I have been working on an autobiography. I really had wondered if I would ever try to get it published while my mother is still alive because it's about getting into and out of the JW's. As a fader, it would have to be submitted under an assumed author-name with some of the basic facts slightly reorganized and all the names changed to protect the fader.
Anyway, I am up to about 22,000 words at somewhere between one-third and one-half of the way to the end. I found it quite easy to slightly disguise the facts that point to the real me. A few serious JW's could read it and know it was me, but serious JW's would never completely read my book and then they could not PROVE it was me.
I got to wondering, "How many words are needed to make a book?" A quick internet search got me the ZEN answer- "As many words as it takes and not one more." That answer popped up more often than one would believe. Still, I assumed that most publishers don't subscribe to ZEN thinking when it comes to their final decisions.
The best answers I have received are that a book for adults can be as little as 35,000 words but that a minimum of 50,000 and a more common 60,000 to 70,000 words would be what is expected. MS WORD does a nice job of word counting. I can easily see my book breaking the 50,000 word minimum and when I add in the introduction about why I must remain anonymous, I will be somewhere in the 60,000 word range.
All the answers I found really focused on "just telling the story" and letting things like word-count come later. I was just trying to get an idea if I had a real actual "BOOK" in the works. I think I do, I think I may finish this book in 2010 and start the process of getting it published. I will have to go the route of a fake name. If it does get published, I will have to let some of my JWN friends know that the story is from OTWO.
So, any thoughts of encouragement or advice from those that write would be greatly appreciated.