To my new subscribers:
Welcome to my monthly updates. I will be writing to you once a month. If you’d like to catch up on previous emails you can do so here:
What’s your favorite?
Being an author of three published books has led to a question I’m sure most writers have received. And no, it isn’t the dreaded:
Where do you get your ideas?
This question makes my skin crawl as much as the idea question, however:
Do you have a favorite book that you’ve written and had published?
How are to choose which published book we like best? I know this is a frequently asked question because I’ve heard the answer many times over:
Asking one to choose a favorite is like asking someone to choose one of their children as a favorite. For writers, their published books become their children. There are attributes to each of our children/books that others may not have. Do love them anymore or any less? I hope not. With each book under our belt, the hope is that we improve our skills as a storyteller and as a writer.
Thus, that first published book may seem after several years of writing and publishing an antiquated mess in the writer’s view. I spoke with Mike Attebery, another writer friend of mine recently about this very topic. We both agreed that it’s important to keep our first books available because it shows the progression we’ve hopefully made as writers.
As readers, it is probably easier to choose a favorite book by one of the writers you follow, since you’re only invested in reading it. However, as the creator, the writer may not.
C. Jennings Penders
(Chris)
