Blog: 20,000 books a year

While talking to friends about my writing (and yes, flogging this website to try and increase the number of subscribers) someone asked why, with 20,000 books being published a year, I carried on writing. Did I not think it was a fool’s errand? This is the kind of question that would have stumped , me a few years ago. On Sunday, though, my response was quicker than I thought.

Because it’s fun!

I must admit, I was a little surprised at my answer. I think everyone else was too.

(It also turns out that 20,000 books is a low - very low - estimate).

Fun? Writing? I must be going mad. What could possibly be fun about pouring hours into sitting at a desk, writing words that most of the world will never see, and even more of the world doesn’t care about? What could be fun about working so hard to get a book deal, only to have to work harder in promotion and marketing just to get someone to notice it, let alone buy it? And what is fun about constantly feeling guilty and low-level anxiety that I’m not writing enough?

The list could go on, of course. So I will.

What happens when you succeed? What happens when you get a book published and released? You end up in a massive pool of 200,000 books in any one year. 200,000 books! That’s a mountain. The only way that I can imagine 200,000 books is to picture Wembley stadium with every single seat filled with a separate tome. Twice. That’s a lot of books.

So why bother? Why not take up a hobby that has a higher chance of success, like Olympic skiing? Or dragon slaying?

Well, even if you ignore all the romantic notions of writing like…

• (it’s in my blood, man)
• (I was born to write)
• (I just have a voice within me)
• (I’m an unsufferable egotist)

… writing is fun. There are loads of other hobbies where you can create literally anything of your own choosing. Sure, throw some paint on a canvas. Build a statue. Blow some glass. But I’d argue that writing and telling stories is a level all on its own. Humans have been telling stories as long as we’ve been able to. Before we figured out that we could paint on cave walls, I bet we knew what happened that night he went out hunting alone. They are an important part of our history and pre-history. They help us make sense of the world, and they help us enjoy the world. Therefore (and here’s the point) if we’ve been doing it for that long, it must be fun.

Too often we focus on the product and not the process. We worry that we should be doing more and should be delivering more and forget about what we spend most of our time doing – creating. I love crafting new worlds and new characters. I love pulling together rules on how magic can or can’t be used. I love it when writing myself out of a plot problem (assuming I can, of course!).

So, while there’s a chance that everything I write will end up unread, I don’t really mind. I’m well aware that this collection of random thoughts and typos I call a blog will probably end up consigned to the digital dustbin at some point, especially if my usual approach to writing and blogging repeats itself. But you know what, I’m enjoying writing right now, sitting on a train, forgetting to watch the clock, and trying to figure out how to wrap this blog up.

I’m looking forward to adding my work to the 200,000 books published in any year, be it this year or next (or next, or next!). Yes, it’ll likely get lost and sink unnoticed, but you know what? I’ll treasure the time that I’ve put into it. I’ll be able to tell people how difficult it was to put together, where I got my inspiration and why I made that plot point happen then.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that behind every story is a story. That’s what I love. That’s what writers want.

Gosh, that’s all a bit cheesy, isn’t it?

I best get back to writing weird poems about spiders.