Why should I write this book?

Some time ago, I seriously considered ditching a nonfiction WIP. I haven't done so yet, but I have come very close to it. I thought about ditching it, or even handing it over to another nonfiction author to take on, because I started to doubt myself as an author. I started to doubt how this book would be perceived. What if people looked at the very meager success I have achieved as an author, see this new book by me – and its title! – and think it’s not worth their time? What if the book doesn’t get the attention it deserves? (It’s a reference book for authors.) What if people see MY name as the author and think the book sucks?

What if, what if, what if.

For a long time, I tackled with these doubts. I really struggled with them. They made me seriously consider stopping work on this book and just letting it collect dust on the hard drive. I believed every single doubt I had and actually thought I was not the right person to write this book.

And it didn’t help that one of my publishers wasn’t interested in it!

But then I realized something that has made me change my mind: This book is NEEDED. There is book other book like this on the market and that makes it unique. This book has good information in it because I know it would be useful to at least one author out there. And, this book should be written, because the material in the book WORKS! I can stand behind everything in this book because I have “been there, done that” with all the info it has in it.

So, because the info in this book actually works and has been put to the test, I really feel that it should be written and it should have a chance for publication. I really feel, now, that I shouldn’t give up on it.

I came to this realization after reading the Q&A section in Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s newsletter, Sharing with Writers. It was the January 22^nd issue and you can check it out here. In the piece titled “Making Our Goals Personal Resolutions,” Carolyn encourages people to read books by different authors to see what kind of ideas they have to share. Mostly, she suggests writers who have “been around for a while” because their “advice can be trusted.”

That’s when I realized: Hey, I’m a writer who has been around for a while! I have been an author for over 10 years and I’ve stayed as involved and active in the author community, as well as writing and publishing, as was possible. (There were two writing communities I had to leave because I no longer felt that I was welcome.) And the info in this book I am writing is solid, because it’s been tested and proven to work. So it must count as “trusted advice.” I think so, anyway.

The book could still mean something to somebody out there. Some unpublished writer out there or some author out there who hasn’t thought these ideas yet. I know there are a lot of people who have very low opinions of me and I'm not exactly a bestselling or multimillion dollar earning author people would go crazy over, but I believe that the book should stand on its own merit for what kind of information it contains and not by who wrote it. I have to believe this to be so, anyway.

So having reached this conclusion, I will resume work on this book. I will write it to the end and send it off for publication. I believe in this book, even if nobody else does. And I only hope that is good enough for the book to have some kind of importance to somebody who might actually find the information in it useful.