Why Writing Books is like Playing Tennis

Tennis started out as a game for aristocrats. When municipalities and schools began building public facilities during the last century, it became a popular game, played by over 100 million people and watched by many more. In tennis there is every level of play, from amateurs taking their first steps to the top professionals we all know. Amateurs play for the exercise, the social aspects, the fun. Some of them want to improve by taking lessons. Some join teams. Only a very small fraction of the people who play tennis have the ability, passion and willpower to become top players.

When two amateurs play tennis, they do not expect crowds of thousands to come to watch the game, and certainly not to buy tickets. They do not expect their games to be televised. They know that if they want to get to that level, they have to spend years of intense training.  They never assume that hitting a ball with a racket makes them a top player.

Writing books similarly started out as an occupation for aristocrats. During the recent decades especially, the barriers have come down, the playing field has become level and anyone can write a book online and publish it. Ourboox and Itsyboox are part of that revolution. There are no good statistics for the number of e-books published in a given year, but the number is in the millions.

This is where the problems begin. Many authors believe writing does not require years of practice and instruction. They have a pen and paper, or a laptop, and write. That is ok, as long as they realize they are amateurs and do not expect the adoration of the crowd. After all, tennis players that just bat a ball around do not they expect spectators and paying customers. Why should amateur writers expect people to buy their books? In fact, most do not. Your chances of selling more than forty copies of your e-book on Amazon are less than one in ten according to Guy Kawasaki.

Embed from Getty Images

If you want to be a professional book writer and have many thousands of paying customers, then you have to follow the route of the tennis players. Until I attended the SCBWI conference in New York in 2015, I didn’t understand this point at all. I thought that I was a terrific children’s writer. What’s the big deal? You have an idea, your write the story, and the world flocks to bookstores to purchase it.  I couldn’t understand why agents and publishers were not knocking at my door, exchanging punches and threats, all in an effort to sign me. I felt hard done by. But when I went to that conference I discovered one thousand other writers who were highly skilled and much better trained than I was.

I had to go back home, pull myself ​up ​by the boots and learn the ‘craft’ of writing children’s books. ​The most important lesson of the conference was that, similar to the aspiring tennis player, there is a ​road map  for the writer who wants to train and improve. It includes reading and analysing hundreds of children’s books, taking courses​ and classes, ​reading ​instructional books, ​countless ​videos,​ ​​joining ​ critique groups, ​attending ​conferences​, participating in contests, sending out countless queries, revising the same manuscripts dozens of times​ and studying with private mentors.  It has taken ​me ​six years, and only now do I feel that my writing has started to reach a ​level that I can live with.

So what needs to be done in a general sense? 

1. We need to continue to promote our platforms that allow anyone to create and publish books. ​That in itself is a wondrous thing. Conversely and somewhat ironically, creating a book does not necessarily make you an author of worth.

​2. ​Schools everywhere should promote creative writing and book creation. They should offer ways to help students improve their writing skills.

3. We need to teach our writers that writing books is like playing tennis. It is fun and stimulating at the amateur level. To be a professional means hard work.

4. We need to hierarchize our e-libraries.

5. We need to make available multiple teaching tools which enable authors to improve their craft.

6. We need to find ways for professional writers to monetize their work.

7. We need to find ways for professional writers to serve as guiding lights for those who wish to develop their skills without preying on them.