Writing a garbage book

With my recent transition out of the workforce I’ve spent considerable time pondering how I can continue to earn some kind of income to take pressure off of my wife. I don’t want to be wealthy, but I’d like to eliminate the need for her to constantly work overtime. I’ve had many ideas: bug bounty programs, writing an app, teaching classes, returning to professional photography, etc.

But I recently had a bad idea. What if I wrote a garbage book? I’ve always said that you don’t have to write a book that people will read, just one that they will buy. There are a whole lot of self help and personal growth books out there that, like many ted talks, say common sense things in a way that feels deep. It’s the kind of thing that feels life changing when you read it, that makes you feel like you will finally “get on track” and have the life you want, but within 3 weeks of finishing the book you are right back where you started. It doesn’t help, but it makes money right?

Or how about a book on parenting? I could pick a trendy topic (it doesn’t matter that I actually agree with it) and write a load of worthless content on it. I could use a pseudonym, perhaps a gender neutral name like Sydney so that people assume I’m a mom. Maybe even a photo on the cover of a mother and child holding hands and walking through the woods, with a title like “Finding the free spirit: surrendering control to your creative child”.

It’s the kind of book I’d never buy, and that I’d actively scoff at. But, I have a strong feeling it wouldn’t be hard to write it. It wouldn’t need any real substance, just some persuasive charisma that tells people what they want to hear. Of course, it feels like it would be wrong to do something like this. Dishonest and inauthentic perhaps? However, people write fiction purely so other people can enjoy it. What if people enjoy a book like this? Does it matter that I don’t agree with it if they enjoy reading it? I suppose it entirely depends on whether the book causes harm. If someone writes a book telling people that they can cure cancer with essential oils it’s actively harmful. It’s false information that can damage people’s lives. It’s factually incorrect, with real and physical consequences.

But the books in my example wouldn’t make any factual claims to begin with. It would be all feeling and fluff with no real substance. Though it certainly would promote, whether directly or indirectly, a certain perspectives and ideas that are less than ideal. Or rather, that I’d personally consider less than ideal for most situations. It could be written in a way in which it couldn’t objectively be called harmful though, but rather only based on opinion.

Writing something I don’t believe in just to make money isn’t my style. That’s not the kind of thing that I want to contribute to the world. Even if some people enjoyed it or even felt it was helpful, the fact that I’m not acting in good faith is, in and of itself, enough to dissuade me from taking such an action.

But it’s certainly fun to think about.