IVP - Behind the Books - March 2008 Archives

Under the Covers

My wife had lunch yesterday with a new friend. "Lunch" involved some of the perfunctory niceties of new friendships: "Where did you grow up?" "Are you married?" "What does your spouse do?" That sort of thing. My wife very loyally dropped the hint that in addition to being a book editor, her husband is a published author with a second book on the way. (We're always looking for ways to jack up our royalty checks, which I am assured will eventually be forthcoming, just as soon as a few of my books sell.) My wife's new friend was duly impressed--I daresay doe-eyed. "Wow . . . it must be so exciting being married to a published author . . ."

My wife very diplomatically responded, "Sure, sure it is."

Steel yourself for a difficult truth, IVP authors and, more important, IVP author-spouses: marital excitement has little to do with publication. If it softens the blow at all, let me quickly add that marital excitement has even less to do with editorial aptitude.

Now, maybe your experience has been different than mine--or should I say, my wife's. I welcome your comments here about the bliss of being married to a book author. But I think my wife's experience today points to a different phenomenon: the mystification of celebrity. The objective sexiness of any given author notwithstanding, there's something sexy--in a nerdy sort of way--about showing up on a guided search of the Library of Congress (using Boolean operators, of course). Authors have other sexy indicators as well--the press release, the publicity agent, the media interviews, the byline, the eponymous website. This is the thin air that publishing a book sends you rocketing into. It can go to your head, believe me.

But before terribly long every author comes back down to earth. As the attention of the reading public turns to the next crop of new releases, even the sexiest authors are returned to the solid ground of their own normalcy. The folks they interact with day after day--if they are lucky--quickly and persistently remind them that the atmosphere they entered upon publication, enticing as it was, does not a sustainable life make.

So pity your loved ones, authors, because the fawning gets old, and it's entirely possible that you're not as sexy as you're being led to believe you are. And enjoy your moment, as the glossy finish of your book jacket distracts your readers from your three-dimensional humanity, which is to say your finitude, your fallenness, your normalcy.

Final Cover

Here's the final cover for Just Courage.
I'd like to thank everyone who gave us feedback on the two covers we posted on this blog.

In the end we agreed with those of you who noted that the cover with the candle is somewhat similar to the author's other InterVarsity Press book, Good News About Injustice. Similar can be a positive thing to remind the reader of an author they've seen before--or it can be dull or even confusing. We don't want to reader to wonder whether the new book is the one they've read!

Some viewers pointed out that the second option, the door cover, was somewhat similar to Ruth Barton's cover for Sacred Rhythms. Thus in the end we went with something entirely different. Here it is!

I hope you enjoyed your peek into the cover selection process.

Jeremiah Wright

Author and pastor Dr. Jeremiah Wright has been much in the news lately. Dr. Wright has a chapter in an InterVarsity Press book I edited, Women's Liberation Jesus Style. So I have been following the conversation with interest. For some insight into how African American Christians might view Dr. Wright's comments and Obama's response, I turned to Edward Gilbreath's blog.

Ed has been a writer and editor at Christianity Today and is now working as director of editorial services for Urban Ministries, Inc. He is the author of the book Reconciliation Blues. He has been closely following the presidential race and Obama in particular. Here's an excerpt from his blog post entitled "Does Obama Have a Prayer?" March 15, 2008:

. . . In recent months, I’ve often thought to myself that the presence of an African American and a woman in the presidential race was a good thing for helping America confront its complex history in a more honest way. Lately, however, I’ve become convinced that it’s impossible to give an honest critique of these things in the context of a political campaign. It seems that the majority of American voters are simply not willing to go beyond the surface to reckon with the issues of our nation’s history—and its present—in a way that requires a sustained use of critical reasoning.

I don’t mean to come across as negative or elitist, but it doesn’t seem white America in general (including the media) are culturally and intellectually equipped to understand, for instance, Michelle Obama’s recent comment that “for the first time in my adult life, I’m really proud of my country.” Rather than see it as a vulnerable moment from an African American woman whose life experience is very different from theirs, many whites used it as an opportunity to question her patriotism or label her a racist.

Likewise, the recent video of Barack Obama’s now-former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, also brought swift condemnation from many whites who accused Wright—and by extension Obama—of being a racist. However, a fair and thoughtful viewing of the video reveals a man who, while clearly angry and frustrated, was attempting to offer a serious (albeit blistering) critique of American culture, racism, and white privilege. Rev. Wright is undeniably inflammatory in tone, and this certainly is not the kind of public support anyone running for President of the United States probably covets (just ask Obama), but simply writing his words off as racist or hateful misses the deeper point. I won’t go so far as saying I agree with everything Rev. Wright says, but I will say that those unfamiliar with black church tradition and oratory, as well as the African American experience in general, will find it hard to understand the emotional nuance and intellectual underpinnings of his sermon.

