How would you like to get more than $150,000 in public money to write your book? I’d go for that. Of course, being the show-off that you are you would probably want to see your book actually published and sitting on the table at Barnes & Nobles. You wouldn’t be satisfied with readers having to make an appointment to sit in an office and read your book. But remember you are getting $150,000 for your six-chapter, 175-page collection of musings and advice. You could live with that, couldn’t you? Florida Senator Mike Haridopolos does not have a hard time with that arrangement. His political musing and advice brought that kind of money from Brevard Community College.

Jack E. Davis, an associate professor in University of Florida’s history department has a problem with Haridopolos making $38,000 a year primarily to write a book. He called the payment “an amount that a talented writer with a literary agent might get from one of the big New York publishing houses as a book advance.”

Haridopolos’ book –uh, manuscript – is described as in insider’s description of the legislative process and campaign advice for prospective political candidates. With the catchy title “History & Processes” the book is jam packed with advice not available elsewhere, such as:

• “A cell phone will be essential.” So is “a computer with an Internet connection.” Who knew?
• “This is a tough, expensive and emotionally bruising business.” Expensive? Tell the taxpayers about it.
• “The candidates who are not strong public speakers can find comfort in the fact that very few people attend public forums, and that most who do attend are in the audience only because they work for a campaign.” All the while, the candidate is able to gain experience and improve his ability to speak publicly, confident that the public is not in fact watching.” On the job training.
• “Critical stories, or stories the candidate perceives to be critical might appear in any event, but these should rarely be cause for concern. Only candidates hyper-analyze news stories. Unless the story involves real scandal, most people merely glance at it and, in time, forget it.” The voters are working  so hard until sometime in May just to support the government (and politicians) with their taxes that they don’t have time to weed out miscreants in the political arena.

 

So here is my advice for you writers out there. Forget agents, publishers, self-publishing, etc. Get yourself elected to office and cozy up to a learning institution with a budget.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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