Monday, July 27, 2009

Book Gets a TV Cameo

While I was on vacation, my book was busy getting itself on Boston television. This clip offers a nice, clear introduction to the Espresso Book Machine. At least one viewer was intrigued enough by the title and image to contact the Northshire and order a copy! Clever of me to have a bright red cover. (Thanks, Amy.)

Since summer vacation only happens once a year, I'm going to take the opportunity to post a family holiday snapshot.That's our boy at a restaurant overlooking Puget Sound. Now it's time to get back to work...and I'll soon report on my wanderings among the independent bookstores of the West.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Book Business 101 (Or Rather, 2.0)

I never took an economics class. I thought that was just for budding investment bankers. (I knew we had crossed a generational divide because when I arrived at college everyone wore sweats and wanted to talk philosophy and when I left everyone had suits and talked of careers in finance.) So of course it makes sense that now I'm writing more on local currencies and grappling with a business strategy.

The predictable distribution hurdles of selling an alternatively-published book are now staring me in the face. The Therapist's New Clothes will soon go up on a large online site, but with a surcharge. I lowered my percentage as far as I could, but it's still much more than buying at the Northshire. This online site's parent company has a POD program, which might make economic sense, but that would undermine the local alliance that I am committed to. A national distributor also has a POD program that would allow me to sell to independent bookstores and folks at the Northshire are looking into that. Then again, if more venues adopt the Espresso Book Machine the distribution question will be moot. And I haven't even mentioned the confounding matter of sales tax...

This is the challenge of using a model that's still being developed. I'm just figuring it out as I go along (or, more accurately, after I've already gone along.) I'm taking a brief break, so I'll leave you with an image of one of my loyal readers.Makes it all worthwhile!

Monday, July 6, 2009

More 'Bout That Book

The book now exists in three-dimensional, full-color (well, mostly red) form. It was extremely cool to watch the proofing copy drop from the binder like a candy bar from a vending machine and with the same satisfying thunk.

To describe it, let me defer to that quintessential art form, the jacket copy:

"I believed so wholeheartedly in psychotherapy that I became a psychotherapist." In The Therapist's New Clothes, Judith D. Schwartz tells of training as a therapist, shifting back and forth between her experience as beginning clinician and her own increasingly devastating therapy treatment. It is the story of the author's belief system crumbling--and how she comes out the other side."

In the book I explore my love/hate relationship with psychotherapy through my own experiences: the profoundly rewarding experience of helping a client past fear or pain as well as self-delusions that bound me to a process that was leading straight downhill. That's the thematic material. There is also a story: however improbable, these things happened to me. I'll dip back into the narrative shortly. For now, here's a corner of my writing desk with my mouse pad, a replica of what is arguably the most famous Oriental rug in history--the one that covered Freud's psychoanalytic couch.