Telical Books
Books On Philosophy, Art, Religion, Psychology and Computer-Aided Brainstorming
Blog on Publishing the Book "Grandiosity and the Empowerment of the Spiritual and Artistic"
Although I believe this book is on the same high quality standard as the previous books, because of the recession there has been a lack of time, composure, leisure, and all the other things needed for an author to publish a book, when his full-time job is not being an author and/or publisher.
First of all, I have had some "excusitis" -- that is, I have made a lot of excuses to delay the publication of the book. Some of these excuses are real enough and technically would not be classified as excuses to any positive thinking person with willpower. Telical Books has received much help in the form of student interns, but largely, it's been a one-man shop, that one man, being myself, the author. I have also been a computer programmer and have run ParaMind Brainstorming Software since 1992. My first love was being a composer of music, and I have never even seriously tried to make a living at that. So, I have had to wear a lot of hats, and while I feel blessed to do different things, it is difficult.
One major problem is that "Grandiosity and the Empowerment of the Spiritual and Artistic" is a somewhat average-sized book, or by today's standards, a somewhat long book for non-fiction books (220 pages). The proofreading has been problematic and a few proofreaders who said they proofread it did not do a good job. I did actively seek additional proofreaders but because of the recession many people were as busy as I was, and I had to turn my attention to other matters. Finding additional typos in the manuscript has caused more of a delay than I would have expected. The two student interns I gave thanks to in the dedication of the book were not proofreaders per se but more like assistants who helped with editing feedback and other marketing tasks. They did a fine job.
Another situation happened where I did a run of 28 copies of the book and sadly they came out very botched. Somehow pages were misprinted and doubled, the wrong text on the wrong side of pages. I had double-checked my work but somehow I still made significant errors. I was simply overworked because of the recession. They are unreleaseable and I am working on getting them cut and re-assembled with the proper pages. This was a major heartbreak for me and made me sometimes avoid working on the project.
Although I am financially stable, I do have to work as hard as most other people. I also take care of a house and anyone who has owned a house knows that can involve a lot of time. One way that I have made a living is by selling used and rare books, another is my software company, ParaMind Brainstorming Software. Both sales have been adequate for paying bills and eating, but I have had to work longer hours and the money it takes to print and bind a book, which isn't much in my case, still sometimes presented a problem.
To help these matters, I have done eBay auctions with the blurb "Proceeds from this sale will go towards the eBay Giving Works charity listed and toward the publishing of "Grandiosity and the Empowerment of the Spiritual and Artistic," to be released by Telical Books of Seattle." I'm not sure how many people bid on the books because of this. The auctions have done somewhat well, but eBay takes out so much money in fees that $300 in sales comes to more like $200 when you add up the charity donations, eBay's store fees, the listing fees (especially of the many books which don't sell), and final value fees. Occasionally, I will sell a valuable book for someone else, so I only get a percentage of that.
Let me explain how things work when you publish a book. Amazon takes 55% of what you sell a book for. They order them one at a time, and you are expected to pay shipping. So, there is no way to make a profit selling a book on Amazon for a small publisher. This is a well-known fact. Other ways of selling books are a similar story. If this sounds unreal to you, that a small publisher on Amazon cannot make a profit, it is in fact sadly true, and can be proven when you look around. You have to be able to ship them a large amount of books to pay for the printing of a book and the shipping and still make a profit on 45% of the sale amount of a book. Since so many people publish books these days, they do not want to hold books in their website that they do not have faith will sell quickly.
Because I value these books, I do not give up. I believe my books cover areas that are important that other authors are not covering. Other people seem to feel this way, but I have not asked for help before. I am delaying printing new books and reprinting old ones for the simple reason that I could use some more financially support to allow me to focus on publishing. I have the paypal donation button on the site for donations.
Because of the problems with the recession, and perhaps what could be seen as new longer-term problems facing publishers, I will give anyone a free pdf copy of "Grandiosity and the Empowerment of the Spiritual and Artistic" for a donation of any amount over $2. This is the face of modern publishing and I think it is fine for the time being. There are some things that are more important than money, especially if one's basic needs are taken care of. We will send you a pdf version version within 12 hours, quite possibly immediately. We have been circulating them for about six months now.
I also sell used and rare books on Amazon.com and if you would like to support my book publishing efforts, you can order books from me at Amazon. This will link to my Amazon.com store at: http://www.amazon.com/shops/paramind
My eBay store is at: http://stores.ebay.com/rsbooksandothertreasures
Much thanks for editing help to Gerardo Linero Guarda and Chelsey Fosburgh.
Introduction
1. What is Grandiosity?
2. General Thoughts on Grandiosity and Empowerment
3. Grandiosity and the Empowerment of the Spiritual
4. Grandiosity and the Empowerment of the Artistic
5. Seven Traits that Help Overcome Grandiosity
6. Why Intelligent Humility is Empowering
7. Aspects of Jungian Psychology and Empowerment
8. Hyperreligiosity and Hallucination in Grandiosity
9. Grandiosity and Overcoming Disempowering Ambivalence
10. Conspiracy Theory and the Mistrust of Prosperity
11. Conclusion
Bibliography
Telical Books is an independent publishing company, printing books on spirituality, psychology, art, literature, computer-aided brainstorming, and other fascinating topics. Our company mission is to print the books that the large publishing companies have overlooked. We strive to take on issues in our books that help point towards solutions instead of only looking at the problems.
