In once heard Anne Lamott say that the day your first book is released is a real heartbreaker of an experience: your hair still won’t lie correctly, your skin hasn’t improved, and the world just seems to continue on as it always has. When you go to the store, no one stops you for an autograph. Little has changed except that you are now an author.
What she meant was that if an author merely defines herself through her works and their relative popularity, she will find life to be pretty daunting. Any honest writer will affirm this sense of emptiness (vanity?) that comes from publishing. I have a feeling that it is one of the reasons so many authors (especially in the realm of fiction writing) succumb to chemical dependencies. The more one writes, the more vacuous the enterprise may seem. The first time you see that precious book selling for $.99 somewhere is the ultimate needle in any sort of ego-balloon. Sometimes it all seems like sand castle-building at low tide.
I am grateful for my dear friendship with George Guthrie, the eminent New Testament scholar. George just posed these thoughts, “The Spiritual Disciplines of a Book Release,” on the necessity of remaining Gospel-focused as a writer, no matter the project:
“Remember that the only reason for the book is to advance the Kingdom in the lives of individuals and churches. Glory in the gospel and not in your own ‘good news’ about your project.”
Brothers and sisters, for those of us who are blessed with the opportunity to write (or who have such a desire), in reality we have only one audience, God, and one goal, His ultimate glorification and exaltation. Everything else echoes out from this reality, but those are the only factors that truly last.
December 21st, 2010 | 4:41 pm | #1
[...] HT: Gene Fant at Evangel [...]
December 21st, 2010 | 6:35 pm | #2
Ok Gene, let’s get real. The Gospel is real so it might be a good idea if we tried to be real too. George Guthrie, who you admire so much, wrote, the “only reason for the book is to advance the Kingdom in the lives of individuals and churches.” Ok, I can agree with that one. But if that’s the case, why not publish it on the web? For free?
Y’all who are professors (folks who sustain themselves only by writing are in a different boat), why don’t you just publish your books for free on the web? You have to publish anyway as part of the job you’re paid for–the university teaching—so getting paid for stuff you’re required to do as part of your basic job is a bit of double dipping anyway, right? And if the Lord is calling you to publish your work, why not make it freely available? If someone really wants to own a print version, then they can buy one. But in the meantime, your work is up on line, free. Like Grace. Free for all. For the taking. Like this blog. (Oh, and if y’all really like the blog you can help out by making a contribution to First Things; non-solicited plea on behalf of Jim Neuchterlein).
But evangelical academics and pastors are not publishing books on the web and they’re not doing so because the real reason they exist as published books isn’t to advance the Kingdom. The truth is, and we’re supposed to be interested in things like truth—the truth is that the only reason the books are PUBLISHED is to make a profit for the stockholders of the publishers and there’s no profit to be had with materials scattered across the world wide web. The works might be written for the Lord but they are certainly published for the accountants.
So, why not make a resolution. Folks who don’t have to write for living, folks like you and me and George and Philip Ryken, we will put our Christian materials up on the web for anyone to read without charge. Bread on the waters, I know you’ve heard that one.
December 21st, 2010 | 7:52 pm | #3
Gene,
Thanks for the thoughts and the insight into a world I know very little about. I think for Guthrie and yourself it is all about focus. I am sure you are not just doing it for profit…if you were your writings would mainly say things that everyone wants to hear and not necessarily what they need to hear. I write too, but no where near the degree you do. Yet there is a difference when you write from the convictions in your heart and what you are being asked to do from an external force/party. It’s a blessing when the two cross paths and you are asked to write something in your heart. Wouldn’t you say?
Blessings
December 21st, 2010 | 10:20 pm | #4
Wonderful! My first book came out this summer (Not God’s Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith – from Moody, but it seems not to have made much of a splash) and so this is quite timely; I’ve been working through a lot of these thoughts.
Now to argue:
It’s simply not true that making money on a book means it’s not done solely for the glory of God.
First of all, didn’t Our Lord tell us that the worker is worth his wages? If a person’s calling is to write for the glory of God, doesn’t that person deserve to be supported in that work?
Second, there is a great deal involved in publishing a book that goes beyond just ‘putting it up on the web’. I did a lot of soul-searching when I was writing the book, and I concluded that a reluctance to have a “real publisher” and do interviews and other media was false humility, not real humility.
If the work is good work, then it merits being seen by as many people as possible. If that is the case, then the publisher’s efforts to distribute and advertise the book are part of how it is God’s work. If I write an amazing book, yet it gets read by only 5 people, have I done my utmost to serve God with my gift of writing?
