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Create Publish Or Perish?

By Bonnie Boots

The phrase “Publish or perish” most often refers to professors who must publish papers to justify their tenure. But “publish or perish” also describes the mindset of many writers who believe they will curl up and die in they don’t see their work in print. Even George Bernard Shaw, quintessential curmudgeon and adroit author, said, "If you do not write for publication, there is little point in writing at all."

It's easy enough to make the point for publication. As a professional writer, I'm all for it. After all, if I don't publish, my income will perish! Aside from income, I also gain a good deal of satisfaction from knowing my work reaches receptive readers. But let's set that reasoning aside for the moment, and plead the opposing view: that there is a point, and even a power, in writing without pursuing publication.

My first argument is that publishing isn’t all its cracked up to be. I’ve spoken with hundreds of unpublished writers that lust after publication, believing it is, as Shaw said, the very point. Often these writers nurse wildly romantic notions of what life will be like once they are published. They imagine an escape from the ordinary, a guest spot on Oprah and their picture in the New York Times. They imagine being somebody, instead of an ordinary nobody. They imagine, at the very least, they will be respected.

The truth is, being published offers no escape from the ordinary events of life. One need only look to the lives of Sylvia Plath and Ernest Hemingway to see that all the elements human beings struggle with, loneliness, doubt, fear, physical and emotional pain, visit those with soaring talent and fame as often as ourselves.

Even Stephen King, with all the professional accomplishment and celebrity any writer could want, didn’t escape the tragedy of a near-fatal accident and its aftermath.  No, being published doesn’t give you a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card in the game of life. If anything, we writers, sensitive souls that we are, may suffer far more after publication than before. For the hypersensitive, diving into the brutal world of publishing can feel like sliding down a razor blade banister and into a bucket of iodine.

 You may think writers are exalted beings, but out in the work-a-day world, a writer is just another line point item on a publisher’s expense sheet. The writing you labored to deliver may be your precious baby, but it’s everyone else’s silly putty. Everybody from copy editors down to sales reps will see where it needs to be “tweaked just a bit” to put it right.

 I died a thousand deaths the day I discovered that after finally making it into print, my work had been edited with a weed whacker. And when I was so naïve as to complain about said whacking, I discovered exactly where I stood in the pecking order of publishing. Writers are the low man on the totem pole. As a publisher once told me “Respect? You’re a writer. You want respect, get a real job.”

 Writing for publication may be your Holy Grail, but to normal people it’s just an oddity. Family and friends will esteem you no more or less after publication than they do at this moment. If they already think you’re a genius, great! But if your family doesn’t read your work now, they won’t read it when it’s on the newsstand.

If your friends think your dream of being published is silly now, all they’ll see after you’re published is how easy it was. And don’t, for heaven’s sake, expect readers to respect you. It’s an oddity of human nature that people are more compelled to communicate when they’re disgusted than when they’re pleased. For every bright, encouraging letter you receive, you’ll get a thousand rude, insulting letters, phone calls and e-mails pointing out your errors and weaknesses.

 Print publication is a commercial endeavor. Like baking bread or styling hair, its point is to offer the public something they will pay for, and thus earn a profit. As a professional writer, my markets define my writing. My publisher’s needs, not my own creative impulses, determine what I write and how I write.

 Not a week passes without my letting some offbeat, exciting idea wither away as I pound out less prosaic work for publication. If the shoemaker’s children go barefoot, the writer’s children just as often go without fables, fairytales, poems and other less-than-profitable literary pursuits.

 I’m not trying to tell you that the life of a published writer is all thorns. I am trying to tell you it’s not all roses. Being published doesn’t guarantee fame or fortune. It certainly doesn’t guarantee happiness.

By the same measure, not being published does not mean obscurity and unhappiness. In fact, not writing for publication brings its own rewards. Writing for passion rather than for publication means you are free to express yourself in whatever way you choose, without regard to the opinions of others.

You can let your creative self out to play, rather than sending it to bed early while your adult self works late. Writing for passion rather than publication means you can retain your sensitivity, your empathy, your tender heart and hide, rather than developing a thick skin just to survive.

If you haven't succeeded at being published, don't perish.  Don’t abandon your dream of seeing your work in print, but do put down the rose-colored glasses and see publication in its proper perspective.

Remember that publication is only one twinkle on a many-pointed star. What are those points?

The point of writing may be to preserve your family history for future generations.

The point of writing may be to tell you family and friends what you feel, what you think, who you are in a way that transcends mere conversation.

The point of writing may be to give yourself pleasure and expand your soul by exercising your creativity.

The point of writing may simply be to write, and in so doing meet your own secret hopes and dreams and recognize them as a cherished part of yourself.

Let “publish or perish” define professors. Let “write for delight” define you!

About the Author
Bonnie Boots is the publisher/editor of The Internet Wizards Magazine, a lifestyle digital publication providing tips, tools, techniques for people doing business on the internet. For a no-cost one year subscription, visit http://www.theinternetwizards.com

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