No bullshit social publishing news and opinions. Follow Brandon.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. 81% of all Americans feel they have a book inside of them. This means that 93% of Gastrointestinal Specialists are unavailable for your colonoscopy. Leaving you with 7% of GI specialists available for the important procedure. You know, the ones who barely passed med school?
In addition to these afflicted Americans with stomach aches, there are six million Americans who have completed their book’s manuscript, totally ignoring all advice to the contrary and inflicting irreparable harm on their friends and family.
Why weren’t you invited to Thanksgiving? You know why.
You see, this statistic is bullshit. It comes from a 2002 study by The Jenkins Group, a self publisher in Michigan that you can utilize to have your book published. Huh, I wonder if that has anything to do with this study?
If the statistic’s age doesn’t call it’s reliability in question, than the source should. Of course 81% of Americans have a book lodged inside them, that’s why they need The Jenkins Group to fish it out. Think of the time this saves the proctologist!
Still not with me? The sample size of the survey? 1,006 Americans. In the 2000 Census, there was a population total of 281,424,602 Americans, most of them legal. You tell me if that seems like a decent sample size.
Also in that survey, according to Joseph Epstein, the wittiest writer alive if William F. Buckley is to be believed, “Almost equal numbers of people said they wanted to write a novel, a nonfiction work, a self-help book or a cookbook.”
While that statement is not very witty, it shows those 81% of Americans and their unfortunate digestive conditions don’t have a plan. They want to write a book. A book. Any book. Perhaps THE book. But they’re not quite sure how to do it, when they’ll do it, if they’ll do it, or if they can convince their kids to do it for them. If not the kids, the dog. The dog could do it. The dog will publish the book!
Maybe they have a plan after all?
Quite often, you will see this statistic appear in books telling you why it’s time to get your book published. I know, I’ve read all of them. If you haven’t noticed, you should look closely at the credentials of these authors.
In more than a few instances, these authors have only published books about getting published. And while publishing a book on publishing is getting published, they haven’t exactly been through the process of actually publishing a book about, well … anything besides getting published. You can usually spot these people when they don’t mention where the statistic(s) comes from. Don’t buy books from them.
In fact, if you see people, self publishing houses, and hucksters (not to be confused with people) approach you with a statistic like this, and they can’t tell you where it came from or how big the sample size is, punch them in the face. Then drive as fast as you can to the next county. In the event they need money to self publish their next book on how to publish a book, they’ll sue you and use your money to do so.
And for the Gandhis among us, you can attempt to avoid violence by directing them to this page about the misuse of Statistics. Although, I can’t promise someone will then punch you in the face for sending them to a Wikipedia page.
Until then, don’t trust anyone who gives you this statistic. It’s old and anything over five can’t be be trusted. I have some concerns about the twos as well.
###
Leave a brain dropping on our Facebook Wall and tell us what you think.
Comments on this entry are closed.