The Writer’s Inner Struggle

There is a truth that few writers will utter and, maybe even fewer will articulate. In order to sell our books we need to market them and marketing is an activity that most writers detest. This is not the truth I am talking about here of course but it leads up to it so I really need to start from the obvious.

Writing is hard enough without adding all the different tricks and tips of marketing on top of it but unfortunately a book that’s not marketed is one that isn’t read and a book that’s not read is not worth the paper it’s written on. That much should also be obvious so the deeper truth about that writers struggle with is one that’s associated not with the need to market the books we write but what marketing is associated with in order for a writer’s books to sell.

I know this is where it gets confusing so I will actually spell it out: Writers, to succeed, need to market themselves and not their books. Books sell only if writers are liked. This is a unique aspect of marketing that maybe few manufacturers have to really deal with. Sure we may think that Nike underpays its sales people and squeezes its Chinese manufacturers but as long as we associate its products with a perceived value and we don’t see dead bodies dropping anywhere, we are willing to (mostly) overlook that. Or, at least enough people are willing to do that to not make too big a difference to the manufacturer. But a writer who’s not liked immediately taints everything he or she has to say through the writing.

This leads to the interesting problem of the personality cult. In order for a writer to build a brand he or she will have to project and keep on projecting different facets of their personality. And in doing so get a buy-in from potential readers who buy into the values, voice and perceived status (and wisdom) of the writer. Building a personality cult for writers who are adept at understanding how different social elements work together is not a very difficult thing to do which is exactly the issue.

We write because we want our thoughts to resonate through the writing. If we wanted people to listen to us and admire us sufficiently to then give us their attention and purchase whatever we peddle we’d become orators or, at the very least, street market hawkers.

It is an interesting conundrum because it generates a tension between what we want to do as writers, which is write, and what is demanded of us, which is a whole lot of activities that fall under the label “not write”.

Now, it’s no secret that on top of my writing I often give talks to business groups and high-level execs, produce videos, do interviews and consult with large companies. All of these are activities that take me away from my writing and, should I let them, are quite capable of destroying the writer and leaving me only with the speaker/analyst part of my persona.

It’s taken me some time to resolve the tension and reconcile them all and I started by doing another obvious thing: I embraced them. By doing more talks, more presentations, more videos and interviews and still making myself find the time to write I filled all the available attentional space in my mind. I starved uncertainty and doubts until they were too feeble to distract me with their clamor and I took the time it needs to build away from self-criticism. But that’s not the solution that worked for me however.

What worked was in how I saw myself. Sure, I could have gone down the cult leader path (maybe) but what really worked for me (and it might just also work for you as a writer) is that I saw what I do as an exploration and myself as an explorer.

By a confluence of coincidences my current situation in life, career choices and background have placed me in the position where I can exploit my differences for the benefit of others. In chasing my curiosity down different paths such as “What would a business person need to ‘get’ in search” or “How do snipers think that we can benefit from?” I get to experience different worlds, find out how things work, discover amazing things and share everything with my readers. It is a form of self-indulgence. What kind of exploration isn’t? But by presenting the findings rather than who actually found things each time I get to bypass the personality cult trap and that, for a writer, is a liberating experience.