Now that so many writers are also publishers (of their own writings), publishing seems like a natural outcome of writing. First you write, and then (after a few other operations) you publish. A no-brainer, right?

No. Writing and publishing are two completely different actions. While many pieces of text are written in order to be published as soon as possible, many others are not.

Reasons to Write

• Inspiration: you can’t not write
• Declaration: a statement you must make
• Exploration: you want to see if you can write
• Reminiscing: capturing the past for yourself or others
• Figuring Out: solving a problem by putting it into words
• Revelation: truth-telling
• Explanation: recording knowledge

Reasons to Publish

• To share ideas
• To amuse and delight
• To reveal something to the world
• To test your ideas
• To test your writing
• To make money
• To become famous

We write for personal reasons. We publish to share our…