by Bob Schwarztrauber
“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you’re dead and rotten, either do things worth the writing, or write things worth the reading!”
Benjamin Franklin, “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
=============================================
Following up on my last article, with just one more non-monetary based post, today I want to share with you a personal story of how I got started writing and publishing books.
I was afraid I was going to die!
Not today, or tomorrow, and not because I got some surprising health scare (I’m perfectly healthy mostly, except for I eat too much junk food and don’t follow a regular exercise routine, like most) but just someday. And my young daughter would be left to wonder, “What was my Dad all about?”
I thought, “I’m reading all these books about how to be successful, learning all sorts of great tips and tricks from the masters throughout history and it would be a shame if I couldn’t pass on what I learned, if I couldn’t give my daughter a shortcut so she wouldn’t have to guess, find the right books and read them all like I did.”
Having been a single dad for the first 6 years of her life, I constantly worried about what would happen to her if I should meet with some untimely fate.
So my first real published book would be a children’s book. But not some light, silly story about a rabbit, or a fox, or a princess. No, I reasoned that the best way to at least get my daughter started in the right direction for success was to write a book of useful quotations, from the books on success I had read. That way, she could quickly get a snippet of useful advice, know who the author of that quote was and then later find the books written by that author if she so chose. Sort of like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.
But I knew kids would be bored by a book of words. Children’s books should be fun, with lots of colorful pictures and things familiar. That was easy for me, since photography (writing with light) is my other passion.
To create the colorful photos for the book I decided to illustrate the quotes and their message using LEGO building blocks. Then photograph the scene and do whatever editing needed to be done with Photoshop. By that time I was married. My daughter and step-daughter helped me create the LEGO scenes. We all had a great time “building” the book.
I used the online book publishing company BLURB to publish that first, full-color hardcover book. And the kid’s school inviting me in for a whole day on National Reading Day to present the book and it’s quotes to all the classes. It was a lot of fun for me and my daughters!
Book for My Daughters
Here’s the point.
Making gobs of real cash money off your book sales is great. Getting paid royalties over and over for work you did years ago is great. Getting new leads from your book is great.
But so is creating a book just for you and your family.
Imagine how many family histories are lost for ever? Never told? Never recalled accurately?
You can now create your own book, for free, and record your own story, your words of wisdom, your true self in a book of your own creation. No generation before could ever do it so easily or professionally.
You are a wealth of knowledge having lived to whatever ripe old age you may be. Or you may be a young kid who just wants to make your friends laugh by sharing a book of funny stories or drawings. Or you may be a college grad out to make your mark on the world.
Wherever you are, Ben Franklin’s advice at the top was good. Good then, still good now. Ben was a smart fellow. A rich one too. And the written word was his vehicle to success.
How will you share your wealth of knowledge?
How would you want to be remembered?
Will you be remembered at all?
I worry about things like that.
Leave a Reply