, now is a great time to get on our calendar. Along with the traditional developmental editing and consulting services, we’re expanding to offer new services, including drop-in editing, support for scholars for whom English is an additional language, and help with alt-ac job searches.
Future plans…Folks have been wondering if there will be writing workshops this summer. Other than the book writing class, I’m taking a break from workshops from May through September. But I’ll be editing and working one-on-one with folks this summer, and then back in the fall with a new (and even more awesome) version of the Writers’ Circle, so stay tuned for more details that!