Posted by deborah anne lott on July 28, 2005, at 20:59:48
In reply to Re: Lott: Question, posted by LittleGirlLost on July 28, 2005, at 12:27:17
Oh, you sound like my conscience now. I'd love to write another book. I don't think I could actually get a publisher right now for a book about therapy -- the market is pretty small for such a book from a publisher's perspective. And fewer people are in psychotherapy now or they are in shorter term cognitive behavioral therapies. What would you like to see covered in a sequel?
I'm thinking about writing a book about fear and anxiety disorders -- maybe covering both the physiology and science of fear, following a child through treatment for an anxiety disorder, and interviewing adults who are fearful/were fearful as children. Any reactions?
Oh, and my first love is the more "literary" writing that I do. I have a piece in an anthology called Open Houses: Writers Redefine Home" called Elephant Girl about my childhood, and other childhood memoirs in some literary journals (Alaska Quarterly Review, Puerto del Sol, Crazyhorse) that you could probably find in a library. I'm hoping to put a collection of these childhood memoir pieces together and get it published -- another hard sell to a publisher.
I hate to even talk about it but IN SESSION came very close to not being published at all. The publisher which initially bought it -- Houghton Mifflin -- decided that the market for therapy books was too small and pulled out of the contract. They also thought the book was written at too high a level for general readers!!!!Underestimating the public, I think. Fortunately I was rescued by a prescient editor at another house (someone who'd done therapy, of course!) and by some wonderful therapists such as Drew Westen of Boston University who wrote letters strongly lobbying publishers to put it out. But many many publishers turned me down saying that no one would read a book about therapy by a non-clinician and that therapy books traditionally don't sell well. So I'm probably telling you all way more than you want to know.
> "In Session" has got to be one of the best books ever written about the therapeutic relationship. I read it when it first came out, and I loved it! It explained many things that I was also feeling, experiencing, or struggling with. It has since become my Bible as I refer back to it often.
>
> I've always wondered, have you considered writing a second book? A sequal of sorts?
>
> Thanks!!
> LGL
poster:deborah anne lott
thread:534691
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050725/msgs/535054.html