Those of us who spend a lot of time on the Internet tend to forget that there are LOT of people who prefer to read printed books – or who will never see something online.
The physical book that I hold in my hands is beautiful – the artist who designed the cover and the typesetters who did the interior design contributed to making this book beautiful. And that’s a good thing — if something is done to the glory of God, let it be done right!
Many hands other than mine worked on this book – and it is right that they be able to make a living. If the book was given away for free, then the publisher would not be able to do its work. All those people would have to have other jobs, not in Christian publishing, and the availability of good books to interested people would decline.
Having a talented editor and copyeditor spend hours and hours of their valuable time working with me to make the book the best it could be also helped me grow as a writer. I was a good writer to start with; after writing the book, I would say I am a better writer. I have a blog, where I also write for free, for Internet readers; because of the work that my publisher did with me, my free writing is of a higher quality.
Even with all of this, I was still unsure of my own motivations for the book. So I made the decision to give all the proceeds to charity – mostly to my church’s apologetics ministry. That’s money that will be used to good ends, to educate people in the church and share the Gospel. Nobody who reads my work free on the Internet sends checks to that fund.
So, indeed, I hope my book sells a lot of copies. It was published, as well as written, for the glory of God, and I am quite happy that in doing so, it contributes in a small way to providing for the material needs of everyone employed at my publisher — even the accountants! — so that they can provide for their families and continue to do good work for the Lord.
December 22nd, 2010 | 6:50 am | #5
I’m on the other side of this, with a book proposal but no contract so far. I’m well aware that I could finish the book and post it on the web myself. I’m trying to go the other route for several reasons. I know of the help I would get with finishing it, as Holly has just described. I expect a published book would reach a different audience than I have reached through blogging. Getting published is also a personal growth challenge I’ve taken on for myself.
But there’s something else that really drives me in this project. I think the topic I’m writing on matters. I think it’s important. Now, I know that’s more or less my private opinion at this point, subject to all the pride and distortion that private perspectives fall into. I can’t really know if I’m right about that or not (though there are those who are encouraging me along the way). If I’m wrong, then I’ll find out: the book won’t get published or it won’t sell. If the material really matters, though, then it needs to be published, because published books carry credibility that you don’t find on the Net. A book on the Internet is one the author thought was worth writing. That’s all I have underway so far in my project; maybe it’s all I’ll ever have. A published book, in contrast, is one that an experienced and knowledgeable group thought was worth investing in. Readers know the difference.
As for pay, based on typical first-book income as I’ve seen it reported, this is a lousy way to make a living.
December 23rd, 2010 | 6:38 pm | #6
Dear Holly: Congratulations on the book and I love your web site. It’s all splendid. But PUBLISHING, old fashioned book publishing, is done for the benefit of stockholders, all sorts of stockholders (the publishing house stockholders, the stockholders of the trucking companies that deliver the goods, the stockholders of the paper companies—it’s a very, very long list). Writing what gets published is done for all sorts of reasons, but publishing is a business (at least usually, there are exceptions that prove the rule but they are rare, that’s why they are called “exceptions”). My challenge to put our works out on the web for free is primarily for professors and some preachers; folks who support themselves through writing need to sell their materials, like a farmer needs to sell his corn, he can’t give it away (well you can give it to the hogs but you do sell them eventually). Professors are given a yearly three month vacation and occasional sabbaticals (and at some schools regular sabbaticals) all for the purposes of “research”. So, the students who are paying tuition and, in the case of public institutions, the tax payers who are supporting the professors’ salaries, have already paid for the books, or at least helped pay for them substantially. You have to admire the nerve of a profession that requires to be paid for (frequently) minimal work eight months of the year and then no work for the remaining four so that the members of the profession can write articles and books and then requires the folks who foot all those bills to pay extra for the literature. So, for professorial types at four-year institutions like me, my challenge stands. Write it, put it out on the web for free. And if someone wants to buy a hard copy there are plenty of ways to print off and bind and then sell it to them. And Christian profs should be leading the way in this; so far we’re not. Instead, we look for book deals and whine when it seems that folks don’t love us enough. It’s silly. Maybe it’s even unseemly.
Again, this is different if you’re not a professor. If you write for a living then of course you sell your materials, or try to. But if something is worth writing, just write it. Kierkegaard, who I think wrote some things that very much were worth writing, paid to publish his books himself. He didn’t have the web. We do.
