Most people don’t like to be told what to read. How many times has a book come up in conversation only to hear someone groan and say, “I had to read that in school.”? Readers might love your article or short story, but that’s not enough to entice them to invest hours in a book. A story on Medium takes minutes to read. It’s a brief encounter. Reading a book takes hours if not days. That’s a relationship.

The reader has to trust the writer to deliver. I’m more likely to trust a writer is worth my time if their book is traditionally published by a major house than self-published by somebody who begs on the side. The beggar gets pity support and not much more.