# Why do authors stop writing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [June 21, 2025, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931 "2025-06-21T13:28:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/41 "2025-06-24T21:31:57Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > And _ **good** _ writing _ **IS** _ hard work As is bad writing often. So-so writing too. Sigh… ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/42 "2025-06-24T21:34:30Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Add to that how performance before live audiences, though a physical effort, can be energizing and is the “fun” part of this work. Some writers make a career of it, to the point where no one expects them to do any actual writing. (Looking at you, Fran Lebowitz…) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2025, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/43 "2025-06-25T17:57:34Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > That is quite an important component to it. Getting published requires an element of making the pitch and sale that is not always the strong suit of the “creatives”. This is why I worry I’m never going to make it. I put tons of effort into my writing and can produce publishable work, but I’m not an entrepreneur, and writers have fewer and fewer supports these days from publishers or in marketing spaces. For self-publishing you have to promote even harder, maintain a newsletter, write freebies, have a whole brand. And for certain genres, such as memoir, publishers won’t even look at your book if you don’t already have an online platform with thousands of followers. Which means instead of writing books, you’re mostly writing blog articles to maintain a following. It seems to me that _most_ of the work is marketing and the writing bit is more of an afterthought. The people I know who have been most successful are very outgoing self-starters, like the kinds of people who would start a podcast with people they met at writing conferences while still working 40 hours a week. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/44 "2025-06-26T16:56:10Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Still other authors just have a hard time selling any more and don’t have the interest or aptitude to navigate independent publishing (it’s surprising how many authors who I think of as highly talented have gone to independently publishing - but that takes a different set of skills and not every author can do it). Are these authors established? For those with a readership base independent publishing makes sense since they have an audience and can keep the money. For those without, there is a long tail of independently published books that don’t sell anything near enough to make back publishing and editing costs. I know lots of authors with piles of books in their garages. > [@JRDelirious](#): > > Indeed, with any skill and trade you can probably expect an eventual slowdown. And _ **good** _ writing _ **IS** _ hard work. Some people are just _driven_ to keep at it (and these include both the kind that will insist on keeping working their next piece to perfection AND the kind that will keep pumping it out and are comfortable with Sturgeon’s Law) but many others will at some point feel, well, I’ve said what I had to. I judge a contest for independently published books, and I suspect every writer who enters it and pays the fee thinks they have written great stuff. Most of them haven’t. I can dump half the books within the first 10% of the pages, and probably before that since I usually read 10% to be fair to them. On the other hand, some are great, and the percentage of really good books is much higher for writers with real credits. I think most people are not good judges of what part of Sturgeon’s Law they fall into. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/45 "2025-06-26T16:59:34Z")
I confess I was really surprised when i saw this question. Most everyone works less as they get old enough, and many authors only had a certain amount to say and then stopped. What i find surprising is how many authors just keep going. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/46 "2025-06-26T17:15:30Z")
Dick Francis, who wrote dozens of successful horse racing-related crime novels stopped writing the day his wife died. He said he always wrote his stories for her. He was already a financial success so when his wife died he just stopped. A lesser known thing is that his son, Felix, continued to write ‘Dick Francis’ novels for a number of years after his father had quit writing. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/47 "2025-06-26T17:39:45Z")
I thought his wife wrote the books, and they used his name because when they started, he’d been a well-known jockey. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/48 "2025-06-26T17:53:06Z")
(Sarcasm)/ because James Patterson is the only writer who can get a book deal? /(s) ---
**Author:** ![sb1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@sb1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sb1953)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/49 "2025-06-26T18:12:35Z")
My brother wrote like 10 books. All of them were basically memoirs of his life and events. Nobody would publish any of them and so he kept writing them and publishing them himself. He refused to employ an editor, and so the books were wordy and not “user-friendly”. I suspect that the lack of sales eventually caused him to stop but I have a hunch that since he started being treated for lung cancer he may write yet one more ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/50 "2025-06-26T19:22:12Z")
What I’d heard was his wife “edited” or “polished up” his books. Dick Francis said he wanted to share the writing credit with his wife, Mary, but she would hear none of it and flatly refused. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/51 "2025-06-26T22:16:08Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Are these authors established? The ones I’m thinking of, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931/52 "2025-06-26T22:20:54Z")
Re: Patterson. What these big name thriller authors are doing is “co-writing” books where they get top credit and the lesser known author is in smaller print, even though they basically wrote the book. I really don’t have a lot of respect for that. But it sounds pretty lucrative. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-authors-stop-writing/1019931.md?page=2)