Travel Blog

The other day a physical trainer asked me if I knew anything about book publishing. She had written a book about her time in India, she said, and didn't know how to go about finding a publisher.

If you're a writer who has spent the better part of your life writing, this sort of question is a little annoying. An adult (even an adult writer) might suddenly decide to take up the harp. But he wouldn't say, "I'm going to play the harp for the Cleveland Orchestra." He'd practice contentedly in the privacy of his home, where only his family would be subjected to his mangling of the instrument.

In the United States we've long been taught to "follow our dreams." Combine this with an education system in which every child is told that he or she is "special" and you get a nation of would-be authors all convinced of the uniqueness and value of their individual stories. (Though why people continue to dream of being writers in the age of video is something of a mystery.)

The difference between writing and music is that the latter field has standards (because no one would want to listen to a mediocre harpist). In publishing, standards are almost always trumped by profits. (It helps that the population of readers is not as attuned to differences in quality as an audience of concertgoers.)

Yesterday I got talking to a retired man at the pool who told me he was writing poetry. And for some reason I didn't find this irritating. In fact, I found it rather admirable, because it showed an interest in language that came with no dreams of bestseller lists or appearances on Oprah. I think the next time someone tells me they've got a book they want to get published, I'm going to suggest they try writing poetry.