20 Reasons To Be Optimistic About Writing and Publishing in 2025

Your daily dose of good feels. Unicorns, anyone?

We’re the same age.

NOTE: This contest has ended. Enjoy the post, though!

---

I can’t stand pessimism. It’s so pointless. Dissatisfaction has a point (it can motivate you to do something), and so do emotions like sadness and anger. All have a purpose in the human nervous system, but only if you heed them as signals to act or change something in yourself, rather than ends unto themselves.

But pessimism is different. It’s pointless. Pessimism simply declares, “Things suck!” and then goes home to pout because it has no friends.

Pessimism is just one point of view, and it’s not a useful one. Even in the worst times, there are optimistic viewpoints that are just as valid. Usually naysayers claim that optimists are simply naive. Okay. So what? I’ll take a deluded but useful perspective (i.e., one that inspires action or gives me options) over a perspective that just says NO! and then puts on lots of black eyeliner and sits alone in the dark.

So when I saw this podcast episode called “Publishing Nihilism” by Michael Evans (all about how some people act like there’s no point to publishing anymore in the age of AI and whatnot, and why he feels the opposite), I emailed him to say how awesome I thought it — and his attitude — were. I love a good optimistic viewpoint! Optimism gives us options and paths forward. Nihilism and pessimism, by contrast, are dead-end roadblocks.

(In fact, I’ve recently realized that BRINGING BACK THE FUN AND MAGIC OF SELF-PUBLISHING INSTEAD OF BEING ALL MOROSE ABOUT OUR CHANCES THESE DAYS is a key component of what I want to do with the Artisan Author Kickstarter campaign I’m running right now. That’s part of my goal for the “Artisan University” tiers, actually: bringing back the old, positive, Self-Publishing-Podcast-era energy. Click here to check it out.)

Anyway, I told Michael that I love that he’s bringing more positivity into the world, thus making it a little bit better, a little at a time. He said, “OKAY, SUCKA, THEN HOW ABOUT YOU PUT YOUR WORDS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS ABOUT IT?” and we decided to do a fun little post-swapping contest full of rewards and good feels.

(He didn’t actually say that. I wrote the above because if you know Michael, it’s hilarious to imagine him talking that way.)

Anyway, let’s play a little game. I’m not offering signed paperbacks of The Artisan Author on the Kickstarter campaign, but I’ll sign and send one to whoever wins this game.

Here’s How We Play

Michael and I each came up with ten reasons to be optimistic about writing and publishing, blurring the lines into “reasons to feel good about writing and publishing in 2025.” They’re jumbled together in the list of 20 total reasons below.

Your job is to try to identify which of us — me or Michael — wrote each of the items below. Here’s the deets:

• Give your answers in the comments to this post.

• Tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, I’ll look through the responses and see who got the most answers right. Timing doesn’t matter on the first pass: If you got 18 correct just before I score this and someone else got 17 correct within 5 minutes of the post being posted, you’ll win with 18 despite being last. The number of correct answers within the timeframe is more important.

• However, timing does matter in one situation: If two or more people tie, the first-to-answer person in that tie will win.

• Yes, some of our answers are redundant. Michael and I apparently think alike sometimes. That makes this contest more challenging!

• If you won Michael’s contest, you can’t win this one.

Ready to play? Okay, here are the reasons that Michael and I are optimistic despite the world being all nihilistic and goth all the time. Which one of us said what?

1. Authors as individuals and as a collective are one of the smartest, most kind, and interesting communities in the world.

2. There’s a small but growing contingent of people out there who’ve had enough of big business and it’s greedy ways … and because of it, are actively seeking out ways to support artists and creators, and to shop local.

3. Every negative trend you hear is merely a generalization. It’s true that fewer people read today than they did before … but the people who DO read are more voracious about it and excited than before.

4. Technology is continuing to amplify the power of the individual and take down more gatekeepers. Whether it’s marketing help, editing help, or even helping with creative of your story, one person is now capable of more than ever.

5. News of all types is simply one perspective. Any negative thing you hear about writing and publishing has an equal and opposite perspective that finds good news in exactly the same situation.

6. The written word, in books, is only one type of writing. If you think of yourself as a storyteller instead, you’ll see that there’s need for storytellers everywhere, across all media.

7. In a world of complex social and technology change, we all need stories more than ever for escape and understanding.

8. Information about how to run and grow your author business has never been more accessible. Gone are the gold rush days— but with them came grave uncertainty. There’s more to sort through now than ever, but as this industry has matured, so have best practices and playbooks.

9. Real human connection is still valuable, and as the world depersonalizes further, people are beginning to realize how much they want and need it. Stories provide that connection.

10. There’s a new frontier for storytellers — and soon indie storytelling will encompass films, games, and more. The market is going to grow by 10x in the next 10 years. The pie is huge and there’s enough for a lot more authors to make a living.

11. Pessimism is often actually just rigidity of thinking. Rather than something being objectively “bad,” it’s more likely that the person who thinks of it as bad is simply reluctant to give something up that they’ve gotten used to. If you’re flexible, you won’t need to be pessimistic. Change is simply change, and is neither good nor bad.

12. There are more ways to make a living as an author than ever. Whether it’s the proliferation of hundreds of subgenres, many different revenue streams, and dozens of software tools and platforms that support storytellers making a business.

13. People will not stop wanting to be entertained. Period.

14. As a community, we are focused more on sustainability than ever. Bank > rank. Your well-being > your word count. We are better equipped to achieve new emotional heights, not just business ones, than ever.

15. Indie authors in particular are one of the most adaptable groups of people in the world. As major changes in society speed up, the collective of storytellers will shape-shift and thrive.

16. It’s trite and oft-quoted, but every crisis carries within it the seed of opportunity. It’s the people who are creative enough to zig when the whole world is zagging (or who find ways to stay open-minded while others say the sky is falling) who win.

17. If you see the proliferation of competing media (meaning: media that competes with books for people’s attention) as a threat, you’re not using your imagination. It’s MEDIA! And media needs CONTENT! We’re more in-demand than ever … not less.

18. Authors are one of the most supportive and collaborative communities ever. Together we are boundless!

19. It’s still so early. Most people outside of indie publishing still don’t know that this is an even an option… yet. It takes decades for massive societal changes to come. And just know if you are reading this now, you are still early.

20. Nobody else brings to the world what you bring. That means that nothing and nobody can ever replace you — ever. Form real bonds with readers and get them to like you for you … and that will make you bulletproof.

NOTE: This contest has ended. But I hope you feel more optimistic now anyway.

(Oh, and don’t forget to check out the Artisan Author Kickstarter before it ends. It won’t increase your chances of winning, but you know you want to join us in the campaign — and maybe even in Artisan University — anyway. It’s going to be awesome!)