Why I Don't

A friend of mine recently wrote a short article on why she thought I should publish some of my work.  She feels that if I were to changes the names, or make them consistent and put together some interludes that I could string many of my stories together to make a novel.  And while it very well could be true that there is a novel in there waiting to come out the fact remains that I don’t think there is.  I have had discussions now several times with people, well email exchanges, about publishing some of my slop.  For the most part I have dismissed others arguments as somewhat simple and unrealistic.  This women however went to the trouble of putting some logical and good arguments to paper –{litem: 1738284}-and I felt she deserved a response with more than a cursory “Yeah right”, reply.  So I came up with it and after reading it several days later I still liked it so here it is. 

I don't know If I would call this a novel or not but you do present a compelling argument. Unfortunately you are assuming people in general and my family in particular gives a crap about what I write and you are sorely mistaken on that point I am, afraid.  For the sake of argument let's just say that I can write (please note that is an admission of nothing), what publisher would be interested in the drivel I write? Well I am afraid the answer to that is none. A while back I submitted a few things to a few different places. Oddly enough the response was fairly consistent across the board, “Thanks, don't call us we'll call you ".  Now, in case you Aussie's don't get that, it means get the hell away from me kid you suck. I kinda expected that actually.

So then I looked into self-publishing, or as someone here at WDC remarked "Vanity Publishing". Well the vanity remark really kinda rubbed my whole being the wrong way; it just goes against me you know? But, I pursued my looking into the matter (we are still under the -false- assumption I can write) and it would cost somewhere between roughly $1,000 and $2,000 U.S. for a very basic book. Between my lack of social and people skills and the time involved in actually trying to promote the book and sell a copy and earning a living (you see I have this thing about supporting my wife), the chance of actually efficiently, or successfully making the book known where somewhere between slim and none.  I might be able to sell a pity copy to my parents but I doubt it.  Additionally, the fact of the matter is I don't have that much money to spend on something like this. Just in case you are unaware, there is a depression (recession my ass) in the U.S. at the moment and the signs of relief for us little guys are not really there.

Now, if we look at this realistically, the fact of the matter is that my extended family doesn't give a shit about me unless there is a crisis, and then I am supposed to magically fix the problem, and this is with three or four or more conflicting sets of information. So getting any one of them to actually read something I have written isn't going to happen. Nobody has read anything up to this point so why would they start now? My kids aren't interested in what I write, They’re young and just starting their adult lives, they have better things to do than humor there old man; besides they lived a good portion of it why would they want to read about it. My wife won't even read my stuff unless I nag her quite a bit. So there really isn't much of a fan base here to start with.

So I can't see spending the money on something I am the only one who cares about. I could just print everything and put it in a three-ring binder and that can sit and collect dust instead of a box or two of books. Plus it would be cheaper. Please don't mistake this for, for what? false humility or something? these are the facts, reality.  I've dealt with it and I am okay with it. If you want to label it with something you can attribute my unwillingness to have a go at publishing something a lack of confidence linked to numerous insecurities.  Personally, I am going to go with no one is really all that interested in what your sub-average guy has to say.

I appreciate your attempt to persuade me with logic and complements don't mistake that. I am also extremely flattered that you think that my writing is okay and that there is something worth reading in all the stuff I write. I happen to feel that there are some good messages in much of my writing that many would benefit from. The reality is people don't want to read my stuff and they don't want to hear most of the messages I have to say. See my "Biography" page in my port, the “blog blurb", that is the reality.
So Suzy, thank you, I am extremely flattered and complimented. But I don't think we'll see anything of mine in print. Sorry.

John