Writing Books

Solomon said,  "Be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body."  

I am a believer.  I have just finished book three and am torn between the necessary busy work of negotiating with the publisher to get it into print and writing book four.  I had much rather write book 4.  And I am convinced, without scientific sampling, that there are more people writing books these days than there are people reading them.  The print on demand industry, which claims to be on the way to running the traditional publishers out of business, has opened the door for thousands of wannabes like me to get their books into print, dependant only on the writer's own ingenuity to find readers willing to invest the time to read their books.  Part of the problem is most writers, like me, had much rather write more books than tell people about the ones they already have in print.  And the few I know of who are trying to market their books are doing so in such a persistently obnoxious manner that they have turned me off to ever investigating one of them.

Book 3, I think, is a necessary piece.  I was really excited about it when I started it, and I enjoyed writing it.  It is about the peace Jesus promised his followers.  It calls for us to be at peace in a very unpeaceful world.  It contrasts that with how unpeaceful we seem to many non-Christian observers, particularly around the leading social issues of the day.  The book puts forth the proposition that God did not call us to legislate people into righteousness, but rather called us to teach people to love God and follow His lead.  After dealing with fear and anger, the book illustrates the proposition with such topics as abortion, same sex marriages, war and immigration.  It is an exciting idea.  But now that it is written, I am ready to move on.

Book 4 is about good news.  When I think of the requirement Jesus laid on us to spread good news to all the world, I get nervous.  In this book I want to explore those feelings.  Why am I reluctant?  If it really is good news, why am I not excited about telling people.  I think I have some important answers that I want to share.  I am ready to write.

But now I have to put on my marketing hat.  I need to catch a wave on the internet and ride it to literary success.  Otherwise I will not be able to share my excitement over these books (and #s 1 & 2) with very many people.  And I did write them with the hope that folks would read them and be changed by them.  So I am off to Facebook and Twitter and my blog and my web site to spread the news that another good book will soon be in print.

Hummmpf! Blogs!

Well am I ever behind? When Magalie left I lost interest in this blog. It didn't have a serious purpose. I think the purpose has to be to talk about me and the family and what we are thinking and doing. I see problems with that format. 1) I'm shy. 2) I don't want to appear to be self-focused (I'm shy). 3) I want to respect the privacy of my family and others with whom I deal. 4) A lot of what we do is boring and I don't want to bore folks. 5) I know a blog needs to be kept up in order to keep interest and I'm not sure I have the diligence to keep it up (as witnessed by the last several months of inactivity).

Why would I bother with a blog, If I am not really interested in drawing attention to myself? Basically I have some ideas I want to promote. As I have researched how to market these ideas, what I have learned is that I need an identity to tie them together. That identity is me. If I were a corporation or a church or an agency of some kind, I could hide behind that identity, but in reality it's just me. So, I have to market me in order to market the ideas. That sounds crude to me - downright repulsive.

But it's really about integrity. I decided a long time ago that who I am is a single individual. I am not someone at work, someone else at home and a third person at church. Being the same person wherever you are is the definition of integrity. And my ideas, my way of looking at the church and at God's will for our lives is a part of who I am, wherever I am. It is with me at the Minnesota State Fair or in Port au Prince, Haiti. I can't separate the ideas from what we do, though I do work at not being a bore by talking about them all the time.

One thing I keep forgetting, that makes it a little easier, is that "marketing" ideas is not about trading money for something. All the money from the sale of the books goes into publishing more books and making a few copies available to give away. My ultimate motivation is to further the kingdom of God. I need to pray that He will teach me how to do that without becoming prideful.

So here goes. I am going to attempt to keep this blog up with family news and thoughts on what's going on in the world. See also my web site which badly needs an update as well. Started working on that this morning.