(2026-04-01) Hall Writing A Book Is A Labor Of Love

Cate Hall: Writing A Book is a labor of love. Shortly before Sasha and I signed our book contract with Harper, I had a crisis of confidence about the project. So I went around asking people who’d written books before: Should we write one? Should we work with a major publisher? Does anyone even read anymore?
Almost to a person, they responded: No, no, and hell no. And that is how I discovered that I really wanted to write a book — because I just didn’t care.

There’s a funny thing that happens when you ask people for advice about something like this

anywhere comparative wealth is an important but unacknowledged part of the context of the conversation. Although they are the single most relevant piece of information, people hate to speak in terms of concrete numbers.

But a lot of the arguments about why you shouldn’t bother to write a book really seem to boil down to this: You won’t make money doing it.

*We received a $100,000 advance from Harper — which is quite good for a first-time lead author. (There’s actually pretty good data on this, thanks to the #publishingpaidme hashtag that circulated around the DEI high-water mark in 2020.) Here’s how that money gets divvied up:

$15,000 to our agent: It’s hard to sell a book without one.

$8,000 to our “developmental editor”: This is the editor we worked with before submitting our manuscript to Harper. You’re not required to do this, but everyone told us that we’d end up with a better book in less time if we did.*

$51,000 for a PR firm: We were advised not to expect our publisher to do much in this vein since it isn’t guaranteed a good ROI. So we hired the same firm that all the nonfiction bestsellers use. ?!?!?!

This is the optimistic version. In reality, we will probably spend more, and lose money on the book. Of course, we hope to sell more than the ~23,000-30,000 copies (depending on mix) that would earn out our advance and start generating royalties, but 90% of authors in our position don’t.

So why do the book anyway?

The best way I can describe it is that the book wanted to exist. You may have noticed that agency content — here, on Twitter, wherever — is all the rage right now, to a degree that is sometimes irritating even to me.

Agency is a skill set, and it’s one anyone can learn. And I want people to learn it. Because agency is freedom and freedom is good. Because I love people deeply, even the ones I can’t stand. Because I made a solemn vow to liberate all beings, but I can’t even make myself meditate.

Remember how I said this book wanted to exist? This raises an intriguing question. In the future, will more books want to exist? Anyone who knows me and Sasha can report (perhaps ruefully) that we have many opinions to share. It’s possible that this could be the first of multiple books, or many creative works in different media. If that’s the future that wants to emerge, then there are probably stirrings of that eventuality in this moment.

As part of marketing pre-orders, she posted a cringe-minefield quiz. ((2025-05-07) Hall Crossing The Cringe Minefield)

I Commented to ask why she didn't address the self-publishing option. ((2025-12-10) Category Pirates: 7 Steps To Start Writing Your $100 Book)

• She replied The short version is: I think self-publishing may actually make sense if you're trying to maximize profit, or aiming for some other goals. But if your aim is literally just "get as many eyeballs on it as possible," I think it's worse.
• Paul Millerd agreed: cate is right if your goal is maximum reach, especially in the first couple of years (vital period for a book to succeed
• especially on audio. self-publishing is unfortunately worse for reach on audio and profits by a big margin
• I never thought my book would succeed AND I had zero offers anyway lol
• but the traditional publisher reach is why i may partner with publishers to do that in the next year, i just wont give up lifetime rights or ebook, which is easier to sell on your own compared to print