Why get published?

On Lit Mag News (Substack), Barbara Krasner wrote about how she’d made an effort to get published in 2025. She sent 660 submissions. For poetry she got a 25% acceptance rate. For fiction she got an 8% acceptance rate. Overall she had 93 poems, 14 essays, 4 short stories, 11 flash fiction,and 2 flash nonfiction pieces accepted.

I can imagine this news items provoking several reactions among writers I know. Some might see Krasner's behaviour as an egotistic attempt to be famous. Why not write more instead of spending all that time sending things off? I belong to a writers group where many of the members enjoy writing and haven't tried to be published (often because they're writing novels). I can understand that point of view. The important thing for them is to enjoy what they do - the satisfaction of finding the right words to express what's inside. After all, joggers don't have to beat records (even their own ones) to enjoy their jogging.

However I can also see the other point of view -

• The late prose writer Angela Carter and the poet Don Paterson consider[ed] their work unfinished until it's published - it's a bit like talking to yourself. An actor or dancer wouldn't practise alone in their room unless there was a performance ahead. A composer works on pieces with the intention of being heard.
• People who wrote in Ivory Towers used to be considered suspect - often because of their seeming disregard for other people.
• If your work would give pleasure to others (or even help others), it's rather mean-spirited to keep it to yourself.
• It's rather presumptuous to think that you're a better judge of your work than others would be. You might think you're understanding yourself, putting valuable insights onto paper using just the right words, but suppose you're deluding yourself? Does it matter as long you're happy? Maybe not, but if the quality of your self-knowledge matters to you, maybe you should get a second opinion.
• Getting published (getting validation from peers) is an inspiration to write more.
• Krasner thinks that because of her publications she "found her community". The interaction between writer and reader isn't as immediate as at a workshop meeting, but when published writers meet (especially if they've been in the same publications) there's a sense of kinship even if they haven't read each other.