Three good reasons to write a book

What is your why?

With any endeavor, especially writing, the question to begin with is, “Why?” If you feel compelled to do anything from writing to starting a business to getting in shape, the best place to begin is determining your why. Why do you want to write?

Over the last six months, I’ve coached a group of writers. Each writer had to set a monthly goal—how many words would they write? They had to turn in those “word chunks” for my feedback. Their why for joining the Powerful Story Writers’ Group: they wanted to finish (or at least make solid progress) on a rough draft of their book.

Once a month, we met on Zoom for instruction on writing, editing, and publishing. And they moved closer to their goal of a finished rough draft of their book. Whoo-hoo! It’s been fun watching them grow and accomplish so much.

Our little writers’ group is more than a place for instruction and accountability. We’ve built a little community where we can commiserate and encourage and vent and ask questions.

(By the way, I’m going to do another group starting in January, so contact me for details on that.)

You can also connect with me in the Powerful Story private facebook group here. Just request an invite to join.

The reasons for writing a book vary. It is sometimes hard to even articulate why we feel compelled to put words on paper, to wrangle our wild thoughts, explore what happened to us and how we feel about it. My writers’ group members all expressed surprise at how challenging writing can be, how much there is to learn. It’s easy to write, it’s another thing to write well, and that was the invitation of this group: to just write, but then to also learn what would take their writing to the next level, whatever that means for them.

I believe that anyone who wants to write should write. For some of us, just putting thoughts on paper or screen is a useful exercise, a way to see what we think, to explore and get curious and discover and hone our ideas. For some of us, writing is a healing practice. Telling the truth, even in a private journal, sets us free.

It’s one thing to write, another to write a book, and a completely other thing to publish. But for today, I want to look at three good reasons to write a book.

Reason 1: Write a book for yourself

I believe that anyone and everyone who feels a stirring to write their own story, a memoir, should do it. As my writers will tell you, it’s not easy to actually do this, but looking back on your story and getting it down is a therapeutic experience. You learn a lot about yourself in the telling of your own story. You take back control of the narrative.

One of my writers told me, “I think I’m just writing this for me,” meaning not for publication. And for many writers, that’s enough. In a way, writing for yourself takes the pressure off. You don’t have to spend money to publish it, or spend time and effort getting the attention of a publisher. You can just write your story. You can write because it makes you happy, because it’s a path to joy. If you share it with people in your family or friends, or put it out in installments on a blog, that’s fine. If you write it only for yourself, that’s fine too.

Not sure how to start? Best selling memoirist Susy Flory has a library of free helpful videos on memoir writing on her Everything Memoir Facebook group page. You can join that group here. The instruction and insights (and writerly community) on that page are gold, my friends.

Reason 2: Write a book to grow your business

If you’re an entrepreneur, writing a book is a great way to market your business. A book establishes you as an expert in your field. The title “author” on your resume can open doors for coaching or speaking opportunities. It can show your potential customers that you know your stuff. People tend to do business with people they trust, and being an author makes you an authority in people’s eyes.

Say you own a small marketing and advertising business. If you write a book on marketing, the book will make money even if you give away a lot of copies. Because if the book is well-written and helpful, it will convince people to hire you.

Many of my collaborative writing clients come to me for help with a book to help them grow their business or their speaking career. I help them write it and help them self-publish it. Again, with a book like this, you’re not overly focused on selling thousands of books (though that would be great). And you’ll invest some money in the production of a self-published book (things like editing and design). But once you create this product, it becomes a selling tool. You’re focused on getting your book into the hands of key decision makers who will then hire you or your company, quickly bringing a return on your investment of the time and money it took to write and publish your book.

Reason 3: Write a book to inspire, entertain or educate others

Maybe you’ve got a great story that you want to tell by writing a compelling, entertaining and inspiring novel. Maybe you’ve got insights about business, goal-setting, spirituality, exercise or whatever. And you want to share them with the world. You want to equip others to live their best life or understand a topic more deeply. That’s a great reason to write a book.

The challenge with this kind of writing is finding your audience. How will you connect your wonderful book with readers so that they can be entertained by your novel, educated by your self-help book, inspired by your devotional?

When we write for readers, we must find a way to connect with those readers. Which means, you’ll be writing for publication. That is a journey in itself, beyond just writing. A writer must become what I call an authorpreneur—an author who is also an entrepreneur, a business builder who is growing their influence to find the audience for their work. Whether you opt for traditional or self-publishing, you’ll have to market yourself and your book, build your platform, find your readers and connect with them online or in person. (What’s the difference between traditional royalty publishing and self-publishing? Glad you asked. Read this post and also this one for the basics.)

Many writers balk at the idea of platform building, of marketing their writing to a specific audience. But if you feel compelled to write a book, and you’re not just writing it for yourself, then it makes sense to tell people about it. It’s not self-promotion, it’s sharing your ideas and your insights.

If you find yourself in that last category—wanting to write to connect with an audience, to publish your work simply so others can read it, it’s sometimes hard to know where to start. A great first step, which provides lots of writing practice, is to join and writers’ group, and then start writing. You may want to start a newsletter. It’s a great place to try out ideas, to write about your topic in a shorter format, to simply hone your writing skills.

There are lots of platforms—I really like Substack, obviously. You can start a free newsletter or one that you charge a subscription fee for. If you’re a reader of this newsletter, and you start a free Substack, leave a comment below and I’ll subscribe. If I like what I read there, I’ll recommend and share.

These three reasons to write a book are not the only reasons, of course. But I share them because with any endeavor, it’s good to “know your why.” Why do you want to write? What’s the goal? What are you hoping will happen, and why are you motivated to write?

Getting clear on your why will ignite your motivation to write. It will help you figure out your next step. Whether you are writing for yourself, writing to build your business, or writing to reach a specific audience, my advice is simple: begin. Determine your why, then write.

P.S. I’m going to lead an online writers’ group again in January so if you’d like to get email updates when registration opens in the fall, click here and leave me a note on my website.