DARRYL DASH is the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church East Toronto and cofounder of Gospel for Life. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and has over 30 years of ministry experience. He is the author of two books published by Moody Publishers. Darryl is married to Charlene and has two adult children, Christy and Josiah. You can find Darryl online at www.DashHouse.com.
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The publishing industry is challenging. Not only do you have to be a great writer, but you need a big platform. In the end, you need a book that will sell.
It’s understandable. Publishers aren’t charities, and they need to make money from their books. Publishing a book is a massive investment that costs a lot of money and involves significant risk.
For this reason, it’s difficult to be published. Unless you have a large following, or catch a break, you may face an uphill battle in getting your book published.
And yet, I would argue, it’s still important for you to write for at least a couple of reasons.
First, somebody needs your writing. Just because you won’t sell 5,000 or 10,000 books doesn’t mean that you don’t have a message that can benefit many. You don’t need a large audience; a small one will do. Someone will likely benefit from what you’ve learned. Your writing will be a blessing to someone who needs it.
There’s also a huge benefit in writing for your own sake. Writing helps us think on paper. It helps us practice and develop our skill. The only way to become a better writer is to write. If writing changes nobody else, it will change you. But as it changes you, I’ll bet that it will also help others at the same time.
Beyond that, it’s never been easier to publish. Anyone can start a blog or open their own Substack. If you want to write a book, you can publish and market it yourself. Sure, it’s hard work, but so is publishing the traditional way. Nobody’s standing in your way.
Years ago, someone told me that a well-written article will get more readers than most books. That was before the age of blocking any internet content, but the point still stands.
You can write on the internet; and if you write well, your writing can have just as big an influence as many of the books you see in the bookstore. If your writing is good, or even if it’s becoming good, you will find readers.
I agree with what Barbara Ueland wrote a long time ago: “Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say.” You probably don’t have something new to write—pretty much everything’s been said already—but nobody’s said it quite the same way that you will, from your perspective.
Please write. We need your voice. It’s nice to publish a book; and if you want to, you should pursue that goal. If you can’t find a publisher, you can do it yourself.
But you don’t need to publish a book for your writing to be worthwhile. In an age where the publishing industry is not going to publish as many of our books as we’d like, we can still write to bless others and develop our craft.
For this reason, please keep writing. And share your writing so we can benefit from it too.
Excellent points, and thank you for writing this.
If I may, I ‘d like to add that there’s also a health benefit. On Easter Day I had a fall, and was badly concussed; my thinking and speaking became scrambled (more than usual, anyhow). I did not know how to carry on with my usual sonnet-comments, and considered bowing out.
I didn’t, but had to learn a whole new way of writing them. The ‘flow’ was gone, replaced by a whirlwind of words that had to be organized on the storm, caught and set down with deliberation…and speed, lest they escape and run laughing back into the gyre.
It’s very tiring, but the effort has helped in many ways. I can hold short conversations with my wife again, and can follow a movie (one that I have seen before, to be sure) for up to ten minutes before losing track.
The neural pathways may have been deranged, but their foundations were sturdy enough (by dint of long years of writing) that the washed-out sections of road could be bypassed. The results are perhaps not as I might wish, not yet, but by God’s grace the work goes on.
Oh, yes…a sonnet.
Humpty Dumpty’s got nothing on me,
he had a great fall, it’s true,
but for a big egg that’s a great victory,
and cooked, he became cordon bleu,
but I knew that I’d have to rise again
after dogs dragged me back to the house,
and then prevail through confusion and pain
for I am a man, not a mouse,
and so I enjoined myself never to quit
though poems might be never the same,
and really, when you get right down to it
this writing gig’s all a great game
that’s read and loved, though it may be flawed,
by saints and by angels and Jesus and God.
Oh Andrew, it’s not just you. My words often go running off, laughing as I unsuccessfully chase after them. I want them to line up obediently, but like wayward children, they have strong notions and quick feet — whoosh! They’re gone.
So refreshing!
I noticed you said, “You probably don’t have something new to write, pretty much everything has been said.” I find that interesting, I believe there is more that has not been said than has been said. Example, the Tower of Babel, has anyone said, “It was a device that could have given them God like ability”? Oh wait, I guess that one has been said. I said it in my first published book “The Migdal Journals. Okay bad example. Well, has anyone said, “The existence of the soul can be scientifically proven”? Oh wait, I guess that has been said, however, it has never been proven. What if I said, “It can be scientifically proven and here is how.” Well, it hasn’t been said yet, but I’m about to in my new book “The Quantum Soul”. My point is there is a lot that hasn’t been said, but it can be and it can be said by anyone. There are so many things out there that can be said that has never been said, some of those things are contrary to popular traditional teaching, and that will take courage for someone to say it. Peter wasn’t Peter until he said what he said, Paul wasn’t Paul until he said what he said, Luther wasn’t Luther until he said it, Wesley wasn’t Wesley until he said it. There is that somebody out there who won’t be that somebody if they don’t say it. Better to recognize there is a lot more to be said than has been said and encourage that someone to say it.
Thank you. I did not find this article enlightening on any level.
Very encouraging.
Wisdom and encouragement! Thank you!
“You don’t need a large audience; a small one will do.” Thank you, Pastor Dash, for this reminder. If my words help one person, my writing has been worthwhile. I can’t demand a big audience. God has a plan, and it’s my job to follow the directions.
Pastor Dash,
For about a year, I have allowed the whispers of NOT GOOD ENOUGH to stifle my writing progress. Your article is encouraging and enlightening. Thank you for your wisdom, advice and the reality check.
Thank you. Very encouraging ❤️🙏
Thank you for this post, Darryl. True to your premise, I’ve heard this message before – but not from your voice. And, this morning, your voice on this topic touched me in a way that the same known message hasn’t before. It didn’t merely click intellectually; it gave me a measure of peace this time. Like Leola’s comment, it connected with the parts of me that lack confidence to write what I believe God has put on my heart to say. The publishing industry is daunting and demanding. However, if we have the conviction to write, the conviction that God wants us to write what He has given us to say, then it doesn’t matter how our words get out there. We do need to do the work to help them be seen, but at the same time, we can relax about whether or not it gets said in a traditionally published book, a self-published book, through articles, or a blog. If God has given us a message to write, we are partnering with Him in what He wants to accomplish through the skill He has given us. I can rest in that. Start my blog. Do my best to draw people to it. Write articles. Work on a book. And just see where it all goes. There’s a lot of work to do, but some of the pressure released with this article. Thanks.
I absolutely love this advice and appreciate you sharing it. I just came back from a writer’s retreat and a very talented literary agent (let’s call him Bob!) told us that a successful writer is one who writes. Publishing is great but we can be successful or do meaningful things simply by putting words to a paper (or, in this case, a screen!).