There was a time when I felt that books could change the world. Indeed, books have had a great impact on world culture and society, but often not in the ways that immediately impact what they were intended to when they were first written. Of course, few authors ever gain any sort of significant celebrity. But being rich and famous was never what I was after. Becoming an author, for me, was more finding acceptance of ideas. indeed, some of my articles and essays over the years have elicited some responses, some of them positive, many of them highly critical, and a few downright revolting.

As a generalist, and an expert of things that perhaps are not particularly world shattering, such as trading card games, several major sports, and some way-out nerd trivia, is not going to be received well when writing a tome addressing major world issues. Of course, it is often best to start small, as incremental improvements add up over time. I continue to bulk up my writing archives despite much of an incentive to do so, more so to simply occupy my overactive mind than to produce anything of relevance.

I have seen many smart folks, some of them perhaps much cleverer than me, write excellent books. While they may gain some acclaim and minor celebrity thanks to becoming best sellers, who realizes the concepts that the books champion? Very little do books change nearly as much as they perhaps should, and books in decades past had far more impact than they do now. Harry Potter for example, is a book series that impacted popular culture more than most. Twilight, in some ways did, but not nearly as much in a lasting way. The Hunger Games only became popular thanks to the feature films.

Even fiction literature, despite often becoming the impetus for streaming series and film franchises, is becoming less relevant in the written form. More than ever, old material is being recycled and often not cleverly at all. In nonfiction, much is the same. Even when something interesting comes along, it basically makes podcast material, and a conversation starter, not anything super actionable.

That isn’t to say that writing a book isn’t worth it. You just need to have very muted expectations. Book sales aren’t nearly what they used to be. To make any sort of living as an author you need to be absurdly prolific, and it’s true of any content creation field. Quantity is far more important than quality, the exact opposite of what I was taught. Everything I learned about being a good writer has been thrown out the window. Now, it’s all about what is trending right now today. Evergreen content has been relegated to the reference room. I tried writing to the trends and simply could never keep up. You simply must be louder and more prolific than anyone else at any cost.

There isn’t a benefit to me trying to force myself into any particular thought stream anymore. That approach got me nowhere. I should stick to my strength, which is simply pursuing whatever seems interesting to me in that moment to the fullest of my faculties. Whether that costs me any sort of a profitable career as an author, so be it.

~ Amelia Desertsong