Re writing a book on philosophy

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Quoting Ross Campbell

"Great Ideas in Philosophy. Explore some of the biggest Questions Asked"

Try describing this long phrase in less words for the title. Have fun - or don't - writting it.

I read that Søren Kierkegaard self-published his books. So don't discard this idea. :smile:

Quoting Ross Campbell

Re writing a book on philosophy

I have an idea for a Philosophy book I want to write.

First of all are you writing or re-writing a book on or about philosophy?

Reply to Ross Campbell Unless you have some entirely new insight into what the great thinker thought, some completely new answers to the age old questions, brand new rebuttals of philosophical thought of from years gone by, or new ways of applying old ideas in today's world, forget it.

There is not a person from anywhen in history that has not been blathered about ad nauseam in thousands of unread books throughout history.

If you want an idea about how or what to write, read "Plato at the Googlplex"

Reply to Sir2u :up:

Reply to Ross Campbell I think it’s a poor choice for a title.

If you aim to reach a large number of people drop ‘philosophy’ from the title into the subtitle OR present an original approach to the subject matter.

It’s a common mistake for new writers to obsess over the title. We cannot comment really as we’ve not read it and have no idea what you’ve written.

Most people with an interest in philosophy have specific ideas of interest. Those merely curious will likely go for ‘Philosophy for Dummies’ or some equivalent (I imagine there are plenty of those written already to make your contribution insignificant). Therefore you need to bring to the table a unique take kn the subject matter - ie. something like ‘Philosophy and Politics in the late 20th century,’ ‘the history of philosophies in business,’ or ‘Philosophy and Western Culture’.

Unless you have a foot in the door - a reputation in the subject - you’ll have to come at the subject with a fresh perspective. A simple ‘Great Ideas of Philosophy’ book will have a hard time getting off the ground without a weighty reputation (assuming you’re work isn’t simply mind-blowingly brilliant!

Hi
Reply to I like sushi Thanks for your helpful comments. That's very interesting. I had doubted myself if it was a good title. Do you think it would be better to write about a more specific aspect of philosophy rather than a broad book about general philosophy. I was thinking of writing a book about Ethics because it's my favourite area but because I don't have a specialist knowledge in a particular field of philosophy I thought it would be better to write a more broad based book where I don't have to go into great depth on any particular field. But some of your suggestions are interesting. I also want to write a popular work on philosophy, an introductory work for beginners. Doo you think such a work on Ethics would be a good idea. It is I gather the most popular field in philosophy and the most relevant perhaps to people's ordinary lives.
Regards Ross

Reply to Ross Campbell Write whatever suits your idea best (whatever your idea is). Once you’ve written some/most/all of it you can then ask yourself if it works and adjust as needed.

If ethics interests you write about ethics. If baking interests you write about baking. If they both interest you then you should consider writing about both.

There are billions of ideas out there and out of them millions of them are workable. Then, out of those millions there are hundreds of thousands who try to execute their ideas and only tens of thousands who finish the task. AND of those only a few thousand have any reasonable degree of success ... then keep in mind that absolutely NONE of those are satisfied with their end products.

Aim for perfection but don’t demand it. Write and write and write, learn to enjoy failing and the rest will sort itself out.

As it sounds like you’ve never taken on the task of writing a book before I think you’ll find it better to plan by writing one side of A4 listing what this ‘book’ is about (fill the page!). Then take each of the points from this page and repeat the process.

This will give you a better idea of what interests you, how to write about it, and give you some mini finished pieces (short essays/sketches). Most of it will be trash, but that’s just part of the process - the more you write the less trash there will be to cut out.

GL

Hi thanks for your suggestions. What do you think about the following as a title. "Why Philosophy Matters. The relevance of Philosophy for ordinary Life".
Is this a fresh original approach. I think it's better I write an introductory book on general philosophy rather than a specialist field which is probably more suited to people with a PhD in the field while Ive only got a primary Degree in Philosophy.

Reply to I like sushi
By the way your advice looks very good. Would you like me to send a brief synopsis as you mentioned of the book.
Yes I've never written a book before only articles published in newspapers and magazines. Im tearing my hair out trying to write this book . I don't know how many times I've changed the title and the topics. I've written about 30 pages on it already but I began to have doubts about it and so decided to look for feedback on this and other places. Regards Ross

Reply to Ross Campbell
Sounds like a YouTube documentary.

What kind of title do you need? and for what kind of video?