The New Book

Hello out there

I have just put the phone down on a long call from a friend, who has just finished reading my book.  Despite her reassurances that it is all well written and very interesting, I know the book needs more work - it is hard to define, but it is a bit like when I was at University - I knew if I had written an outstanding essay or done really well in an exam, and I want to feel like that about my book before it goes to hard print. 

I suppose some other people must feel differently - the majority of students when I was at Uni seemed genuinely not to know whether they had done well or badly in tests etc.  And most young people I know now are on tenterhooks when it comes to waiting for exam results.  But back then I suspected that they must be hiding something - I felt that everyone knew how they have performed even before their work was marked, because I did.  I was never surprised when I received a mediocre mark, because I knew it was for mediocre work.

Thus with my book.  It is good, I know that.  It is very good in some ways.  But it is not brilliant - it is not a bestseller, not ground shaking.  Not yet.  (Paul will hate me for writing this, he says you should never put yourself down because there are plenty of other people willing to do it for you.  And he is right in a way, but I want to be honest about how I feel about what I write, because the honesty is important to the writing too.  My book will help people to understand schizophrenia, or the diagnosing of it, better and to be reassured if they or those they love are told they have it.  It will give hope to certain people, if they stumble across it.  But I want it to be more than that.  I want it to be of universal interest, universal application, universal hope.  I want the average person who reads it to feel that their understanding has been enhanced in some way.  And I won't feel that it is properly finished until and unless it accomplishes those aims.  And if I don't feel that I have achieved that then I will just move on and start another book.  on a completely different subject).

Which brings me to another point.  Or two.  The first is that I need an agent.  I want an outside person to give me an honest, critical assessment of the book and to take up the job of marketing it - to find me a publisher.  (Readers, if you know anyone in the field, please point them to me.)  And the second is that instead of working on the book some more, trying to improve it as much as possible, and then, or alternatively, write a book on recovery, I am going to amalgamate these two jobs.  I am going to improve the book and make it about recovery as much as about my history.  So that I can use the subtitle that my dear friend just suggested to me on the phone,  'A journey of hope and recovery', and know that it is properly true.

Let me know what you think.

Louise x