Just kidding, this one is pretty sex-light too

Alright fun-loving kiddos. I’ve got an announcement. I’m going to take a break from blogging. I’m still going to do the daily newsletter. But I’m not going to write proper posts until I get my book proposal for No One Ever Asks Me Why I’m Single done.

I was talking to a friend last night, well, an acquaintance. And he got real with me. I write a lot. But I don’t put a lot of time and effort into my writing. I just kind of write it and hit publish. It’s true that you can get incrementally better by doing the same thing over and over again through sheer dint of repetition. But the real leaps forward come when you push yourself into unfamiliar territory. The most recent leaps forward for me have been writing longer posts, and writing more personal posts.

Why write a book? The three reasons I want to publish a book are

1. The prestige. That means a lot of different things. It means it’s easier for me to get media spots and speaking gigs. It means I have entered a new eschelon of writer, from blogger to published author. It’s a bit like a college degree for writers. It might suck and I might have learned nothing from the content, but at the very least it means I can write 50k words and package them together and get them out the door.

2. The marketing. A book is an excellent marketing tool. It will do more to help me get to my 10k email addresses goal than a lot of other avenues.

3. It’s me taking myself seriously. I’m very conflicted about the idea that I’m a writer. It just seems like such a low-paid, low-value, high-supply, low-demand “skill.” I’ve been both too allergic to self-importance (don’t fucking laugh) and too afraid of being hungry to think of myself as a writer. But now, at 30, I’ve been doing it longer and harder than anything else and I have to admit that it’s my most marketable skill. I’m also deathly afraid of finding the limits of my talent. So me treating writing like a hobby is me protecting myself from trying really hard and finding out that I’m not actually that good. Which is what I suspect. Fuck, it’s what I know. I’m not that great a writer. But, since that’s not going to stop me from writing, I really shouldn’t let it stop me from taking on bigger projects in an attempt to get better at it.

I’m going to try to get it published because I don’t expect to make any money from it, and having it published is more prestigious. And everything that I’ll have to do to write this proposal will need to be done to market the book should I have to self-publish anyway, so trying to get an agent is no wasted effort and lots of potential upside.

So, that’s what I’ll be working on. Will likely blog periodic updates, but I want to channel my energy into this big project.