I’ve thought of writing a book a number of times. I’ve thought of interesting plot devices, characters and book covers but never got around to put much more than a few pages down before something else came up. The novel writing for November comes and goes and usually I’m too busy and don’t want to take the time to put something down. This year I went so far as making an outline and describing characters but multiple jobs in diametrically opposed geographic locations from my house did not lend to a lot of writing incentive, especially since the subject did not involve the driving in the Puget Sound area! Even if I did manage to write something that someone could call complete or at least not lacking in content there was the difficult prospect of publishing. That everyone could have such a problem! And, to tell the truth, that was not really anything that was holding me back but it was something that, if I had a guarantee of publishing, or better, a sure guarantee of sales, then that would spur me on.
I admit I’m slow on the uptake – shamefully slower than some, but then, I'm not focused on making money from writing. It's a secondary fringe benefit if it happens; not the primary incentive as it is for some recent book writers. But just recently it finally dawned on me, the way to sell books is to run for President!
Campaigning is a great cover for book sales and you can get campaign contributors to subsidize your travel and speaking engagements. The better you do, the better your sales at least you would think – who wouldn’t want a book signed by president, after all? Well, I suspect, and, so far, current events have borne me out, that book sales must become even greater with a fallen idol than with the idol becoming even more unreal as president. At least that’s one explanation. The other one is that the folks with books for sale, and were actively hawking them (and/or a tv series) were never serious about actually winning the race to begin with! This may be the real explanation especially given the surprise the candidates themselves feel when they find themselves a front-runner. Now, I’m not saying that all presidential candidates that write books are in it for the money rather than the office – some candidates write books to elaborate on their lives and philosophies as a way for the voters to know them better but they seem to be in a very small minority and tend to not be as verbally self-destructive.
Hmm, now considering that one of my writing projects was a love story that was a thinly veiled satire of some of the current evils in our politics today, I’m not sure which way it will go but if you do see me running for President in 2016 (I need time to write and develop an exploratory committee) especially as a Republican, then there’s a safe bet that I’m in it for the sales or maybe I just want to make fun of my fellow candidates.
