Writing a Book Manuscript, Investment or Folly?

I am not totally sure why I want to write another book.  I write a lot anyway, more than enough to satisfy any normal desire.  I write for a magazine.  I write for Campus Crusade. I write lots of journal articles.  I write this blog.  And, I once wrote a text book.

I am happy to have written that text.  I wrote it out of sheer desperation.  From my perspective, there wasn’t a good alternative text.  The book is about the mathematics and statistics of measuring and evaluating.  Math is not a popular topic and many are psyched out before they even begin.  Most people who write text books are deeply in love with their subject matter;  so, they don’t see any need to make an inherently lovable topic lovable to the poor student.

Now a friend, Walt Larimore, MD, and I are writing a book on exercise and fat control.  In a lot of ways it is fun.  I have been teaching this stuff since about 1983, so most of it I can write off the top of my head.  It is still a lot of work though.  We are just at the stage of writing where we are looking for a publisher.  Typically you don’t even write a magazine article without assurance that the publisher will buy it.  And, in this case I had written only four chapters to send out with the query to potential publishers.  But, I have time, and the second-level option is that we self-publish it , but I have been reluctant to pursue that course of action.

So I guess it is a faith effort we are undertaking. 

Christianity seems to be the ultimate long-term investment.  We are looking forward to a  New Jerusalem, “…the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”  Rev 21:2

I have no doubt that that investment will pay a BIGGER dividend than any thing we could invest in a pyramid scheme (or anyway else).