There is no reason for everyone to not write a book.
Why wouldn’t you?
Is there nothing you could write about at length? Doubtful.
15 years ago you had excuses.
I don’t know where to start. It’s too hard to find a publisher and an agent. I can’t afford all equipment.
All could be valid excuses 10 or 15 years ago, but not now.
The barrier to publishing a book no longer exists.
You can debate whether this is good for the industry as a whole or destructive and degrades the quality, but the barrier has been eliminated.
If you want to write a book. If you have something to share. You don’t have an excuse.
The screenwriter still has excuses, but even those are getting harder to justify, given the increasing availability of high quality cameras.
If you write a screenplay, you can blame it’s failure on not finding an agent, not having funding, equiptment, or necessary resources.
All you need is a computer and time to publish a book.
What makes a better resume?
The standard template that college gives you that makes you blend in with 97% of applicants.
or
A book that you wrote about projects you’ve worked on, skills you’ve acquired, or anything else and what you learned from them.
A resume is the minimal amount of effort required to get a job. You can and should go beyond that.
Why not write a book?
Everyone has at least one book inside them waiting to be written. If you can’t write even a 30 page mini ebook, you’re battling the resistance (please watch this) or you’ve lived a dull life. Actually, living a dull life isn’t even an excuse. The Mezzanine is a book about nothing, but is pretty entertaining.
The future of self-publishing:
In 5 years, at least a few of your friends will have written a book. When people can publish and share with little resistance, they do. Beat them to it. It’s likely that in 5 years, you’re going to wish that you had written a book now. I wish I started consistently blogging 5 years ago.
What if no one reads it?
Then you’ve failed as a human being and should be humiliated. Who cares? Is that the only benefit to writing a book? No. Writing clarifies the mind. It sharpens your thinking. It forces you take the thoughts floating around your head and organize them into a cohesive piece of work. Yes, it’d be great if you became the next Amanda Hocking, but that’s not a reason to write a book. If you want attention, yell “Fire” in a movie theater. You write because you have something worth saying and writing is a natural human expression.
How?
All you need is Microsoft Word or Google Docs. That’s it. Or if you’re disorganized, Scrivener is amazing. But everything you need to know about self-publishing can be found online. CreateSpace or BookBaby will do almost everything for you, if you want.
There. I’ve made my case.
You should write a book. Why not?
Connect with me on Twitter: @BenNesvig
Kenny says
I’ve been thinking about writing a book for some time now. This has definitely motivated me.