A couple of weeks ago, I came across the book in the picture while going through some old books at my grandma's house. She gave it to me, and I have started reading it. We Seven (Simon and Schuster, Inc., New York, 1962) is the story of America's very first astronauts written by the astronauts themselves. Although I am only 40 pages into it, it has already challenged me and taught me much about the early space program that I did not know.
One thing I learned was the astronauts' reputable military careers before being chosen to be the first astronauts. In one part of the book, John Glenn Jr., told a few war stories from the Korean War. These stories included flying planes after they had been hit by anti-aircraft fire and flying a plane on low to no fuel and landing a "dead-stick landing."
After sharing a few of these highly suspenseful accounts, Glenn wrote, "I do believe that events like this in our background did help to instill confidence in us that we could handle ourselves and our equipment in a crisis." What he was saying was that their past experiences made them the right people for the job.
That lesson goes hand-in-hand with something that I teach here at Authorize. When you start a book, you must already know three things:
What the book is about
Who the book is for
Why you are the right person to write that book
Now, I don't believe that you must be the most qualified or experienced in a subject to be an author about the subject. It is that mentality that prevents would-be authors from actually writing a book. If you have enough passion about a subject to want to write a book about it, then you probably are the right person to write a book on that subject. I only mean that since you are the right person to be the author, you must know why you are the right person. Why should you write this particular book and not someone else? What unique thing about you makes you the better choice? What can you bring to the table that others can't? Again, it doesn't mean you have to wait until you have 30 years of experience or won some award that shows you are qualified to write on that topic. But something gave you a passion for that topic, and something makes you want to tell others about it. What is that something? For the astronauts, there were many things needed to qualify them. The editor of We Seven, John Dille, put it this way: "What kind of man could manage to be part pilot, part engineer, part explorer, part scientist, part guinea pig – and part hero – and do equal justice to each of the diverse and demanding roles that was being thrust upon him?" For you being an author, there are probably many things that qualify you, but it may be just one thing. Perhaps a trip you took gave you a unique perspective on a topic that others more "educated" wouldn't have. Perhaps the variety or quantity of experts you have interviewed makes you the best candidate. Perhaps your passion to study the topic as well as your firsthand experience with it gives you an edge. For me, with Idle Words, I was not the most experienced or the most learned on the topic of sharing the gospel. But my "why me" was both my passion for the gospel and the numerous phone conversations I had with people who were greatly confused about the gospel from TV and radio preachers. It may be easy for you to find why you should be the author, and it may be difficult. But if you desire to write the book, odds are, you should! Just take the time to find out why you. That will both dramatically improve how you write the book and improve your confidence needed to share it with the world. Why are you the right person for the job? Joel Collison is the founder of Now Written Christian Books and an editor and coach for aspiring authors through Authorize.
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