The Book

For years I have dreamed of writing a book.  So far I have written about three of them, but abandoned the projects about halfway, regarding them as failed attempts to write a whole book.  Sadly, as of yet, I have yet to complete one.  The book is an archaic rite of passage for any modern writer who, for whatever reason, has yet to be published in bound paper form.  Just because one has yet to be published has to bearing on whether or not they are, in actuality, a writer.

There is a very limited market for books in general, and within that limited market, it seems that nobody has time to read fiction. Experience has taught me that books have a very limited market.  Even modern e-books have a very limited market.  With people having busy schedules, and not enough time for anything, reading has unfortunately experienced a sudden fall into almost certain antiquity.

Literature and knowledge, and the pursuit of the higher mind has most recently been replaced with mindless reality television, all of which has taken a very narrow market and made it even more narrow and limited.  Fiction especially has an even more limited and narrow market, comparable to poetry.  Works of non-fiction are perhaps the easiest writing works to market, but even that is somewhat limited.

I thought about writing a book that would be a memoir of my life.  I was going to title the book The Contents Of My Head; basically, it would be published narratives based upon my very well-kept handwritten journals with comments explaining how I was feeling, thinking, or working on at the time.  After working on the book for just short of a year, I decided that it was nothing more than a collection of disorganized mind drivel.

I learned an important lesson about writing; just because something can be published does not necessarily mean that it should be published.  However, there are many works that are created, then rejected by publishers who are simply looking out for their own bottom line, unwilling to give a fledgling author or writer a chance at being published.

I have decided that while a book may be some years ahead, it will almost certainly be non-fiction, everything else is still undecided.  The book I decide to write, if and when I decide to write it will take time, planning, and perhaps more editing, obsessing, and re-editing once more to be sure that everything is as perfect as it can be.  When one writes a book, they must make sure that it is truly their best work of all time, because once the book is published, it literally becomes an entity of its own; one that can never be changed, edited, or forgotten.