Don’t Write a Useless Book
Have you ever read a book, especially a technical guide or a textbook, and felt that you are just reading the words and sentences but no meaningful information is going into your head? Probably yes. Every college student or corporate employee who manages technology would have encountered this. Such books are known as useless books. My definition of a useless book is one that causes grief to readers and let me describe what I am saying. For example, when I was in college in the 1980s there was a physics textbook written by an extremely intelligent professor. The book release was announced several weeks before along with a lot of fanfare and with advance booking for purchase. Based on the professor’s reputation for knowledge practically everyone in our class and other colleges paid the full amount and eagerly waited for the book.
When we finally had the book in our hands we were in for a shock. We observed that the theory explained in this book was quick and short. Each chapter also had a few easy and simple solved problems. But at the end of each chapter, there were heaps of awfully complicated problems that no student could solve by reading the theory and examples provided in the same chapter. To make matters worse, only the odd-numbered problems had the answers (without the solution steps) printed at the end of the book. To make matters even worse the professor would not solve those tough problems even in the classroom and expected the students to brainstorm and solve on their own. So, the professor’s method was to help students to solve simple and easy problems, but let the students tackle the tough ones without any clue on how to solve them.
Secondly, due to his ferocious short temper, no student would approach him for any assistance. Remember in the 1980s we had no internet or alternate modes of learning like online courses, Google search, etc. Our only source of knowledge to pass exams were our physical textbooks and handwritten notes for solved problems painstakingly collected from various sources. Now, if the textbook that we have doesn’t help us solve the problems that we may face in the exam then what’s the use of such a textbook?
To summarize the story it was a bad textbook written by an intelligent professor who was unable and unwilling to realize that he was a bad author as he was not interested in helping his readers. What’s the use of printing heaps of complicated questions at the end of the chapter when there was no method explained to solve those problems in the same chapter? Soon every student realized they could pass no exam if they studied only that tough textbook. In short, we wasted our money and fell into the trap of a fancy promotion and the esteemed status of the author. The reputation of this book was so bad that we could not even sell it to junior students or second-hand shops that dealt with college textbooks. Fortunately, there was another textbook written by some other professor containing detailed theory and fully solved problems explained beautifully, which every student would quietly buy to pass exams and the earlier tough textbook would just remain as an ornamental piece. Now imagine if this wonderful textbook was not available and students had to depend only on that tough textbook. Eighty percent of the students would have failed. The students and their parents would have invaded the principal/professor’s cabins to protest and the college’s reputation would have nosedived if the media gets involved. A large number of students failing can become a major public image crisis for any college.
What the above lesson teaches is, as a non-fiction author, you should avoid writing such books. You may get the personal satisfaction of having written a complicated book. But what will you gain if readers or students reject and classify your book as useless? Secondly, in today’s online world, unknown customers will write nasty comments online on Amazon and other platforms causing your book ratings to nosedive. You can’t prevent them from writing bad reviews and giving one-star ratings. In addition, your author’s brand and reputation will also go down if your book has lots of nasty reviews and low ratings. Publishers willalso refuse to publish your future books.
So, ask yourself to whom are you writing a book. Did you write it for your self-admiration or for readers to understand what you have written? If your book does not add value or is not easy for the reader then it’s of no use to them and their reactions can be toxic. This is how hundreds of books lie rotting in libraries and bookstores. Just visit any library, pick up some thick textbooks, and read a chapter. If you are just reading the words and no meaningful information is going into your head then that’s an example of a useless book. So, if you are planning to write a non-fiction book put yourself in the shoes of an ordinary reader and write in a manner that he or she can understand. That is the writing level you should attempt if you want your book to become acceptable and popular for the audience that it’s written. However, if your target audience is experts like top professors then you can write a book to match their knowledge level.
Finally, we shall end this article with — Never judge a book by its cover, the esteemed status of the author, or its fancy promotion.
~ 🤵 About the Author — Thejendra Sreenivas was a Technology Manager in the IT industry for nearly 30 years. He is now an Author and Book Publishing Coach and helps authors to Self-Publish their books Worldwide on Amazon and Non-Amazon retailers. He has written 30+ books on various topics. Visit his online cave — www.thejendra.com for more details.
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