Book Doctor

From Google Images

I wonder if I’d like to be a book doctor. Book doctors are those folks who try to whip a manuscript into shape after the author has done all she could. It’s the stage before submission to an editor or agent. When I first got out of college, a woman came to me with such a request. She had an interesting book idea: She was the first woman, according to her, in Virginia who had had a paternity test done for her baby. I helped her but lost touch with her when I left Virginia. I don’t know if she found a publisher. My guess is that she did because she was determined to tell her story.

The question for me is why on earth didn’t I pursue other opportunities to do that work? I bet it was lack of knowledge about freelance writing, about establishing a business around something I enjoyed. Being interested in pursuing a doctorate at Ohio State had something to do with it, too.

Oh, well. I hope aspiring writers today will go for it, even if they agree with Nick Flynn's statement about how writers are perceived.