Advertisments

Feature

To Write or Not To Write? It's a Silly Question

Snobbery rears its head in the debate over the right to write and publish

By Jim Barnes

In a New York Times op-ed essay entitled, "Think You Have a Book in You? Think Again," book critic Joseph Epstein makes reference to the survey the Jenkins Group recently conducted that reveals 81 percent of Americans feel they should write a book. Although Mr. Epstein has published over a dozen books himself, he apparently has little faith in his fellow Americans' ability to do so.

(Note: Read the NYT piece. - registration may be required.)

"As the author of 14 books, with a 15th to be published next spring, I'd like to use this space to do what I can to discourage them," says Epstein, who teaches at Northwestern University and is the author, appropriately, of a recent book entitled Snobbery. "Why should so many people think they can write a book, especially at a time when so many people who actually do write books turn out not really to have a book in them - or at least not one that many other people can be made to care about?"

Epstein goes on to lament the large the number of books published today, and surmises that one reason so many would-be authors feel they can write their own book is that all the "third-rate" books out there make writing a book look fairly easy. But, he asks, "Why add to the schlock pile?"

Epstein contends that the major motivation for wanting to write a book is "to win fame or fortune" or as "a way of establishing their own significance" and blames the fall of religion for removing self-affirming substance from our lives. "How will one's distant progeny know that one once walked the earth?" he writes. "A book, the balmy thought must be: I shall write a book."

Well, professor, look down from your ivory tower and you'll see that people are writing books for many and varied practical reasons these days. What better way for a person to share their wisdom or expertise in a given subject? College professors aren't the only ones with valuable information to contribute. Most of us don't expect these writings to become revered artifacts - we simply want them to deliver a message to a target market, serve a purpose, and turn a profit.

How-to manuals, self-help breakthroughs, marketing tools, and books of fiction and humor are being written and published by unknown and rejected authors, many of whom are finding success through self-publishing and self-promotion. Agents and royalty publishers are discovering new material by scouting self-published works that the marketplace has already proven successful. Finding an author who already knows how to promote his/herself and a book is an added bonus.

There's a brave new world of publishing out there, following its own orbit outside the old author/agent/publisher cycle, and it is producing great books and earning the participants great rewards (see sidebar). We at Independent Publisher and Jenkins Group urge independent authors and publishers to ignore Mr. Epstein's plea to "Keep it inside you, where it belongs" and encourage you to keep writing, creating, and expressing yourselves.

The letters below are some of the responses received by the New York Times in response to the essay, all expressing a strong sentiment about freedom of expression and incredulity toward the professor's attitude. Like bluesman John Lee Hooker said, "It's in 'em, and it's gotta come out." Write On, people, Write On.

• • • • • • • • •

"Let a Thousand Writers Bloom"- NY Times 10/1/02

To the Editor:

Re "Think You Have a Book in You? Think Again" (Op-Ed, Sept. 28):

Thank goodness that Joseph Epstein is not my 9-year-old daughter's teacher, discouraging her creativity and dashing her hopes that she can write a story that others might want to read.

And thank goodness a single mother on the dole was never told "don't even think about" writing a book about a young wizard at Hogwarts school - my son and I would have missed countless hours of reading aloud together, sharing adventures and the joy that a good book can bring.

Perhaps, Mr. Epstein, you should have kept your discouraging opinion "inside you, where it belongs."

As for me, I'll keep on writing, and yes, even trying to have my work published - starting with this letter.

ONNA WEISSMAN
New Rochelle, N.Y., Sept. 29, 2002

• • • • • • • • •

To the Editor:

I agree with Joseph Epstein's assertion that of the 80,000 books published in America a year, most are neither needed nor wanted (Op-Ed, Sept. 28), but not with his conclusion that "misjudging one's ability to knock out a book can only be a serious and time-consuming mistake."

Much may be learned by such endeavor, if one wishes to devote the time and patience required.

The fault lies with the publishers that give reason for would-be authors to pursue their course.

Let the discarded manuscripts mount up - if not published, where's the harm? Increasingly, trade publishing is becoming co-opted by the entertainment industry, requiring books to provide fodder for the salacious, saccharine and obviously profitable tastes it underwrites, even encourages.

Responsibility rests with the agent-editor-publisher matrix, a traditionally wide-bore screen through which the dross once fell.
BRIAN D. HOTCHKISS
Boston, Sept. 29, 2002

• • • • • • • • •

To the Editor:

Joseph Epstein's dismal admonition, "Don't write that book" (Op-Ed, Sept. 28), tells us that very few people deserve the chance to try to make full use of the exquisite gift of language with which human beings are endowed.

So what if no book emerges, or if what comes out will not (or should not) make it to bookstore shelves. It is a marvelous experience to reach for full expression in the form of the written word.
ROBERT E. SILVERMAN
Solana Beach, Calif., Sept. 28, 2002

• • • • • • • • •

To the Editor:

I'd like to add to Joseph Epstein's plea to would-be authors ("Think You Have a Book in You? Think Again," Op-Ed, Sept. 28).

To everyone who ever thought he could paint, sculpt, weld, sing, compose, write poetry, direct a film or act: Forget it; you're no good. And to all of those people who thought that they might train for and complete a marathon or triathlon: Get over it; you won't win.

Best that everyone just stays at home on the couch and reads all 15 of Mr. Epstein's utterly indispensable books.
LACY CRAWFORD
Los Angeles, Sept. 28, 2002

• • • • • • • • •

To the Editor:

Joseph Epstein writes (Op-Ed, Sept. 28): "According to a recent survey, 81 percent of Americans feel they have a book in them - and that they should write it. As the author of 14 books, with a 15th to be published next spring, I'd like to use this space to do what I can to discourage them."

I am so glad that my 16-year-old daughter won't ever have Mr. Epstein as a teacher. When she read that paragraph, she said, "How sad that there are people who don't feel they have a book inside them."
BETH ROSEN
New York, Sept. 28, 2002

• • • • • • • • •

To the Editor:

It is ironic that Joseph Epstein, who has himself written 15 books, wishes that fewer were published each year ("Think You Have a Book in You? Think Again," Op-Ed, Sept. 28). Most of us would feel unqualified to dismiss the vast majority of books as "schlock." In his opinion, however, most of the 80,000 or so that are published in America every year are "not needed, not wanted, not in any way remotely necessary."

How thoughtful of the author, who must be a speed-reader, to have slogged through more than 200 books every single day just to gather his findings!

It is tragic that Mr. Epstein himself surrendered to that unseemly impulse to write a book that he tells others to repress. If he hadn't, the world's groaning oversupply of books would be 15 books lighter today.
DAVID ENGLISH
Somerville, Mass., Sept. 28, 2002

---