Yesterday, I received the following plea-for-help e-mail:
Hello Ami,
I was looking for information on how to write a foreward for a book and found your article on "Foreword Thinking -- An Introduction to the Introduction". The last paragraph in your blog article stated, "Tomorrow, I'll discuss how to write one." (a foreward)....
I cannot find your example, and would like to read it, as a friend has asked me to write a foreward for her book. I have never done this before, and I want to to her justice. I thought I could find an outline to follow, but am having no luck. Can you help me? Thank you.
When I responded, I explained I was sorry she couldn't find the related blog article. The original post on foreword writing even had "Foreword" in the title, but it doesn't appear when one tries to "Search this Blog." I don't profess to understand such things.
Since I wrote the original post, Blogger was acquired by Google. For reasons that escape me, nothing in the blog that was written prior to the acquisition is searchable.
In 2005, when I wrote them, the posts on writing forewords received significant response. Quite a few people found themselves in the position yesterday's e-mail writer is now in -- pleased to be asked to write a foreword, wanting to do it justice, and unsure of how to proceed... Writing a Foreword for a book is even a topic on 43 Things. The prevailing theme, however, tends to be "I want to do this, but have no idea how to begin..."
For ease of reference to anyone interested, I reworked the related blog posts into a free article on Foreword Writing. I offer it to all future Foreword writers with my compliments and congratulations. Happy writing!
