Peace Corps Books & The 'Key" To Making Them Better

Three or four times a month I hear about or receive in the mail a book written by an RPCV. The majority of these books, say 9 out of 10, are self-published by a POD (Print-on-Demand) firm like Llumina Press or Trafford. While there is nothing wrong with these books, and some of them will have value as historical documents, they are often not well written, edited, or conceived. They have value, of course, for the individual's family, a private historical document of two years spent in the Peace Corps. My only wish is that the writers had spent more time and talent to produce the book. In most cases it would have been better if the author had edited [or hired someone to edit] the text, improved the quality of the photos, thought a little more about the page design, and the story that they wanted to tell.

--

These RPCV "books" are also often only "letters written home" pulled together with a half dozen grainy photographs. Some RPCVs even include the letters written from home back to the Volunteer overseas.

--

Letters and journals are at best the first draft of history. Rarely is the writer as gifted as say, John Cheever, who I am reading at the moment, and who can toss off a sentence like this taken from his journals: "It is one of those days when the massiveness of the clouds, travelling in what appears to be a northerly direction, gives one the feeling of a military evacuation, a hastening, a change in campaign maneuvers; and the clarity of the light gives the mountains--and later in the day the walls of the city--such an air of revelation that one sees how susceptible we are to the powers of light."

--

RPCVs who self publish their books are often surprised that the books aren't reviewed and no one wants to buy a copy, let alone read it. It is tough to get anyone to read anything. Recently there was a long piece in the New York Times Business Section (Sunday, May 13, 2007) about publishing. Summing up, all the editors, agents, and publishers had no idea of what makes a best seller. "It's an accidental profession, most of the time," said William Strachan, editor in chief at Carroll & Graf Publishers. "If you had the key, you'd be very wealthy. Nobody has the key."

--

To find the "key" for Peace Corps writers I have been interviewing John Bidwell (Mali 1989-91) who was a water resource manager in the Peace Corps, an assignment he got because he had spent one summer doing construction work while in college. [How's that for a Peace Corps assignment qualification!]

--

I'm interviewing John for www.peacecorpswriters.org about what he does for a living. 'branding'...and, of course, you'll ask, what's 'branding'?

--

John Bidwell says: branding is the process of consciously creating in others' minds an authentic and relevant image of your identity. Everybody--and every organization--has a default brand. It is your character, and how that character comes across to others. So the question is never whether you need a brand, because you have one.

--

I asked John how branding might help an RPCV who had written a book? John says, "Many RPCV writers focus on similar themes, such as 'They helped me more than I helped them' and personal growth. While these themes may be personally significant, they are not unique. Most writers want to assume that good writing is all you need to do. I don’t believe that. Assuming you are a good writer and you are interested public recognition, you need to be uniquely purposeful. What is the purpose of your writing? To borrow from the branding world, what are your vision, mission, and values? And how do you convey those in a new way?"

--

John knows something about this as he helped his wife Kris in the 'branding' of her book: Monique and the Mango Rains. "Fortunately, Kris," said John, "was not interested in simply retelling her Peace Corps experience, which helped brand her book in a unique way."

--

What Kris and John did was focus the book in two ways: 1) Cross-cultural friendship. Every scene needed to support that. The Peace Corps volunteer and her growth was important, but it was not the primary focus. 2) Tell the story. This was not merely a string of isolated incidents. They studied fiction to get a better understanding of building narrative flow.

--

While these are not ground breaking rules for writing books many, many RPCVs lack these basic narrative tools. RPCVs interested in how John went about 'branding' his wife's book might take a look at my interview of John in an upcoming issue of www.peacecorpswriters.org where Bidwell talks about what you do after you have written your book, i.e., sell it!

Comments

[Joshua Berman]

great bits of advice, john, thanks for collecting them together.

[John Coyne]

Thanks, Josh--we'll move onto marketing next. Also, I'll come back to how to tell a story.
John

[Chris Huh]

Can't wait to read it!

One thing, "www.peacecorpswriters.com" should be changed to www.peacecorpswriters.org. (Note the .com versus .org)

[Tony D'Souza]

Nice essay, John. I let my antics do my branding for me.
Tony

[Tom Hebert]

You wrote: "The majority of these books, say 9 out of 10, are self-published by a POD (Print-on-Demand) firm like Llumina Press or Trafford. While there is nothing wrong with these books, and some of them will have value as historical documents, they are often not well written, edited, or conceived."

Jeez, Coyne, I been reading your Peace Corps Writers stuff (while avoiding writing reviews) for a generation or more. At last the truth?

Tom Hebert