If you spend any amount of time wandering around bookstores, you may have noticed an entire section devoted to "Writers On Writing". Why the preponderance of books on this specialized topic -- unmatched by analogous catalogues for other fields? "Write from what you know" -- isn't that one of those chestnuts of writerly advice? So perhaps all the writers say to themselves, "Hmm . . . what do I know? Aha! I know writing. I'll write about that."

Compared to members of other trades, writers have an unfair advantage in getting their books to market, due to their profession's longstanding ties to the publishing industry. Nevertheless, I think other professions need to pick up the slack here. For example, next time I explore a large bookstore, I would like to find at least one fixture allocated for "Plumbers on Plumbing". Titles could include:

On Becoming a Plumber
Plumbing the Plumberly Life
How to Plumb a Plumber's Journal of Plumbing
At a Plumbing Workshop
Plumbing Down the Pipes
Crafting to Plumb, Plumbing to Craft

This is just a small sample of what I expect to see, of course.

Jonathan Caws-Elwitt is currently working on his next book, On Writing a Writer's Guide to Writing for Writers About Writing.

© 2003 Jonathan Caws-Elwitt.