Timing is important, even vital, to the successful sale of a book. Sometimes it’s only the very idea of it that has ripened and a book is subsequently commissioned. I’ve had that experience in journalism. However, writing the work itself is another matter entirely. In working on a book, plumbing your psyche for inspiration is never an easy task, nor is it always productive each and every day. Digging deeply is something I think that most writers hope to do, strive for, and often accomplish. However, no one is ever able to define the expression, “digging deeply” as it a subjective standard that can only be determined on a case by case basis. I be interested in what the term means to other writers and to an agent.

Timing is important, even vital, to the successful sale of a book. Sometimes it’s only the very idea of it that has ripened and a book is subsequently commissioned. I’ve had that experience in journalism. However, writing the work itself is another matter entirely. In working on a book, plumbing your psyche for inspiration is never an easy task, nor is it always productive each and every day. Digging deeply is something I think that most writers hope to do, strive for, and often accomplish. However, no one is ever able to define the expression, “digging deeply” as it a subjective standard that can only be determined on a case by case basis. I be interested what the term means to other writers and to an agent.

She passed it around and came back to me with, no one quite gets this. A couple years later, Jim Fixx came out with The Complete Book of Running and the running boom got off the ground.

Can’t say my concept for the book was exactly right, but the timing was definitely a bit too early.