Is anybody listening?

21.08.2023 - 12:02 / theunconventionalgardener.com / Emma Doughty

I’d like to write more books. I enjoy writing and I have ideas and information that I want so share, and packaging it up neatly in a coherent volume is a bit different to just churning out blog posts. For one thing, it’s more permanent; I’ve sent copies of Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs to the British Library and to the five legal deposit libraries (Bodleian Library Oxford University, The Cambridge University Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales and Trinity College Dublin), and knowing that they have been preserved for posterity is not a small thing.

My gardening journey has taken me off the beaten path and I write the books I want to read, the ones no one else is writing.

But here’s the thing – my books aren’t bestsellers. I can’t live off my book royalties. Many more people read my blog (and listened to the podcasts, when I was making them) than have bought even one of my books.

I can think of three possible reasons why that might be:

You might be able to think of more reasons, and if so I hope you will share them in the comments.

I could continue to write books, but if no one is going to read them then it’s a self-serving hobby, and not really sustainable in the long term.

Of course, I am not the only writer to ponder whether it’s worth the effort involved in producing a book, something which we seem to be driven to do. The world of books is changing, and it’s not obvious yet how anyone can continue to make a living in it. I think the only way to make money as a writer at the moment is to write about how to make money writing!

Over the years I have spent a lot of time and energy on this blog, mainly for the love of it and because I enjoy feeling like part of a community. People used to leave