Sam and I are currently sitting at our table/joint desk/office both writing book proposals. as some of you may know, Sam now has more books under contract than we ever imagined, back in the dark days of a certain publisher sitting on his first book for 2 years and then, half-way through the process, unceremoniously dumping it. without telling Sam.
money begets money.
publishing begets publishing.
sometimes, you just have to be in the orbit of certain people and suddenly you're churning out tomes.
the lesson, I think, is that the more we sit in our caves and nurse our insecurities, holding our 'knowledge' close to the chest so that no one else will 'steal' it, the less we contribute. the more we chat, and eat fabulous japanese food, and debate ideas, and bounce things around, and support one another with generosity, the more we prosper intellectually.
i think there's some book around here with a metaphor that describes this. something about light, and a bushel, and hiding... hm. I'll have to google-book that to find the citation.
1 comment:
Indeed, I believe I was quoted about 5 days ago, saying, 'I shall not write any more book proposals; I must complete the books under contract'. But somehow there was a conversation, a colleague had a great idea, another colleague had a connection, I had a bit to add, and I find myself writing a book proposal all morning....
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