I was always suspicious when a new author approached us at Regnery with a list of ideas for books they “could write.” Don’t like this one? Not to worry, I have another. And another. And another.
I would immediately wonder whether they had something compelling to say — or were just in love with the idea of writing a book. Any book. Perhaps they were, indeed, talented writers. Perhaps they had been told for years “you should really write a book.” Maybe they had already written a book, or several, and now wanted a better platform for their writing than self-publishing could offer.
But as a publisher, I wasn’t looking for writers. I was looking for fascinating ideas, shocking revelations, rare understanding – presented by someone passionate about sharing their insights with others.
One of the most important questions we’d ask prospective authors in a Regnery acquisitions committee meeting was: What do you hope to accomplish with your book? The question itself presumes that an author should want to accomplish something beyond just getting published, and a book must have a purpose beyond just existing.
Even when an author has an important message — do they have three? Do they have twelve? We can all think of celebrity authors who seem to write the same book over and over and over again. At least Bill O’Reilly is killing off different people.
My husband’s high school friend had a brother in seminary, where a very wise teacher told the aspiring young pastors: I know you feel called to share the Good News, to preach meaningful sermons to your flock. But trust me, we all have about three months of good sermons in us. After three months, you’ll have said everything you have to say. Then you face the rest of your life, having to figure out what to preach next Sunday.
Dennis Prager has often said that the hardest part of his show is the teaser for tomorrow. Because he honestly has no idea what he’s going to talk about tomorrow. His show is relevant, timely, provocative and often profound. But it is never scripted. It is the rare talent, however, who can be live on the air and come up with something worthwhile to say every day. It’s why there are 300 million Americans and fewer than 30 radio or podcast hosts worth listening to. (The subject for a future debate and list!)
Like books, good radio shows and good sermons are informative, entertaining, inspiring. But books must do more. They must hold a reader’s interest through hundreds of pages, they must spark the imagination without the benefit of dramatic intonation, they must stand the test of time — if only the time it takes to edit, design, print, ship, shelve, sell, and wind up in a reader’s hands.
Which – I grant you – is asking a lot. Honestly, most books don’t meet that standard.
As Al Regnery was fond of saying:
“Most books should have been just a magazine article, and most magazine articles shouldn’t have been written in the first place.”
Stitch that into a pillow.
Anyone who has written a book (or been married to someone who’s written a book) knows that it’s a tremendous amount of work. Writing a 700-word blog is one thing (and even that can be daunting), but writing a 70,000-word manuscript is quite another. Which is why, of course, there are so many unfinished manuscripts and half-written books littering the desks of would-be authors.
And yet, there are also millions of authors who make it to the finish line and write books every year. Literally millions. In the U.S. alone, there were more than 4 million new books released last year, including traditional and self- publishing. Which doesn’t even include the many (thousands? of) books written but not published.
Why do it? Why go through the work, the agony, the isolation, the rejection, the self-doubt, the worry… just to write a book? And how can you make sure it’s worth doing?
Tune in next week for the answer…