Book sellers and publishers need someone who can intercede on their behalf to a higher power. Book people have faced lingering storm clouds lasting several years! One cloud is the economic forces that have reduced consumer confidence and the second cloud is the changing state of publishing and bookselling today. The book business has taken many twists and turns in the last decade. Lots of very smart book people who were highly successful in the business a decade ago are out of business today. Despite a lot of grousing about book prices, the margins on book selling has always been puny compared to many others business. Publishers have often struggled with a mix of book titles that yield one winner for every nineteen money-losers.
Many believe ebooks will only make things worse. What the ebook revolution does is lower the bar for entry and introduce hundreds of thousands of titles that would never have seen the light of day had someone had to invest several thousand dollars to have the book produced in print. The same dynamic is played out with print on demand. As out of pocket costs decrease, entry increases.
The new easy entry market has greatly impacted those people who were willing to put some "green" skin in the game--be they publishers or self-published authors who were willing to spend a few thousand dollars to have their books see the light of day. Virtual books that can be sent to consumers about as easily as a telephone call have heaped upon the reading public a mountain of choices. How are these hundreds of thousands of new authors able to invest their time to put new titles out in the market of titles that seem as vast as desert sand? Well a visit to some of the sites where authors meet and greet these days "virtually" suggests that authoring and self-publishing has become kind of new age hobby. Write a book in retirement or while someone else pays your bills or while you pay your bills yourself with money you made doing something else. Spend some time attempting to land the book with an agent or a publisher. Wait a short while and then self publish with the help of thousands of do-it-yourself sites or consultants. Then sit back and chat online about the wonderful work you have done and the awful state of the publishing industry. I kid you not--this is essentially the theme.
If you happen to be one of those who write books or are in publishing to make a living, you may need help. But you might not need help from a marketing consultant, a web page guru, an epub expert or anything of that sort. You may need help from a higher power! I'm talking about the highest of powers. No, not Google or Amazon or Apple. How about God?
You can certainly take your woes right to the Man. You simply get on your knees, close your eyes and tell the Boss you need help.
Additionally, if you happen to believe in Saints, there is a special one who can intercede on your account if you ask him.
In some circles, people pray to saints asking them to intercede on their behalf to God. There are a million different ways to look at this and I am not going to get into it much here. To many this seems odd, a kind of polytheism, but for many it's a wonderful way to include a whole "village of holy people" in their lives. There are endless stories of saints that make up an enormous literature of faith and inspiration.
The Man for Book People
Saint John of God is what reporters today would call a "great story." John was born in Portugal in 1495--just a few years after Columbus "sailed the blue." He came from modest, but devout parents. As a youth, he was innocent and virtuous. But when he joined the military of the King of Spain Charles V, well, that's when things went south. According to Butler (the old authority on all things saints), the "licentiousness of his companions" helped him go astray. Eventually, he renewed his faith, but not after he had done some things that he would regret for the rest of his life.
It might seem very strange to us, back in those times, some holy people would actually go out and seek martyrdom. They would go out into the world maintaining a holy attitude and life mission in the midst of authorities and ruffians who had their own mission in life--to kill those who didn't believe as they did. Saint John of God decided to seek martyrdom. He thought Africa would be a good place for it.
Traveling to Africa, he prayed, repented, and humbly served a once-prosperous Portuguese man and his family who had fallen on hard times. However, before he ran into some nasty people or a despot who would kill him for his faith, he was somehow convinced that martyrdom was something that one should not seek directly. He settled on something a little less dramatic for his mission. He left Africa and traveled to Spain. He traveled the countryside selling religious articles and books. According to Butler, on the road, John had a mystical experience meeting a child who turned out to be the Christ child. The Child called him "John of God" and said "Granada will be your cross." John then moved on to Granada where he sold little devotional books and statues. This was something fitting a pious man and it was certainly something that might help others find virtue. His brief bookselling days earned him the title of Patron Saint of Booksellers long after his death. The designation of Patron Saint of Booksellers also takes in others involved in the book trade such as publishers. He is Patron Saint of Hospitals and the Sick.
