Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them

I've been a professional writer for much of my life, in the sense that for periods of time I've actually been able to eat and pay NYC rent by virtue of people paying me to write things.

But I don't know if I have a book in me. Because every time I try to write things that could possibly turn into a book I read them and they don't sound very good. I know what I'd have to do to change that, namely write a lot every day for a few years until it clicked. But I don't.

But so far I haven't made that a priority, so whatever book might be in me is still there. I think there's a lot of people like that. Many people just can't write and tell stories at all, of course. But many many people can, and would in fact be able to do so compellingly, but they haven't and won't put in the work.

But the intended meaning of the article is more like “no, you probably don’t have a bestselling book in you.”

Disclaimer - I’ve written a kids sci-fi novel in the past year. Something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile now, and finally got around to actually putting down the words on the page to make it happen.

Now it’s one thing to say “I wrote a novel.” But to be fair I wrote the draft of a novel that still needs substantial editing before it’s ready to publish. I’ve been picking at it for awhile, and still it’s not ready to send out to other editors (or agents).

I’ve been stuck in edit mode for months now, I’ve been finding editing much harder than writing. A common feeling. One writer told me that writing is like a party, editing is cleaning up the next day. Some of my published friends and colleagues tell me it takes a few drafts of editing before it’s even good enough to send to an agent or editor. So I’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of me.

But this article is a bit strange because the author is an agent herself, who knows full well that there’s a ton of editing and a night-vs-day difference between someone’s first cruddy draft and a finished product, for which agents and editors worth their salt will have honed and worked their magic on.

Also a bit discouraging to hear this from an agent, suggesting people’s stories may not be worthy enough to be told. if anything I’d want them to encourage more people to write that story they’ve been thinking about on the train. Can you imagine if JK Rowling heard this and just thought, “she’s right, my story probably sucks, better to just focus on my day job.”

Though the author does clear things up a little at the end of the article to say write a book because you want to write it, not because someone told you to write it.

But in any case, the title is still misleading because people do have books in them. Even if they’re not profitable. Even if the ultimate reading audience is in the single digits. It’s still a book that means something to the author and that small but critical audience of readers.

It finishes with a satisfying lesson in curmudgeon economics.

...

Anyway... it's interesting that so many people want to write a book. They may be naive, but they do know it's hard. That's why they haven't done it yet.