Is Your Writing an Extension of You?

How do you ensure that your book is an extension of you rather than an  addition to you? In other words - many times writers go through the  trouble of writing, editing and publishing a book only to end up with  something that isn’t really them.  

When they read their book it feels like they’re reading someone else’s.  It’s hard to pinpoint why this is. Maybe the tone of the book is wrong?  Perhaps the concepts aren’t completely original. Whatever the case may  be, the only thing worse than not having your book completed is  completing a book that’s not yours.  

Sure your name’s on the cover but you seem to be absent from the  pages. Readers may even enjoy it. They learn from it, and recommend it  to their friends. But it’s not you. They’re enjoying a representative of you.  This happens often when authors work with maybe a publisher or  ghostwriter who does the bulk of the writing but fails to really hear and then write in the client’s voice.  

It’s very much like the game of telephone we played as kids. Somewhere  in the communication the message got lost.  

Many new writers aren’t confident in their abilities. They will actually  accept this is par for the course. After all, the professionals were the one  who put pen to paper. I’m not a writer, this must just be how it is? In the  end they accomplished at least a portion of their goal which was to have  a book. But they fell short on having their book.  

If new authors are honest with themselves they’d admit that readers  actually know them less after reading their book than before. This is a  scary realization. It also makes it very difficult for the author to take  pride in their book and do the things necessary to market it and spread  the good news.