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The word author says it all: authors are people with authority.
People who write books are admired. They have credibility. We are more likely to believe what they say. We think they must know what they are talking about – after all, they wrote a book!
This acknowledges that writing a book is a big achievement. It takes time and effort, dedication and persistence. These are rare qualities. Many people say they’d like to write a book, but very few ever do.
But nearly everyone has at least one subject that they know well. Nearly everyone has experienced interesting or exciting events. Nearly everyone has learned some hard and valuable lessons. Nearly everyone has a book inside them somewhere.
“You should write a book,” you may have heard your friends and associates say. “I should write a book,” you may think, after you told your story, or expounded your theory, or explained your new method for the hundredth time.
Your Ideas Matter
Have you ever thought the world may need your book? That your knowledge, or inspirational story, or revolutionary method, may be the exact thing someone out there is waiting to learn? Maybe more than one person is waiting – maybe there are thousands who could be helped by what you have to say.
In addition, authoring a book can help you promote your business and establish you as an authority in your field. It can garner new clients, improve your sales, and put you in demand as a speaker. Being an author gives you instant credibility. As a marketing tool, a book is hard to beat.
The bottom line is — your ideas, your stories, and your experiences matter. You matter. You do make a difference in the world. You are an actor, not just a reactor. You needn’t succumb to the despair and apathy present in the feeling, “What can just one person do?” Books have a long and distinguished history of teaching people new ways of thinking and doing. Many have literally changed the course of history.
But there are good reasons people don’t write the book they have within them. The most common are:
It’s too difficult.
I don’t have the time.
I’m not a writer.
These are not empty excuses. Writing a book is hard. It does take time. Writing talent and skill are important.
That is exactly why authors are given respect.
Can Everyone Write?
We are funny about writing. We think everyone can write -- after all, we learned how in first grade! Reading and writing are a big part of what makes us “civilized.”
One of the correlating lessons that we learned, at the tender age of four or five, was that we must do our own work. Never, ever, copy someone else. We are all capable of learning the skill of writing.
A first grader can write a simple story. A fourth grader can write a book report. By the time you get to high school, you have learned to research and do reports on complex subjects. You have learned grammar and spelling and sentence construction. You have read some great works of literature. You know what makes a book good.
So now you are an adult and you should be able to write a book of your own. Right?
Not necessarily. Writing is a difficult skill. It takes time to perform it well. It takes effort and dedication and persistence. It helps to have talent, or skill. It really, really helps if you love to write. Not everyone has this knowledge, skill, talent, or time. Not everyone loves to write.
Maybe your skills and talents lie elsewhere. Maybe you don’t have the time to devote to a project as big as writing a book. Maybe you’d rather clean the bathroom than write. But does that mean that your great ideas, your new methods, your inspirational stories, are not worthy of a book? Of course not!
Yet it is vitally important that your ideas are well-written and your book is professionally presented. The competition to attract a traditional publisher is fierce, and you don’t stand much chance if your book isn’t written well. And although new digital technology has made it easier and more affordable for non-professional writers to self-publish their books, a badly written, unedited, or poorly designed book will detract from your important message, and it will contribute to the stigma attached to self-published books, thus making it harder for good ideas to reach the readers who could benefit by them.
There’s Help Available
Regardless of what your second grade teacher told you, you don’t have to do it all by yourself. Many people are available to help you author your book – ghostwriters, editors, proofreaders, illustrators, designers, printers, publicists. They can do much of the work, including writing, while you oversee the process and ensure that your idea or story is presented in a way that is true to your own vision.
Get your ideas, stories, methods, and wisdom out there into the world! Establish yourself as an authority. You too can become an author.
Kim Pearson is an author, ghostwriter, editor, writing coach and member of eWomenNetwork and eWomenPublishingNetwork. She is the owner of Primary Sources, a writing service dedicated to helping other people become authors of polished, professional, and compelling books and articles. Kim teaches workshops and teleclasses on writing, history, and ghostwriting, which have gathered high praise and recognition.
Kim is the author of three books of fiction, two books of poetry, and two non-fiction works: Making History: how to remember, record, interpret and share the events of your life, and You Can Be an Author, Even if You’re Not a Writer. In addition she has ghostwritten or edited over 30 books and numerous articles, telling the stories of a wide variety of people and covering a broad range of topics.
This article is an excerpt from "You Can Be An Author, Even If You’re Not a Writer, 2nd edition, 2007", published by Primary Sources Books, an imprint of Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing. You can contact Kim at storykim@comcast.net
