Getting published! (writing; non-fiction)

[RP]

Self-promotion is voluntary, but it's pretty much a requirement if you want sales. Your choice. I chose to self-promote my second book despite being clinically depressed and an inveterate introvert...

[ethanay]

Originally Posted by RP

Unless you're John Grisham, Stephen King, JK Rowling or the like, you absolutely can not depend on your publisher to continue to promote your book. Whether you're comfortable with self-promotion or not, your sales and continued publication of your book will rise or fall based on your willingness to promote it. However, re-reading the OP, I'm wondering if you are you getting an article or book published?

Sorry, I've been exhausted and not articulating myself well. The excerpt is an essay format from a larger catastrophic fire prevention project, which is part of a larger collection of works by other authors. The excerpt (my essay) focuses on the human ecology of catastrophic fire and its prevention. The work its excerpted from a project that also explores the social, psychological, cultural and economic dimensions of catastrophic fire and its effective prevention, starting with a public health framework of defining the problem through the lens of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. This is from my background in gender-based violence prevention work.



I have no full book being published at this moment, but the publisher responsible for my essay also wants to explore full book ideas with me. The fire prevention project could be one, and I also wrote out a draft book on the concept of hormesis as the philosophy of the optimum in complex systems management and co-evolutionary adaptive process, and I explore its ecological, psychological, physiological, sociological and even evolutionary implications.


More broadly I define my non-fiction focus with the phrase, "evolutionary human ecology." My brain acts as a medium of synthesis. One of the most common phrases of feedback I get from friends and family with whom I've shared some of my ideas is, "Interesting, hmm...I've never thought of it like that before, but that makes sense..." IMHO, that is the highest praise I can receive. I feel that I have the capacity to rationally articulate things that people feel or know intuitively, even though it runs counter to their current (and often reductionist) enculturated rational belief system. Part of this, I think, has something to do with being on the autism spectrum. I want -- and think -- I can contribute to the paradigm shift in thought and relationship our species must undergo to demonstrate its continued evolutionary viability and adaptive capacity. I don't think of myself as an "original thinker" so much as having the capacity to more fully explore the implications of others' work, both alone and in larger context, relationship or juxtaposition.


For example, money is an economic nutrient. Economies and societies break down in a manner similar to ecosystems when nutrient cycling fails, which has implications for moral economic philosophy, policy and culture and a society's relationship with its ecological context. Crime and psychosocial insecurity indicates, in large part, a failure of economic nutrient cycling. This also helps explain the intrinsic dysfunctionality of monocultures of all types. For nutrients to cycle in a network, they need diverse nodes through which to cycle and transform. On top of this, a lack of diversity itself directly represents a conspicuously toxic accumulation of nutrients across an excessive gradient. "Pests" (parasites and predators, aka, p-functions) arise to target these dysfunctional (agricultural, economic, etc) systems in part to kickstart the nutrient cycling process, and in part because of the scarcity that such systems create and project into their context. So in that sense, diversity itself is an essential nutrient. EG, it is impossible for us to adequately nourish ourselves with only one type of food. Nutritional needs fluctuate hourly, daily, seasonally, across time and space and gender and species and life stages. Just as we have a "wisdom body" for physiological nutrition based on cellular-level sensory feedback, we have a "wisdom body" for other forms of nutrition as well. A society focused on the well-being of its members will do all it can to promote the holistic development and expression of that "wisdom body."

[ethanay]

Originally Posted by RP

Self-promotion is voluntary, but it's pretty much a requirement if you want sales. Your choice. I chose to self-promote my second book despite being clinically depressed and an inveterate introvert...

Yup, agreed. I'll see your inveterate introvert and raise you one misanthropic introvert... In all seriousness, I'm just being honest about my challenges, is all. Like I said, it's what I have to work with. Ignoring it is as self-defeating as using it as an excuse. I appreciate the perspective and advice, it is in line with and affirms what I have come to learn about the process.

[ethanay]

Thank you everyone for the congratulations and expressions of support and the affirmations of the importance of the specific topic!

[The Bard Rocks]

To get anything published (other than self-publishing) is a real accomplishment. Those guys are fussy, fussy, fussy. You can guess how I know. (yes, finally got it published but had to pull a couple strings)

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by ethanay

Looks like I'm getting published. It's an excerpt from a larger work that I'm working on. The topic of the essay is "The role of ecosystem function in preventing catastrophic fire" from a human ecology perspective. It's part of a larger project I've been working on for a few years about the effective prevention of catastrophic fire. The larger piece explores the social, cultural, psychological and economic dimensions of effectively preventing catastrophic fire.


And the publisher based on that excerpt wants to explore book ideas with me. Cool and intimidating!

Ethan, congrats. If you haven't done so already, try to hook up with a good agent. Sometimes the editor or house will refer you to one.

Good Luck,
Scott

[Tahitijack]

Congratulations

My sister is the most unlikely person to get published. She is not outgoing or motivated to succeed. She mentioned a book idea to one of her friends that is well connected in the publishing industry who then pitched to an agent that pitched it to a publisher. The publisher contacted my sister and requested more information. A few weeks later they green lighted it and away she went. Book eventually got published and for a time it topped the best seller list for her very limited genre. We are all very proud of her but it's a real head scratcher as to how she did it and even more amazing that the publisher has asked about a follow-up....eye roll to ceiling.

