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In my early twenties, my plan for finding success in the publishing world was simple: write a book, get it published, go on all the talk shows, be hailed as a literary wunderkind, get rich and famous, quit my job. Unfortunately I ran into a little wrinkle after completing the first step, and even when I completed the second step years later, the tiny little online publishing site I ended up with didn't exactly have the pull to make any of the rest of the steps happen. Or even to ensure its own survival for the remainder of that fiscal year.

Looking back, it's probably just as well that my first time being published by a big house like Penguin didn't happen until I was in my thirties. I knew enough not to expect my first non-fiction book, A TV Guide to Life: How I Learned Everything I Needed to Know from Watching Television to make me instantly, fabulously, or even independently wealthy. And thus far, I have not been disappointed. And of course I haven't been on all the talk shows. So far I've only been on a few.

Two of my TV appearances have been on local network affiliates, on the kind of community-oriented show with a couple of genial hosts sitting on a living-room type set, chatting with folks like...well, me. Okay, one of the shows also had four kids ages two to five, a singing cowboy, and a guy dressed up like Teddy Roosevelt, but fortunately that show had a pretty big green room.

But it's possible that I lowered my expectations a little too far. For instance, I wasn't expecting the hosts to have actually read my book. Call me cynical, but I've seen any number of TV segments where a little-known author like myself gets plunked down in front of a camera to talk about their book with a host who's obviously never seen the thing until a second assistant grip handed them a copy to hold up for the camera.

That hasn't been the case, however. On both shows, the hosts I was on the air with actually knew what they were talking about, and were fully prepared to riff with me on my book's subject matter. In fact, since they'd just read it in the previous few days and I'd finished writing it months ago, it wouldn't be entirely unfair to say that they had a better idea about what was in the book than I did.

So that's my message today for first-time authors. Don't expect international acclaim and recognition for your mid-list tome, but whatever anyone tells you, reading at least some of your book isn't too much to ask of the TV host (or hosts) who want to talk about it with you.

Jeff Alexander, A TV Guide to Life, television, life lessons, couch potato, books, Penguin Books