Miscellaneous

The Entirely Rational Reason I am Terrified I Might Someday Sell a Book

Paul Sunstone

The hardest thing about writing a book of poetry is forgiving yourself for not being a better poet.

There is a finality to putting something in print, a finality that is not there when you post something to your blog.   You can always edit your blog.  You can always improve what you have posted.

You cannot edit a book that has been sold and shipped.  You cannot improve it.

Publishing a book is way too much like telling the truth.  It is almost impossible to take back the truth.  We humans might be crazy, but at least most of us are not crazy enough we would want tell the truth!  At least you can say that much for us.

I’d have to be crazy to want to sell a book.

Published by Paul Sunstone

I live along the Front Range of the Rockies, near Cheyenne Mountain, and blog at Cafe Philos. Check out my friend's sites too!

15 thoughts on “The Entirely Rational Reason I am Terrified I Might Someday Sell a Book”

  4. I don’t know that it’s all that impossible to take back the truth — it doesn’t seem to be a problem for Trump (granted that he’s not a poet and, in any case, doesn’t often tell the truth in the first place). But I digress from the thrust of your post: I don’t think “not being a better poet” stems from not wanting to “tell the truth” as much as it does from an insufficiency of qualities that form and inform a truth-telling poet (admittedly an insufficient way of putting it).

    As Oscar Wilde put it, “All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.” There is much truth in those words.

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