Yesterday I started writing a book proposal. It went well until I got to the part where I was supposed to list the audiences the book would appeal to and the reasons why. Everybody who likes to read? People who don't have cable?
I tried to imagine writers from the past similarly engaged. Freya Stark assuring her publisher that the sun-starved Brits will snap up every copy of her forthcoming A Winter in Arabia. Graham Greene confidently claiming that Journey Without Maps will appeal to "everyone who has ever dreamed of visiting Liberia."