[ethanay]

Originally Posted by Tahitijack

Congratulations

My sister is the most unlikely person to get published. She is not outgoing or motivated to succeed. She mentioned a book idea to one of her friends that is well connected in the publishing industry who then pitched to an agent that pitched it to a publisher. The publisher contacted my sister and requested more information. A few weeks later they green lighted it and away she went. Book eventually got published and for a time it topped the best seller list for her very limited genre. We are all very proud of her but it's a real head scratcher as to how she did it and even more amazing that the publisher has asked about a follow-up....eye roll to ceiling.

I love hearing those stories of serendipity! Thanks for sharing and congratulations back! I have a very small but committed group of people who really want to see my stuff get "out there," but I myself am not well-connected at all. This opportunity came from a landlord/mentor associated with The Land Institute and my partner both talking me up to the publisher at an industry conference, and he followed up with me. They were there looking for people with ideas.



...The thought of organizing all my writings is incredibly, perennially intimidating. The mental models I have and write about are all very non-linear (very much along the lines of "thinking in pictures"). Fictional narratives, on the other hand, I can handle much more easily. Not saying that they are easier, but the sets of challenges they come with I find less intimidating and easier and even fun to engage with.

[ethanay]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

Ethan, congrats. If you haven't done so already, try to hook up with a good agent. Sometimes the editor or house will refer you to one.

Good Luck,
Scott

Thanks Scott! Ok, I've heard this before, and I've read up about it...but what does an agent do and what do I accomplish with an agent? I can understand talent having an agent who finds them roles and gigs that are meaningful/exciting/otherwise-suitable for them, but am less clear about the importance in the world of publishing, especially since the industry has changed significantly in the past several decades.

[TheGITM]

Originally Posted by ethanay

Looks like I'm getting published. It's an excerpt from a larger work that I'm working on. The topic of the essay is "The role of ecosystem function in preventing catastrophic fire" from a human ecology perspective. It's part of a larger project I've been working on for a few years about the effective prevention of catastrophic fire. The larger piece explores the social, cultural, psychological and economic dimensions of effectively preventing catastrophic fire.


And the publisher based on that excerpt wants to explore book ideas with me. Cool and intimidating!

While I think this is amazingly cool... I also think that you must be amazingly weird! And no, that's not an insult!

Congratulations and best of luck on getting this thing across the finish line. Once in publication, we will all be expecting signed copies...

[ethanay]

Originally Posted by TheGITM

While I think this is amazingly cool... I also think that you must be amazingly weird! And no, that's not an insult!

Congratulations and best of luck on getting this thing across the finish line. Once in publication, we will all be expecting signed copies...

Hah, yes the people who know me well I think would agree with your assessment, with a smile. People who don't know me so well would also agree with your assessment, but with more of a grimace or frown. I talk weird (not necessarily my accent, but just how I formulate statements, from word choice to syntactical structures), the statements I formulate tend to represent weird perspectives, and those weird perspectives coalesce into weird concepts and theories that I hope are consciousness expanding for people beyond myself. They sure as heck are for me.


Send me a SASE (remember those?) with...oh heck you can read the essay for free, and I'm not sure I'll end up charging for the full fire prevention piece, depends on how it gets distributed once I finish it (in a very messy but much expanded 2nd draft form). I mostly just want to challenge us to effectively address catastrophic fire, as a society. It's going to take a critical mass of people committed to addressing the root causes, though, and I'm sure I'm going to ruffle some feathers incidentally (people and institutions who are invested in the status quo, whether they realize and admit it).

[RP]

Originally Posted by TheGITM

While I think this is amazingly cool... I also think that you must be amazingly weird! And no, that's not an insult!

Congratulations and best of luck on getting this thing across the finish line. Once in publication, we will all be expecting signed copies...

I think that most, if not all, published authors are amazingly weird. I say that as a previously published author. Think about it. Authors start with a blank page and make stuff up from their (our) fertile imaginations until they (we) have a complete article or book...

[Glennwillow]

Congratulations ethanay! Good for you!

I worry about forest fires all summer long because my house is surrounded on two sides by heavy forest. If the forest behind me ever caught on fire, my house would be toast.

- Glenn

[ethanay]

Originally Posted by RP

I think that most, if not all, published authors are amazingly weird. I say that as a previously published author. Think about it. Authors start with a blank page and make stuff up from their (our) fertile imaginations until they (we) have a complete article or book...

"rich internal life" is the phrase I use...


...also think it applies to musicians

[ethanay]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Congratulations ethanay! Good for you!

I worry about forest fires all summer long because my house is surrounded on two sides by heavy forest. If the forest behind me ever caught on fire, my house would be toast.

- Glenn

Thank you! I grew up in the west. Fires just "happened" every year. When we returned from our 2yr work/study trip to Oceania (ok, maybe there was a honeymoon on the big island of Western Samoa..."while we're here..."), we ended up living with my folks for a bit due to being homeless, and ended up there for the height of the pandemic. That summer, we had all our most precious or useful things packed, because we were 1 mile from the evacuation line, and about 10 miles from the fire, almost completely surrounded by it. We ignore the chronic anxiety that the normalization of catastrophic fire as a seasonal event imparts at our own perile. It's always in the back of my mind, an extra psychological tax on top of all the other psychological taxes pushing us toward breaking points that, even without an actual direct loss to fire, can cause or widen rifts in our lives or relationships. The same as any other chronic stressor.