The Writing Community Pushed Me Away from Publishing My Book

The Writing Community Pushed Me Away from Publishing My Book
I never thought I'd put my book on hold, but after dealing with the **toxicity of the writing community**, I had to step back. From **gatekeeping, drama, and unrealistic expectations** to the pressures of online discourse, the experience drained my passion for publishing. In this video, I share my honest thoughts on why I walked away (at least for now) and whether I’ll ever return to publishing. If you’ve ever felt alienated by the **modern writing and publishing world**, you’re not alone.

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**Keywords:**
writing community toxicity, publishing struggles, indie author problems, why I stopped writing, book industry drama, self-publishing vs traditional publishing, booktok and writing, writing burnout, online writing communities, book publishing realities

**Tags:**
#WritingCommunity #PublishingStruggles #IndieAuthor #BookIndustry #WritingBurnout #SelfPublishing #ToxicCommunities #BookTokDrama #WhyIQuit #AuthorLife

[LoScrittoreDivergente]

34-years-standing novelist here. It’s an old fratricidal war that today is fought on different fields but with the same arms: deception, exclusion, hypocrisy, lies, back-stabbing …
It’s always more difficult to find pure-readers, those who do not aspire to write and are only interested to read good books. Even if they are less and less —because, you know, “anyone can become a writer” (the biggest lie of all)—, pure-readers still should be seen as your only potential audience. It doesn’t exist another one. Therefore, forget about writers, think about pure-readers. And you’ll be fine.

[wilburseymore]

I'll continue writing and publishing, regardless of who reads it. I never set out to be a writer, but a string of extenuating circumstances have pushed me down a path I never thought I'd go down and here we are, so let the words flow and the eyebrows raise.

[jabrilyousef]

Don’t let anyone discourage you from doing what you love, or chasing your dream.

[TheTiredRegular]

It's even worse with indie comics. The indie comic scene has become a never-ending stream of high school drama while all the little guys who are trying to get their books out are ducking for cover.

[AbbyGoldsmith]

Yep. I describe it as a Mean Girls club. Performative praise is exactly what it is. This is not the world I thought it was, and it is not the industry I thought I knew. I am struggling to adjust to the reality. It feels like leaving a cult.

[BryceWithRice]

I find this interesting, as I find it to genuinely true to some extent. I find a llot of self praising each other, as well as a lot of sharing bad advice. I’ve never really pushed into a writing community because of that, the one time I was invited to a writing group I told the guy hosting it that I had read his book, and I genuinely just hadn’t liked it and why. I never got invited back, but that’s okay.

When it comes to writing online it feels similar to me as in many creative fields I’ve poked around in the online community (such as the online game dev community). There are general disregard to anyone you don’t know and a lot of excusing their own poor work and others that they like. It feels less like a group of people trying to strive together to get better and make things more meaningful and engaging, but rather, to continue to feel like they are important, even if by doing so they are preventing themselves from getting better.

Writing is hard. Making a career out of it is even harder. It’s much easier to excuse your lack of success or if you have found success it’s easier to lord it over people rather than try to improve.

[KatAdVictoriam]

I honestly don't know how people have time to be on X all day, or Tik Tok AND supposedly be writing/editing/querying/beta reading. Though, I'm a parent in a large family and I'm just trying to get something completed to get through to editing and eventually SP because I have no illusions to get a pub deal.
It's so easy to feel discouraged by writing groups, or the cliques on social media. It has only ever led to feelings of discontent/envy or rage. I hope you will keep writing and pursuing your passions. We need better than mediocre work out there. We need more than low effort, shallow, self insert books. I totally relate to needing to build a platform, or developing the business side of things. Unfortunately, that does require some level of online networking and self-promotion that I loathe. It's part of it though.

I wish you the best as you do what you feel is right for you.

[canadianturtle]

This happens a lot in the art community. I'd say it bleeds all the way through Hollywood. People may laugh at the idea of a "culture war, " but that IS what's actually happening. Many fans are speaking up against their favourite series being taken over by HR people, instead of writers.

[brandyreads]

As someone who has gone down the rabbit hole of Threads and X, I have seen firsthand the writing cliques. It has soured me from a lot of authors.

[OutsiderLabs]

Real writers spend their days writing, not being active in the "writing community" like bored redditors. Do your thing and tell your stories. Writers are lighthouses in the night, they can stand perfectly well all on their own

[sinshenlong]

The only people that matter is the readers. No matter how small.

This video validates my fear with the networking element of publishing. It seems distracting and ultimately pushes away from would be readers more so than anything else.

[dustinneely]

I find the incestuous relationship between BookTube and AuthorTube extremely disturbing. You don't have to be named Disney or Amazon to get people to schill for you.

[lost-in-lore]

It's ironic how many writers will say they want to stand out, but then proceed to follow the crowd. Like, yes. It's rare to be the exception. But unless you strive to be the exception, you're never going to stand out. You'll forever be jumping through the same tired hoops alongside everyone else.

[spookyatthemovies]

I've released 6 novels and they are doing well, and in all that time I've stayed away from the online writing communities. Just do your own thing and ignore people online.

[ehdrake]

The title alone makes my heart hurt. Remember, you don't have to interact with that nonsense. I certainty don't, I host my only tiny discord where we BS about writing and keep things nice and simple. And honestly, I think readers are starting to catch onto this nonsense.

[AlexDuggan]

Having self published on amazon, both true crime and fiction, I've found the best writing community you have are other books. You are better off speaking to other writers purely about the craft itself, the hours you put in, the procrastination, and the struggle to finish the work. If you really want someone to read your work, ask them to do it with the eye of an editor; checking for grammar and spelling mistakes.

[spookyfirst]

Right there with you Will. I didn’t get as burnt by book or author tube, but there are scars aplenty from writer’s groups.

Focus on your work, make it the best it can be first. Let it rest, then get an editor that will do more than run it through a handful of AI programs.

Worry about the platform nonsense after the book is the best it can be.