It's Halloween, which is a rough night for people who, like me, send evening emails.

But I am indeed dressing up -- my wife and I are going to be Olive Oyl and Popeye.

Now you may not be dressing up as Popeye, but I sure have a can of spinach for you.

I ran a survey on my main email list not long ago among people interested in writing a book. I asked: what's the main stumbling block you face?

Among the most common answers were:

• "I feel compelled to write the book, but I can't find the time to do it."
• "I'm staring at a blinking cursor and I don't know how to get started -- or, once started, I keep hitting writers' block."
• "How do I know when to stop? I always feel like I have more to add."
• "I want to self-publish, but I'm spending more time figuring it out than I am on writing the book!"
• "Why should I write a book? Nobody knows who I am, and I don't have the money to spread the word about it."