Many people know that one of my life goals is to write and publish a book. At present I haven't a clue what the book would be about, but it remains a goal nevertheless. I am fascinated by the writing and publishing process, and until recently I had only ever met one published author - Tony Jones.
On January 23rd Nordic Choir performed at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, and my roommate and I were hosted that evening by the president of the Seminary, Michael Cooper-White. Through the course of the evening I learned that Michael had authored a book entitled and is co-author of a book to be released in April entitled . He was gracious enough to give Mike and I both signed copies of On a Wing and a Prayer for free.
When I asked Michael about some of the ins and outs of writing a book, he mentioned that he had recently penned an . He provides a great summary of the publishing process and finishes up the article by offering this:
Probably no book is ever completely perfect. Next month or ten years from now, someone else will write in the same area a better book. But if one has a sense that a worthy contribution can be offered, why not take a stab and try your hand?
Good point.
But there is a small problem: People just aren't reading as much as they used to. There are . Here are a few worth mentioning:
80% of the United States population wants to write a book. 42% of college graduates never read another book after college(!). 70% of books published do not earn back their advance. A "successful" fiction book sells 5,000 copies. A "successful" nonfiction book sells 7,500 copies.
Statistics aside, I still want to write a book. About fourteen months ago I had a dream of writing and recording an album of original music. The dream has been realized, and Dying Stars now available for download on iTunes. I've done music. I can do a book.
