In ghostwriting and collaborating on three books in the past two years, the biggest challenge by far was coming up with a voice the author was happy with. It may sound like a simple proposition, but nailing it can be as hard as catching an eel.

It comes down to how much or how little the author gives you to work with. In one case, the author (unpublished) took a crack at a first draft himself, and while it was a long way from the final draft, he provided a usable voice to build on--half the battle was over and I hadn't written a word. In another case, the author had written other books and had had his own TV series. A veritable cacophony of voices to work with, right? Actually, for his new book, he wanted a new voice, one with a more serious tone than his past voices. OK, I thought, I'll interview him and he'll speak in the voice he's going for, right? Alas, he wasn't much for talking. Ninety-five percent of the information we would cover in the book was to come from research. It soon became clear that I was to fabricate a voice for him. Hoo boy.

Wait--shouldn't that be easy? Writing without parameters? Creating the voice I want to use? You want to sound intelligent and authoritative? Have I got a voice for you.

Recent unkind words about Dr. Louann Brizendine's "The Male Brain" are truly baffling. She's been taken to task for employing "the best-seller strategy" in high-profile publications like Newsweek and the New York Times' Sunday Book Review. The question this raises strikes me as so obvious that I hesitate to raise it for fear that it's me who's missing something equally obvious. But I've thought it through, and I'm pretty sure it's not me. The question: Who in the world wouldn't employ the best-seller strategy to get her message out there?

If you're in possession of information or knowledge that you believe is important to share with as many people as humanly possible, why wouldn't you go the mass-market route? If you're making a movie with a message that might do the world some good, wouldn't you make it with an eye to getting it into as many theaters as possible? Did the director of "Precious" try his best to maintain a low profile for his movie? If you're a painter, would you not attempt to create a "language" that allows you to communicate with those who see your work?

It's about communication, people. Brizendine has arrived at some conclusions about relations between the sexes that would behoove us all to consider. She's offered men and women the possibility of a greater understanding each other. Should she have deliberately tried to limit the size of her audience despite the importance of the message?