Why write?
Well, one reason is to get published.
Having published on Substack the final chapters of my new novel The Guns of Lana’i, I have a few thoughts on why anyone would hazard such an undertaking…the publishing part of it, I mean.
There is the still-very-alive major publishing industry, despite its corporatization into a producer of much so-so work (at least in the United States.) Also, a thriving small independent publishing industry that percentage-wise title-for-title puts out considerably less work that is only so-so, although without the marketing power of the major publishers. (Full disclosure: I know about this because I once was one of those independent publishers.)
And now…self-publishing. Until recently, if you published a book on your own, you could pretty much say good-bye to any hope of being considered by the established publishing industry and its literary agents. Self-publishing was clear proof to them that you had no talent. You could save your reputation by publishing with a small, non-major company (as did I), but then you still had very little chance of being noticed by an actual reading public, even though you felt better about yourself and your scribblings. But, withal, because the publishing industry was the only real game in town, you had to give in to whatever it offered.
(Full disclosure: I have also published with a major company.)
Now, that has all changed, and there are real reasons for self-publishing that carry true weight.
These days, substantial writers are writing on notable online sites, Substack being probably the most important. (For an example of what can possibly happen there, see The Free Press. Bari Weiss and Nellie Bowles are New York Times alumnae whose Substack efforts are already legendary.) There are other sites similar to Substack, some of general interest, others very specific…most of them publishing non-fiction, a few even dealing in fiction. (Ahem, please see some of my fiction here at terenceclarke.substack.com .)
With this new development, the first advantage for the writer is authorial control. Almost anyone who has traveled the road through corporate publishing has encountered the objections to what he/she has done, from the publisher and the assigned editor. This often includes sometimes substantial and occasionally ridiculous demands for changes to your manuscript. If you’ve already hired your own competent professional editor and trust the relationship you have with that person, you may object to this new person, who no doubt you have never met. However, because the publisher has contracted with you to put out the book, the burden can be very insistent, and you muddle along, muttering under your breath and eventually agreeing to many of the changes because, well, you have to.
The second is money. In traditional publishing, you get your percentage of the sales price as payment, per copy, which is usually pretty low. You may have gotten an advance, which is terrific, although it does tighten the control the publisher has over your manuscript once you get to the editing stage. When you self-publish, especially with a subscription-based site like Substack, you can set a monthly subscription rate for the reader that, if your work is getting noticed, can lead to real money. (Again, see The Free Press for an astonishing example.) And because you’ve hired that professional editor and trust him/her, you keep creative control of your work.
The third advantage derives from the internet itself. Printed books from established publishers are still selling well, although the corporatization of the industry has, in my view, diminished the creative playing field. If you look for it, you can still find excellent work there. But the major publishers have been taken over by major corporations for some time now, whose real concern is the bottom line. So, much that comes from them has a kind of market-driven sameness, title to title, author to author. Sales are the first consideration for the publishers, authorial excellence perhaps not even second.
Self-publishing on the internet is making a dent in all that for the reasons stated above, and it will only grow as authors come to understand what is possible from the computers sitting on their desks awaiting instructions, and the internet wishing to distribute the results worldwide…for a reasonable monthly subscription fee, of course, payable to the author.
Copyright © 2025 Terence Clarke. All rights reserved.
Note: No Plagiarism Software, also known as Artificial Intelligence, was used in the composition of this piece.
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Also, please see Terence Clarke’s new novel, The Guns of Lānaʻi, here on Substack.
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