The third prerequisite for becoming

The third prerequisite for becoming a successful textbook author is the willingness to focus on your audience. I recall a conversation I had with an author who had written a text that seemed too mathematical for most undergraduates but not sufficiently rigorous for graduate students. When I asked him for whom he had written the book, he sheepishly admitted, “I really wrote it for myself. This is the mathematical level at which I like thinking about things.” I had some sympathy with his response because that is also the level at which I like thinking about things. But the answer was not good enough. Not surprisingly, his book, while admirable in many ways, was not a commercial success. Keeping the audience in mind is a challenge for many economists. Much of our writing, especially the writing we do during our graduate training, is aimed at other economists. With this background, it is easy for us to slip into jargon or to rely on implicit assumptions that are natural for economists but not for laypeople. This problem is sometimes called the “curse of knowledge.” Once you know a subject matter well, it is hard to imagine what it is like to not know it. Overcoming this curse is crucial to being a good teacher or textbook writer. The person I always kept in mind while writing my principles text was my mother. She is not a college graduate but has always been interested in following the news and financial markets. As I wrote, I regularly asked myself, “How would Mom react to this passage? Would she understand it? Would she find it engaging?” So those are the three conditions to judge whether you may be a candidate for writing a successful textbook: a deep interest in the craft of writing, a willingness to spend the time needed to write a great book, and an understanding of your audience. If, after sufficient soul searching, you think you fit the bill, then get to work. I wish you luck. But not too much luck, because I will be out there competing with you.