Celebrate Nonfiction

Exploring the Joy of Nonfiction Reading and Writing

Behind the Books: Still Sitting in a Drawer

During school visits, students often ask me
how many books I’ve written. Before answering, I ask for clarification. Do they
want to know how many books I’ve published or how many books I’ve written?

That’s right. The two questions have
different answers. So far, I’ve published 190 books, but I’ve written about
30 more that are still sitting in the middle drawer of the file cabinet in
my office.

Why haven’t those manuscripts made it into
print? There are a variety of reasons.

1.   
I
abandoned them because I couldn’t find the information I needed.

2.   
Despite
my best efforts, the ideas just didn’t gel.

3.   
Someone
else published a book that’s too similar.

4.   
Editors
just weren’t interested.

Will I ever publish any of those manuscripts?
Maybe. Maybe not. But even if I don’t, working on them wasn’t a waste of time.
Each and every one taught me something that made me a better writer. And that’s
what writing is all about.

As award-winning author Ruta Sepetys recently
said at a conference I attended, “Your best work is ahead of you.” It’s true for young writers as well as professional writers.

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