Book Arrival II

The Given Self has arrived!

I’m surprised first that my book looks so skinny. I’ve never written a book this short – 148 pages. I thought it was 159. Amazon says 229. I’m not sure what it started out at, but the original version came in with a page count that was going to make the price of the book $24.95. I cut it to the $13.95 range. I don’t think with a traditional publisher you’d ever see a $24.95 paperback, but pages and price are linked with this less traditional publisher. Somehow, I think it was 159 as a PDF and became 148 through tighter margins – which disappointed me. It’s got that bold cover and a plain inside with tight margins. Okay.

I’d asked for the category to be changed from Self-help (maybe as my first excerpt I’ll print the paragraph where I say THIS IS NOT SELF HELP). But oh well. It is done. It is fine. Anyone who gets to the page where I say it’s not self help won’t care anymore what the category was. (I hope.)

Why self-help bugs me so much I’m not sure. Have you ever considered it? What it means? What you find in the self-help section? It’s not that I haven’t shopped there. I have. Maybe most recently for a Carolyn Myss book. Most often when I buy self-help books, I’m disappointed. I don’t really want what they have to offer. I think I do when I make the purchase but then I don’t.

I remember Willis Harman writing about his encounter with A Course in Miracles and how he avoided the daily lessons. He said something to the effect that he was aware…somewhere inside himself…that there’d be a change. Machiavelli wrote, when proposing any kind of change you can expect the lukewarm support of those the change benefits, and the violent opposition of everyone else.

It’s just, I suppose, that self-help books never have changed me.

Man. Change is something you sure want and don’t want, both at the same time. I talk about that in The Given Self too. Maybe that’ll be my second excerpt.