2. Book Reset: But why?

So why am I so caught up in this idea of writing a book?

From a mechanistic​, business perspective there are clear reasons why the Play book might help in the development of Stamp. A book is a way for a sole trader to add a bit of scale to their business (cloning not being an option). It adds credibility. Being a published author adds significantly to the fees one can command (although the book needs a modicum of success).

It’s for reasons like that that a whole industry has sprung up to make the act of creating a book as friction-free as possible, from formulae by which the author can write by numbers, to fully-fledged services that come and interview you for a bit and then ghost-write your time. Such things leave me cold.

And that’s because I’m increasingly of the view that I want to do this because when so much of my work can be so ephemeral I would love to have worked hard on a creative act that produces an actual thing. An object I can prod and poke at that I can say I made that. Something of which I can feel proud. And it feels that that should be hard, not frictionless. And it has been.

Maybe I should take up pottery.

So whilst the positive sides to my business of writing a book would be nice (and they’re all “mights” and there’s certainly slim chance of the book itself being commercially successful), this is starting to sound like an act of extreme vanity publishing. Is the only audience that of me? More tomorrow…

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