Here are some confessions: Like anyone who at least fiddles around with writing, I think I have some ideas that I could turn into good books. But, even with the millions of books published each year, that number is greatly exceeded by ideas from people like me that never actually get finished and written. I'm sure I'll always have my share of those, but I also hope that I'll actually do something with some of the ideas.
Yet it isn't easy to keep moving toward finished. I have a stellar track record of starting on things that (I think) are great ideas, but I don't think I'd get picked for anyone's team if I were only judged by the things I've brought to completion. I have a book I've been working on for... according to the calendar, it's two years now. Yikes. (If that weren't bad enough, it's been two years on a really short book.)
But the book is about three ways to pray- a type of introduction to classical methods of prayer that have helped ordinary people live prayerful lives through the centuries. The stuff has been incredibly helpful to me, and I think it will be very helpful to others, so I want to get it out there.
But I'm stuck.
Traditional publishing routes haven't panned out. (Apparently, they almost never do for someone trying to do it this way: never having been published before and having a blog readership of- maybe 30-50 of you?.) Self-publishing isn't a bad option these days, but it requires some of my own money rather than someone else's, and I always seem to find other things more fun to do whenever extra funds that come in rather than getting this idea to completion.
But I really don't want to spend the rest of my life wishing I'd written the book. I don't even want to spend another year wishing I'd written the book.
So here's the public declaration: I'm going to get the thing finished. And I'm going to get it published in some form or another. The size of the audience doesn't matter too much to me. What matters more is that it's done in a way that is helpful to people and that it can move from the wish list to the actually done list.
(You all are now my official accountability group.)