I collect etiquette books and ran across this little gem recently.

What is one of the most common errors people make when speaking to a writer?

The woman who goes up to a writer at a cocktail party and tells him how she has always wanted to write but just hasn’t had the time, as though it were as simple as making a hairdresser appointment. . . . Also the person who asks, “Is it true that everyone has a book in him?” Normally the writer is polite and mutters something nice and then must stand on one foot and then another with a hot martini and soggy onion listening to her life story.

–Excerpt from Practical Etiquette for the Modern Man
Mary Lou Munson, 1964