In 2009, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn published together a best seller that has since pushed for changes in many countries: Half the Sky.
“Women are half the sky” says an old chinese proverb. It was the starting point of their long inquiry in the third world countries.
Journalists sometimes get together to write books. Sometimes, they even collaborate with politicians, economists, CEOs,… to write a book.
But unfortunately, when you write a book with someone else, there’s a chance one of you get all the attentions, while the other stays in the shadow. I had the unpleasant experience recently with a book I wrote with a friend of mine, who’s a well known economist. He got interviewed a lot for this work, and only two journalists mentioned I co-wrote the book with him. The others just mentioned it was his book. Which is not true.
The exercise of a book written with four or even more hands is difficult. It starts with a common will to collaborate intellectually on a specific topic. But when the book is written, the writer who has the most influence usually comes forward, while the others don’t get much publicity. So, it’s better when none of the authors are known, or when both of the authors are as popular as each other.
It wasn’t my case. But fortunately, one of the two journalists who mentioned my name did a radio interview where I was treated as equal as my co-author.
And I received congratulations from some economists, some lawyers, some politicians who don’t know me personally.
My main goal with this book was writing a book with him. It’s a plan we had for a long time. Now, we have done it. We have closed a chapter of our life.
To write a book has different meanings for everyone of us. Some write in hope to get successful, some write to exorcise their experience, some write for the pleasure of writing,…
What's love got to do with it? 