Why is bibliographer not a job? Why can’t a person make a living categorizing knowledge? I ask this because I see YouTube videos of people saying your job should be what you enjoy doing. What if you enjoy creating bibliographies? You see, my research methods are a bit unconventional. They kind of have to be since I have no institutional support for my writing, and yet I want it to be intelligent and informed. That means I have to locate my own sources and inevitably, when I’m compiling a bibliography, I’m happy. Even if it means ferreting out obscure sources and trying to learn where something was originally published, I’m still at the top of my game. (Yes, this is one of those things that the longer you’ve been doing it, the better you get at it. These days it means learning to engage the internet for research. Since it’s more of a money-making venture geared towards entertainment, that can be tricky.)
I remember those days of typing out bibliographies by typewriter, smearing White-Out all over, or trying to use that ribbon stuff that was supposed to be able to type over mistakes. My friends and fellow students hated bibliographies. Secretly, and perhaps perversely, I was enjoying myself. You see, a bibliography is gathered knowledge. When I finish reading a nonfiction book, particularly one where I want to do further reading myself, I go through the bibliography. I want to know the origins of ideas. There’s an irony here since my last few books have featured quite a few of my own ideas supported by what I’d read. And I know that unless I provide a precise footnote, anyone who might read my work might wonder “how I know” what I’m writing. It’s increasingly becoming one of those “pay attention to your elders” sort of thing, I guess.
But the bibliographies I could compile! The really tricky part when writing The Wicker Man was the word limit. I know authors who struggle bringing the bibliography down to required length, and I feel for them. I really do. You see, a bibliography is a record of what it took to get me to write this book. These are the things I was reading, pondering. Or found along the way. There’s an art to a bibliography as well. Some topics seem to attract authors with last names beginning with a certain letter, for instance. Or others seem to have a dearth of another letter. I may be the only person who finds such things fascinating, but can’t that be a paying job? It is most interesting work, and categorizing knowledge is a full-time job. If only it was a paying one.
