This is What Writing a Fake Book Looks LIKe

You’ve heard the term “fake it till you make it.” It applies to writing a book, too. I was thinking, “why should anyone hire me if I haven’t written a book?” Kind of an imposter syndrome question, but still, if I’m positioning myself as a storyteller, don’t you think having a book makes me more credible? I do. What should I call it? The first thing that popped into my head was Louis’s Big Book of Bad BBQ. Your first thought isn’t always your best thought, but I can’t imagine it getting any better than that. If I think of something better, I’ll just fake write another book.

This one’s going to have everything I know about BBQ, which isn’t much. Mostly it’s a cautionary tale that you should learn from your mistakes, which I don’t. I’m persistent, regardless. I’m going to compile stories that have nothing to do with BBQ, and a handful of recipes you can botch quickly. And I’m going to put in about 40,000 words, because that’s the low end of what ChatGPT considers acceptable. 40,000 words is enough words to make you take it seriously without completely ruining your weekend.

Once I’ve got all the words in, I’ll self publish and bring a few hundred copies along with me everywhere I go, so I can sell them or give them away to people who decide who to book for one-man shows like the one I perform. In case you forgot, it’s called A NIGHT YOU WON’T REMEMBER — AND NOT BECAUSE YOU CAN’T. It’s got stories like the one I wrote yesterday called Utah’s Full of Bees. So now it will not only be here on lbkatz.com in the Stories section, it’ll be part of the one-man show AND in the book, if I ever actually write it. I almost like the idea better if the book remains fake. All the benefits, none of the work.

That’s all I’ve got to say on this subject, other than if you think this is a good idea, you should write your own fake book, too.