A few thoughts on writing a book

9 observations timed to the latest book deadline

I load these Vanderhack essays into Substack a few days ahead of time, but if all has gone well, I should have turned in the manuscript of Big Time, my next book, yesterday.

This will be my 9th commercially published print book written under my own name (is that a lot of qualifiers? Once upon a time I had a ghost writing career. I’ve done contract books for private publishers, and you can read my novel The Cortlandt Boys or my short work The New Corner Office as ebooks.). Clearly, I like writing books. I don’t know if books will last forever in their current form but I like the idea of exploring an idea over the course of 50,000-100,000 words, with the goal that someone would interact with the idea in its holistic form.

Over the course of writing 9 (plus) books, I’ve learned a lot. Here are a few observations.