About 2 years ago or so I talked to some friends of mine about the need for a book to graduating seniors. I expressed how I was tired of the options for students being some coffee table devotional book written by a Christian bookstore devotional superhero like Chuck Swindol, James Dobson, or Max Lucado. Nice enough guys, but I was confident the books were really being marketed to grandma’s in Arkansas who buy books for their graduating grandkids who never actually read them.
I had some ideas for a solution to this problem, but I had no idea how to get a book published. Some friends in the publishing world even told me that it was not a book that people buy because, like it or not, grandma is the audience they market to. So, I delayed. Then eventually I talked to some friends on the outskirts of the publishing world about the need and then they said, “Brian, write it.” They didn’t say they’d publish it, but they did say I should write it.
Well, my crazy life or my lack of self-discipline or whatever has kept me from authoring a book and I started writing bible studies instead. Then I had lunch with a friend of mine- Chuck Bomar- this summer and said I was trying to turn the corner and finally write this book. But he told me he had the same idea and his book was already written and is almost published. So today I noticed that Chuck’s book was published by Simply called “99 thoughts for college age people.”
And a few months ago I noticed that Mark Matlock wrote one called, “Freshmen: the college students guide to developing wisdom.”
I could still throw my own ideas into the hat, but I think I’ll probably just sit on it. Truth is: I think I snoozed and I loozed. But I’ll pick them both up and give them a read and if I think I can offer anything new to the scene, I might have to get my butt in gear. If not, oh well.
To the writing of books there is no end. Let me encourage you to throw your ideas into the hat.
Of all the books I’ve written, Freshman has been the best selling title. But all things have a shelf life. (My book is in need of a major revision.)
When I wrote Freshman, “How to Stay Christian in College” by J. Budziszewski was one of the best books I’d read for high school seniors going into college. I knew I couldn’t surpass what that book had done, but I wrote Freshman anyway, and every year I get letters from college students telling me Freshman helped them in some way.
If you think you have something to say, go ahead and write, otherwise you’re kind of hitting the snooze button again 🙂
Thanks for the encouragement mark. Maybe I’ll shoot you the manuscript if I finally put my axe to the grinding wheel on this. Perhaps our paths will cross again at another YS brainstorm in the future.