But John was a bit of a zealot. After hearing a sermon by a famous preacher of the time, John D'Avila, Saint John went mad with guilt and remorse--he cried out in church and then ran around the streets where people threw things at him. He gave away any money he had made and all his possessions. Many preachers are actually very practical people despite the negative things you might hear. D'Avila was one of them. He tried to talk some sense into John of God and it seemed to work for a while, but then a kind of madness crept back and John was committed to a "madhouse." A madhouse in those days was a place where mentally ill patients were treated cruelly. D'Avila must have been appalled when he heard of John's fate and set out again to set Saint John right. D'Avila convinced him that he could do more positive things than punish himself--he had been punished enough at that point. Thus, Saint John went out renewed with piety and charity to serve the poor, the sick, and those who were the most vulnerable in the society. He created a hospital.
Saint John became so well known for his piety and devotion to the poor, that the rich were often competing with each other to see who might offer the most support and aid to the "hospital" he created. He achieved a certain fame from his work, but for his part, Saint John had no interest at all in being esteemed by anyone for anything. When one woman called him a hypocrite, it was said he gave her some money and asked her to go out in public and proclaim the same. When a complaint came to the Archbishop that Saint John was harboring bad women and the idle in his hospital, Saint John prostrate himself before the man and cried out that he was the worse person at the hospital and that he had fallen short of serving others like the Master they both served. No doubt the Bishop backed off.
In time, everyone looked at Saint John as a force for virtue and holiness. He gave 100% to his "mission." And like everyone who give 100%, he wore himself out and took ill. When he took ill, he had to be ordered to leave service at his hospital. As he neared death, he gave one final blessing to the community. He died at exactly 55 years of age.
Saint John would receive credit for the founding of the Order of Charity, which was in fact formally organized after his death. He wasn't in the book business for long, but he certainly followed his heart and his convictions. He was certainly a man of great passion. If you are in the book business, pray to Saint John and ask him to put in a good word for you. No doubt he will do it stridently.
If you'd like to see my book business go to Sporting Chance Press.
Many believe ebooks will only make things worse. What the ebook revolution does is lower the bar for entry and introduce hundreds of thousands of titles that would never have seen the light of day had someone had to invest several thousand dollars to have the book produced in print. The same dynamic is played out with print on demand. As out of pocket costs decrease, entry increases.
The new easy entry market has greatly impacted those people who were willing to put some "green" skin in the game--be they publishers or self-published authors who were willing to spend a few thousand dollars to have their books see the light of day. Virtual books that can be sent to consumers about as easily as a telephone call have heaped upon the reading public a mountain of choices. How are these hundreds of thousands of new authors able to invest their time to put new titles out in the market of titles that seem as vast as desert sand? Well a visit to some of the sites where authors meet and greet these days "virtually" suggests that authoring and self-publishing has become kind of new age hobby. Write a book in retirement or while someone else pays your bills or while you pay your bills yourself with money you made doing something else. Spend some time attempting to land the book with an agent or a publisher. Wait a short while and then self publish with the help of thousands of do-it-yourself sites or consultants. Then sit back and chat online about the wonderful work you have done and the awful state of the publishing industry. I kid you not--this is essentially the theme.
If you happen to be one of those who write books or are in publishing to make a living, you may need help. But you might not need help from a marketing consultant, a web page guru, an epub expert or anything of that sort. You may need help from a higher power! I'm talking about the highest of powers. No, not Google or Amazon or Apple. How about God?
You can certainly take your woes right to the Man. You simply get on your knees, close your eyes and tell the Boss you need help.
Additionally, if you happen to believe in Saints, there is a special one who can intercede on your account if you ask him.
