Want vs Should: How to Know You’re Starting the Right Book

Do you write the book you want, or the one you think you should?

I hadn’t planned it this way, but the start of a new year (January 2026) is a natural time to think about writing or publishing a book. New year, new goals might be a bit of a cliché, but we just can’t help setting new or revised goals for the year, and for many aspiring authors, this will be the year you write your book.

But before you start on chapter one, there’s an important question to consider: are you going to write the book you want to write, or the book you feel you should write? They’re not the same, and the difference matters.

In this post, I’ll explore two key ideas for self-publishing authors:

1.        Why you’re writing this book. Do you WANT to write a book or do you think you SHOULD write a book? The reasons for writing a book will impact both its tone and your dedication to finish and promote it.

2.        Which book to write. Once you’ve worked out the reasons for writing this book, do you write the book you want to write or the book you should write?

This post is mainly aimed at self-publishing authors rather than traditional publishing (I’m a non-fiction editor who works with women self-publishing writers), because if you’re under publishing contract you have to consider the publisher’s goals and what’s been agreed under your terms and conditions. However, I’d briefly add that communication is vital here, both ways! Make sure you’re crystal clear on their expectations for the book so you can let them know if you feel you’re now writing a different book, which is common when creating first draft.

A final note before we really get into: no matter how you’re publishing your book, you need to consider developing your writing skills, especially if it’s your first book – there are very few writers who just produce a cracking first book first time round. Most move from shorter forms of writing like blog posts or short stories, or write a couple of other different books before writing the book they actually publish.

Let’s address the first question.

Why have you decided to write a book?

Writing a book because you want to is one of the best reasons to start writing one. Writing a book because you think you should will inevitably turn into a slog because it’s coming from a place of obligation, instead of passion. The exception to this is when you’ve been told over and over again that you should turn your blog posts or experience into a book. This is usually a little easier to follow through on, because all the material is there, it’s just not in book form yet.

However, if you’re in this latter category and you’ve decided to write a book because you’ve been told you really should, then you still need a decent dose of ‘I want to write this book’ to come into play if you’re going to get to the end and actually enjoy promoting and talking about your book. Sure, you might have plenty of material to make that first draft a little easier, but without self-motivation it’s still going to feel like an uphill battle to get to the end, and the best form of motivation comes from a place of personal drive.

So, once you’re sure your book is motivated by more ‘want’ than ‘should’, let’s look at my second point.

Do you write the book you want to write or the book you should write?

If you’re self-publishing, you might think this gives you complete free rein to write whatever the heck you like, breaking genre rules, including whichever anecdotes you want, making the book as short or as long as you fancy, because you don’t have to conform to standard publishing rules, woohoo!

But the truth is, even when you’re self-publishing, you do actually have to consider if the book you should write is the book you want to write, and vice versa, for various reasons.

For ultimate clarity, when I talk about the book you want to write, I mean the one you are passionate about. The book you might think you should write is the one that’s easier to write, easier to market, or what people already know you for and assume you will write about.

Photo credit: Siân Smith

The idea of the book you should write versus the book you want to write comes from a conversation I had with someone who had all the content ready for one book, because that’s what she was known for, so she should probably write that book, especially because it was going to be so easy to write.

However, once we got talking, she told me she was also trying to forge a new career away from the one she’d become known for. I pointed out whatever she wrote about is what she’d be known for; it’s what she’d be expected to speak about over and over again when promoting her book.

Why was she planning to write the book she thought she should write if it would keep her locked in a career she was no longer passionate about? What would all that hard work achieve?

If (hopefully when!) your book becomes successful, then you and your book become synonymous. You will be known for the content of your book, especially if it’s non-fiction. Have you asked yourself, honestly, how many times you can imagine talking about the subject matter of your book?

I heard Cariad Lloyd mention on her book club podcast (Sara and Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club) that once she published her book You Are Not Alone, she was constantly having to speak about grief and her father’s death – at book events (as you’d expect) but also as she was just going about her daily business.

Are you ready to share what’s in your non-fiction book?

Consider, too, the content of your book and which parts you should leave in and how much you want to include. If it's a personal book, should you also be sharing this much detail? How do you feel about people talking to you about your private or emotional memories? You should especially consider details that mention or directly affect other people in your life. When Kit de Waal wrote her memoir, she shared the first draft with her siblings and gave them complete control to change or delete anything.

If your book is more educational than personal, are you passionate enough about the topic to talk about it time and time again? If the thought of being known as the expert of your book's subject matter fills you with dread or boredom, or you can't bear to talk about your deeply personal reflections, you might want to reconsider the content or direction of your book.

Photo credit: Siân Smith

At this point, you may think the easy solution is to only write the book you want to write – we’re back to the ultimate freedom that comes with self-publishing. After all, Philip Pullman famously never considers the reader. Surely writing with passion is key to a successful book anyway?

Yes, passion is important. You can definitely tell when a writer has poured themselves into a book (it’s something that can’t be defined but can be discerned).

But writing with passion alone will only get your book so far because nearly every book’s success is down to its marketing (even Sir Philip Pullman wasn’t given ultimate freedom until he’d had a few successes). And yes, marketing success will also rely on the novelty or impact of the story or premise, but more obscure or emotional books can be harder to market, which means reaching fewer readers.

The key to successful self-publishing

The classic mistake first-time writers make is including too many genres in one book or a creating an obscure genre. The key here is to think about how a bookseller would handle your book and which shelf it would go on, both in a physical shop and online. If a memoir ticks the boxes for self-help, mental health, comedy, and memoir, which shelf does it go on?

Ultimately, if you’re self-publishing your book, you have to remember to act like a publisher, which means applying a decent amount of common sense and strategy. I know you probably feel like creativity and strategy shouldn’t go together, but that’s what it takes to publish a successful book – publishers are, after all, businesses.

You can probably sense that while there is no definitive answer between whether you write the book you want to write or the book you should write, I’d say it comes down to starting with the book you want to write – topic, style, etc., along with being aware of the type of book that works well for your subject matter.

Being aware of these considerations early on in the process means you can become more self-aware of your writing style and marketing potential – remember the point I made at the very start of this post about how any writer has to develop their writing skills before publishing their first book.

Much of this will come down to the goals for your book. If it is a purely creative endeavour, then do it Philip Pullman style and just write what makes you happy! If you’re mainly doing it for the creative legacy but will also be putting some effort into marketing, then thinking about the type of book you should write for that market will matter, but only slightly.

If selling and promoting the book you write matters as much as the kudos that comes with writing a book, then you need to think a lot more about the book you should write. Not to the extent that the book you wanted to write in the first place has completely disappeared, but you do need to be shrewder about your approach.

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that working this balance out on your own is incredibly tricky because it’s not easy to be objective about your own work and approach. Having this conversation early on with the author I mentioned before (the one who inspired this whole post) saved her a whole lot of time and effort, so don’t be afraid to seek out book editors like me as early as you can when writing your book – that’s definitely something you should do!