Too Many Books?

Behind the scenes of the book business

Two things happened this week that give some further glimpses into the behind-the-scenes life of a writer.

First, I had a meeting with my editor at HarperOne about the new project, “The Spiritual Journey of Homo Sapiens.” I had finished a fairly polished draft of the first Part which is about seeing, and sent it off to her to see what she thinks. There is an interesting dynamic between the proposal that I wrote about a year ago, and now what happens when I actually do the writing. I’m not going to say the book has a life of its own — I’ve not given up my agency and control as the author. But there is a reality in which the flow and internal logic of things pulls you in unexpected directions as you unpack or flesh out ideas.

For example, these chapters are talking about how the sense of sight developed, but then sight becomes a metaphor for some deeper capacity we have… maybe call it insight. At some point while writing, I remembered that one of my favorite class-starting discussions was the passage from Mark chapter 8 where Jesus attempts(?) to heal a blind man by putting spit on his eyes and asks, “what do you see"?” And the formerly(?) blind guy responds, “I see people, they look like trees walking around.” So Jesus tries again, and then it works (though he ends the episode by saying “please don’t tell anyone” as though he’s a little embarrassed(?)). Throughout the five chapters of this Part, I found several places to refer to this strange episode. And it led to an unanticipated discussion of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and my metaphor of the Playdough Fun Factory to explain it (I think there are few of my former students out there who have heard these a few times?).

Anyway, I was curious about my editor’s reaction to this and other things (like the chapter I structured around three different phrases from The Princess Bride — “inconceivable” of course, but then a couple of other lines that have made their way into the Stump family argot). Are there too many stories, or not enough stories for this general audience book? Too much science, or not enough science given the kind of book it’s supposed to be? Too much Jesus or not enough Jesus for a Christian author who is trying to say something that might be relevant to those who don’t share that commitment? I was very happy to hear her say on all counts that she thought I was hitting these just right. That gives me encouragement to keep writing. Part II is underway on walking. I’m interested to see where that takes me.

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The other thing that happened this week was that a box of books arrived on my doorstep, which I said previously is one of the two great moments in the process of writing a book. We’re about a week away from the one year anniversary of the release of The Sacred Chain, which I also said previously has not sold as well the publishers had hoped. I haven’t seen an actual sales report yet, but evidently it has done well enough that it is now coming out in paperback. Actually, I don’t know what the sales triggers are for the paperback release, as authors are not given any say in this. But it is in my contract that when a new version of the book comes out, I get 25 of them. That’s what showed up on my doorstep this week.

It was a much bigger deal when the 25 hardbacks showed up. I gave a bunch of them away to family and friends, even getting to the point where I bought a few more myself because I wanted to have a few on hand. But honestly, I’m not sure to do with all these paperbacks now. I’m legally not allowed to sell them. And I don’t want to undermine sales by giving them away to people or institutions that might possibly still buy a copy (since I need that sort of thing to happen if I’m going to have a future in the book business). But maybe there is another category of people who wouuld benefit from a free paperback?

If you’re someone who would never pay money for one of these books yourself, but who might possibly give it a read if one were put in front of you, then I’d be happy to give one to you if we can figure out how to make the delivery.

Or maybe you know someone who might be interested in reading about this topic of how understanding the science of evolution might lead to deeper faith? This could give you an easier way into a conversation that doesn’t seem quite so much like proselytizing. E.g., “Hey, the author gave me this book, but I think it’s probably more your kind of thing; see if it interests you and tell me what you think.”

Or maybe you’re thinking about a new book for your book club (or starting a book club?), and if I give you a copy, you’d get a few other people to buy one? (I see the hardback is down to $11.51 on Amazon, as presumably they’re trying to dump those before the paperback goes on sale for $17.99 on April 8. I’d be tempted to buy some myself, except for the fact that my wife and I gave up Amazon for Lent (and for the fact that I currently have 25 copies of the book on my shelf!)).

I’m open to variations on the above scenarios. Hit me up.