In some circles, people pray to saints asking them to intercede on their behalf to God. There are a million different ways to look at this and I am not going to get into it much here. To many this seems odd, a kind of polytheism, but for many it's a wonderful way to include a whole "village of holy people" in their lives. There are endless stories of saints that make up an enormous literature of faith and inspiration.
The Man for Book People
Saint John of God is what reporters today would call a "great story." John was born in Portugal in 1495--just a few years after Columbus "sailed the blue." He came from modest, but devout parents. As a youth, he was innocent and virtuous. But when he joined the military of the King of Spain Charles V, well, that's when things went south. According to Butler (the old authority on all things saints), the "licentiousness of his companions" helped him go astray. Eventually, he renewed his faith, but not after he had done some things that he would regret for the rest of his life.
It might seem very strange to us, back in those times, some holy people would actually go out and seek martyrdom. They would go out into the world maintaining a holy attitude and life mission in the midst of authorities and ruffians who had their own mission in life--to kill those who didn't believe as they did. Saint John of God decided to seek martyrdom. He thought Africa would be a good place for it.
Traveling to Africa, he prayed, repented, and humbly served a once-prosperous Portuguese man and his family who had fallen on hard times. However, before he ran into some nasty people or a despot who would kill him for his faith, he was somehow convinced that martyrdom was something that one should not seek directly. He settled on something a little less dramatic for his mission. He left Africa and traveled to Spain. He traveled the countryside selling religious articles and books. According to Butler, on the road, John had a mystical experience meeting a child who turned out to be the Christ child. The Child called him "John of God" and said "Granada will be your cross." John then moved on to Granada where he sold little devotional books and statues. This was something fitting a pious man and it was certainly something that might help others find virtue. His brief bookselling days earned him the title of Patron Saint of Booksellers long after his death. The designation of Patron Saint of Booksellers also takes in others involved in the book trade such as publishers. He is Patron Saint of Hospitals and the Sick.
But John was a bit of a zealot. After hearing a sermon by a famous preacher of the time, John D'Avila, Saint John went mad with guilt and remorse--he cried out in church and then ran around the streets where people threw things at him. He gave away any money he had made and all his possessions. Many preachers are actually very practical people despite the negative things you might hear. D'Avila was one of them. He tried to talk some sense into John of God and it seemed to work for a while, but then a kind of madness crept back and John was committed to a "madhouse." A madhouse in those days was a place where mentally ill patients were treated cruelly. D'Avila must have been appalled when he heard of John's fate and set out again to set Saint John right. D'Avila convinced him that he could do more positive things than punish himself--he had been punished enough at that point. Thus, Saint John went out renewed with piety and charity to serve the poor, the sick, and those who were the most vulnerable in the society. He created a hospital.
Saint John became so well known for his piety and devotion to the poor, that the rich were often competing with each other to see who might offer the most support and aid to the "hospital" he created. He achieved a certain fame from his work, but for his part, Saint John had no interest at all in being esteemed by anyone for anything. When one woman called him a hypocrite, it was said he gave her some money and asked her to go out in public and proclaim the same. When a complaint came to the Archbishop that Saint John was harboring bad women and the idle in his hospital, Saint John prostrate himself before the man and cried out that he was the worse person at the hospital and that he had fallen short of serving others like the Master they both served. No doubt the Bishop backed off.
In time, everyone looked at Saint John as a force for virtue and holiness. He gave 100% to his "mission." And like everyone who give 100%, he wore himself out and took ill. When he took ill, he had to be ordered to leave service at his hospital. As he neared death, he gave one final blessing to the community. He died at exactly 55 years of age.
Saint John would receive credit for the founding of the Order of Charity, which was in fact formally organized after his death. He wasn't in the book business for long, but he certainly followed his heart and his convictions. He was certainly a man of great passion. If you are in the book business, pray to Saint John and ask him to put in a good word for you. No doubt he will do it stridently.
If you'd like to see my book business go to Sporting Chance Press.
