A Secondhand Bookstore’s Shelves Reminded Me That Writing for Money Rarely Pays Off
Contents
The other day, I wandered into a secondhand bookstore on a walk, without anything particular in mind.
The shelves were lined with thick novels and practical books. Honestly, I didn’t know most of them, but reading the titles slowly made me curious.
While I was spending time like that,
it struck me that anyone trying to make money from writing is competing with all of these books.
That thought just came to me.
“Make money by writing” sounds nice, but
Lately, I often see posts along the lines of “Let’s make money by writing.” They sound pleasant and very appealing.
Honestly, when I look at note (a Japanese blogging platform), there seem to be a great many accounts and posts about wanting to earn from writing, aiming to monetize, or steering people toward side businesses.
But if you set out to make money from writing, all of these inexpensive books are your competition, at the very least. Seeing the overwhelming volume of books again in that secondhand bookstore made this feel real to me.
There is no doubt a hurdle here: can you write something readers would rather read, compared with the quality of books from publishers?
Thinking about it that way, it’s clear that this is anything but easy.
It’s also hard to feel how many people there are
On top of that, I think it’s hard to grasp the number of people in the world as something you actually feel, not just as a number.
That’s probably why, even with something like “Let’s make money writing on note,” it’s hard to notice how many people are already trying it.
When you come up with an idea for an article or a book, it seems like a wonderful idea to you, and it feels as if few people are doing the same thing.
But standing in front of that many books, I thought that was probably just how it looked from where I stood.
Because it’s writing, it can look like something anyone could do. But I think it’s better to recognize that it’s a very crowded field, and a difficult one.
Honestly, I can’t really recommend writing for money
Of course, that doesn’t mean writing for money is completely hopeless. For example, people like these have a real chance:
- People who can keep writing about highly specialized topics
- People with exceptional writing talent
- People who can come up with ideas that catch readers’ interest
- People who are already popular through other activities
Still, unless you are very confident or simply want to write, I think it won’t be worth it if making money is the goal.
Honestly, it’s not something I can really recommend.
I’ve also written about the Kindle publishing market before, in “Why I Don’t Think Kindle Publishing Is an Untapped Opportunity in 2026.”
It still feels like a small miracle that my books are read, and I’m grateful
At the same time, I thought it was a small miracle that the books I’ve written are read to some extent on Kindle.
I’m an amateur author with no name recognition at all, yet I’ve received many five-star reviews, and the original Japanese edition of my book on how to think in shogi ranked near the top of the Kindle Store rankings.
I’m truly grateful every time someone buys one of my books or leaves a review.
For me, it’s a replacement for a diary
That said, I also think that earning money by writing articles or books is not something anyone can reliably repeat.
Even so, I keep writing and publishing regularly because, for me, writing is a kind of replacement for a diary.
I leave my thoughts behind in units of a certain size, whether as an article or a book. It is also a record of what I was thinking at the time.
With that in mind, I plan to keep going at my own pace.