Books are wonderful. I have thousands and thousands of them. And book making won’t go away. But this is 2010—for a few more days. If we’re really interested in getting our words to readers we have a wonderful way to do so without the barriers imposed by middlemen—editors, designers, marketers, truckers—it’s that list again of stockholders.
Of course there are middlemen even here with this blog—the power company that fires up this machine and the one y’all are reading on, the folks who designed the software, the First Things folks who keep the engine running (by the way, have you made a contribution to the First Things end of year appeal?), but these folks basically keep the aqueduct repaired, they don’t mess with the water and don’t charge for it.
And Tom, about writing being a way to earn a living? Well, it is, for the publishers. Just ask the stockholders of Pearson PLC and the members of the Mohn family who own the majority of shares of Bertelsmann AG. They’re doing just fine.
December 23rd, 2010 | 10:52 pm | #7
But Mike, you’re assuming that it’s a bad thing that publishing is a business. Why shouldn’t the bookbinders, printers, and yes even the truckers get work to do?
Publishers add value. They bring together many different skills to create a printed, physical book. Many people, myself included, prefer to read a physical book rather than on-screen. The labor of the designers, typesetters, and so on all go toward making an attractive, readable, beautiful object.
And finally, the reputation of the publisher is an extremely high added value. Publishers sort through books and only publish the ones that they consider worthwhile. Yes, that means the ones that will make money for them, but different publishers have their niche, and they survive because people trust their reputation. I can pick up a book put out by IVP or Ignatius and know that it is a solid work. I might or might not like it or agree with it, but I know that it will be worth reading. You cannot say that for the stuff you find on the web — for every online article by William Lane Craig, there are twenty gazillion by illiterate or incoherent yahoos.
Part of the value of a publisher, then, is that it saves me valuable time. I don’t want to spend my time sorting through the junk to find the good stuff; I am happy to pay a publisher to do that for me. (That’s why I have a paid subscription to First Things, and don’t rely on just stumbling across random interesting articles on the web, for instance.) I also want the good stuff in a well produced, attractive, easy to use volume, which is why I own various books by William Lane Craig even though I could get most of the same material free from his website.
Here’s one more reason why free online stuff is fool’s gold much of the time. As a teacher, I find that my students gravitate toward the free online materials, rather than buying real books or even going to the library to check out real books. The quality of the work that my student do with the “free” material is, shall we say, substandard. I have finally resorted to mandating that they use certain specific printed books (the Oxford and Cambridge literature guides, for instance). In every case, the quality of my students’ work improves when they use traditional published material from a reliable publisher. My students don’t have the skill set to discern what’s junk and what’s good in the free online material…. and I don’t want them to waste hours and hours of their time trying to do that sorting anyway; I want them to spend all their research time working with quality material.
There are many aspects of publishing that we often take for granted — and the simple mantra of “make it available for free!” ends up being simplistic.
December 24th, 2010 | 7:23 am | #8
Mike,
You said, “But if something is worth writing, just write it.” I say if something is worth getting published, just get it published.
As Holly has explained again so clearly, publishing adds value for the reader, for the subject matter, and for the community of those who interact on ideas. It’s not just about bucks in publishers’ and authors’ bank accounts.
I intentionally put it that it adds value for (rather than to) the subject matter. What I mean by that, referring specifically now to non-fiction, is that the subject matter has a sort of life of its own. If some book-length written material x is a good contribution to the conversation on a subject, then it is better for that conversation that x be published in the traditional way than for it to be posted only on the Internet. That’s not to deny the value of ebook versions of the same published material. It’s not to dispute the worth of blogging or doing interviews on the web. But typically the subject matter is better served by a good published book than by a good web-posted book.
December 24th, 2010 | 12:10 pm | #9
The story about professors having 8 months on, and 4 months off, is, for many of us, simply not true. I have a 4/4 teaching load, and many service obligations. Some semesters I’ve taught an additional course, to help make ends meet. And every summer I’ve taught 1 and usually 2 summer courses. To be clear, I am very grateful for the job I have, and the life of a professor is a great one. But I have to challenge the frequently minimal work for 8 months of the year and 4 months off for “research”–why the scare quotes?–because it is, in many cases, false.
December 24th, 2010 | 8:04 pm | #10
Mike,
Since everything we do is for the glory of God, then why should anyone get paid for anything?
December 30th, 2010 | 2:44 am | #11
Dear Everybody: This is marvelous, thanks for all the responses! And they were all free!
Ok. One by one.
Mike Austin: Thanks for the link to your web site, greatly enjoyed looking over it. You’re at Eastern Kentucky University in the Philosophy Department, which I expect is a school rather like MTSU, right? In the world of academia, you and I have pretty heavy loads. I teach three classes, five days a week (one class with over 80 students in it), do administration, advising, and committee work, and have no graduate assistants (to be fair, it’s because I don’t want them—my students are paying tuition for me to teach them, not a graduate student). We’re a public institution, everything is open book (which I love) and I make about sixty-one thousand dollars for teaching about twenty-nine weeks of the year. I’m a full professor with thirty-five years of experience and an extraordinarily impressive publication record (I’ve written for “First Things”!). In thirty five years I’ve had one sabbatical that lasted three months. When I teach classes in the summer I get paid extra (I assume your fees work the same way). Up the road at Vanderbilt a professor of similar rank and experience makes about one third more than I do and has about half the teaching load that I have and has access to sabbatical leave about every three years. Okay, the Vandy guys (and the folks at the Ivy’s and the big land grant institutions) have lighter loads than we do, but do you really want to tell a dairyman, who gets up at 4:30 am almost every day of his life, does the milking, then takes care of his silage, and worries about hail, and repairs fence, and fixes his equipment—never has the hope of tenure–and is forced to pay taxes that supports our salaries, that we work hard? You’re a braver man than I. Yes I know that thinking great thoughts is an exhausting business, and then having to write them down, and whew, sitting in that air conditioned office sometimes the sweat just pours off our brows, but Mike, hey, come on. And why the quotes around “research.”? I can only speak for the fields of musicology and aesthetics but as I look over the fruits of our labors I have to ask so frequently: shrubbery really died for this? I think that it’s pretty much an outrage that all of the scholarly journals in the humanities aren’t simply published on the web, it would be so much cheaper—and easier to discard, you just push DELETE.
Holly: I’m not objecting to publishing being a business at all. I just want some honesty about the business end. Publishing is a big business, dominated now by two European companies: the British Pearson PLC and the German Bertelsmann AG. Pearson and Bertelsmann will publish something if it will be profitable for them to do so—that’s what determines if something is “worthwhile” (you mention IVP, which is a bit of an exception since it’s a division of the non-profit Intervarsity). My complaint isn’t with the business–it’s just a business–my complaint is with my colleagues in academia, and particularly colleagues at public institutions, who already are paid to write and then turn around and charge the folks, who supported their work to begin with, to read what they’ve written. As I said, fine, put a hard bound copy of your work out there so folks who want to buy it can buy it, but also put it up on line for free. You say it’s simplistic. You bet it is. And if I may be so bold, I think one of your main jobs as a teacher is to teach your students discernment (and one reason why they gravitate to free online materials rather than buying real books is that they’re not stupid; have you seen the prices publishers are now charging, particularly in the academic market? Yeikes!). If your students don’t have those skills you should help them acquire them (and I bet you do). And discernment is just as important with books as it is with articles on the web. The Oxford/Cambridge/Harvard University Press imprimatur is just that, their imprimatur. Cambridge published Peter Singer’s “Practical Ethics.” Wow. Hasn’t that been a light to the world. I’m so impressed.
Tom: You write: “publishing adds value for the reader, for the subject matter, and for the community of those who interact on ideas.” Look, we’re interacting here over an idea much more directly and immediately than I bet you’ve ever interacted over any idea with anybody in Murfreesboro before (of course that’s a guess but I bet I’m right). We have a community of thoughtful folks right here. We’re interacting. Now. And none of this has involved a printed and marketed bound book. Isn’t this splendid? You must at least think it’s possibly splendid since you’re part of this discussion, right? And “War and Peace” is the same novel if it’s between covers or on a Kindle. Personally, I prefer reading off the paper page to reading on the screen, but that’s a preference. The paper doesn’t change the character of Tolstoy’s novel (is the Gospel of John only canonical if read off scrolls?).
And Orthodoxdj: God made you “for his glory,” that’s part of the “everything.” You have a name. You were baptized with and by it Jesus will call you to eternal life. If you’re seriously interested in matters of God’s glory use the name He will call you by as He wipes away your every tear. Look at the posts above you. They are by people who have names, and points of view and convictions. Right now you really are a DJ on this discussion: spinning recordings made by somebody else. And that little sermon was free. You didn’t have to pay a thing. For the Glory of God.
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