If Obama survives these latest racial and religious minefields, it will be because enough white voters were willing to exercise critical thinking and stretch their understanding of race, faith, and culture beyond their own familiar experience. Which conversely means if Obama loses as a result of this stuff, it could very well be said it’s because he’s black. This doesn’t necessarily mean those white voters are racists, just that they do not possess the cultural tools to examine race, faith, and culture beyond their own limited experience. Posted by Edward Gilbreath

When God Shows Up on Campus by Don Everts

Don Everts is the author of a number of IVP books, including the widely read Jesus with Dirty Feet, the recent One Guy's Head series of postmodern apologetics, and the forthcoming I Once Was Lost with Doug Schaupp. He has been on InterVarsity staff in Colorado for over a decade, and he has just written the history of InterVarsity in the Rocky Mountains region. That history, When God Shows Up on Campus, is available for sale at Lulu.com as a print book, and it's also available for free download as a PDF.

The IVP connection to this is that there's a shout-out to IVP's very first book, Discovering the Gospel of Mark by Jane Hollingsworth. Back in the mid-1940s, college student Gene Thomas was waiting to pick up his date from her sorority. While in the foyer, he happened to glance at a magazine that was sitting on the coffee table. The magazine was called HIS, and it was published by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. As he leafed through it, he happened across an ad for a book called Discovering the Gospel of Mark. Even though Gene was not yet an active follower of Christ, he was intrigued enough to order the book. He later got together with several guys from his dorm and used that book to start studying the Bible. Through that study, assisted by Hollingsworth's book, Gene encountered and was gripped by the dynamic person of Jesus Christ.

Gene eventually became a fired-up, committed, evangelistic Christian, and he went on to pioneer InterVarsity chapters at universities all over the Rocky Mountains. His legacy continues on through the generations of Christians who have had active witness throughout the region, including people like Don Everts today. Thousands of people have come to Jesus through InterVarsity's work there, and IVP is glad to have played a part in the process.

So take a look at When God Shows Up on Campus. Not only does it provide a nice summary of IVP's first book, it's an invigorating story of entrepreneurial campus ministry and God's providence and direction. Check it out.

Sex and Dating in the Sorority

When I was in college, I went to an InterVarsity conference and bought a copy of Blaine Smith's Should I Get Married? even though I wasn't even dating anybody at the time. The book was quite formative for me and helped me have a more Christian perspective on relationships.

We more recently published Sex and Dating: Questions You Wish You Had Answers To by Mindy Meier, an InterVarsity campus staffer who has specialized in working with students in the Greek system of fraternities and sororities. The book is the fruit of her many coffee shop conversations with students who have asked her every question under the sun about sex and dating - perennial questions like "How far is too far?" and newer questions like "What's wrong with hooking up and having friends with benefits?"

Not long ago Mindy was at a conference for Greek students, and afterward she got this e-mail from one of her colleagues:

I just had dinner with one of my students, Marie [not her real name], that came to conference - and I wanted to encourage you with something that she shared with me. She (along with 3 others in her sorority) bought your book on sex and dating. Apparently they are all obsessed with the book, and have talked about it with many girls in their sorority. Marie told me tonight that your book is now famous in Alpha Chi Omega - it is the big talk of the sorority. They have girls coming into their rooms asking them to borrow the book, even for 30 minutes at a time so they can read it - both Christian and non-Christian girls. I thought this was so neat, and I am so thankful that you took the time to write such a needed book.

We're always glad to hear that our books are being read and passed around, and it's quite encouraging that an author like Mindy is able to extend her ministry to many more sororities and campuses through her book. It's especially exciting that the book gives these students the opportunity to share their faith and biblical perspectives on relationships with their sorority sisters. Some of these young women may never attend an InterVarsity conference, but they might encounter God through an IVP book. So I'm glad for books like Mindy's, and I hope that copies will be passed around sorority houses and dorm rooms for years to come.

On Birthing a Book

Some authors bite their nails. Others tap their feet. Some e-mail their editor incessantly. All eagerly await the arrival of their book, their baby, from the printer—or stork, if you’d like to extend the analogy.

Here’s a little secret: editors are doing the same thing at the same time. While there’s never a shortage of books and proposals vying for an editor’s attention, and while each book is thus one job among many, each book is also one of the many babies we’ve helped to deliver.

The emotional investment isn’t anywhere near that of the author, of course, but it’s significant nonetheless. So I often find myself, in the week leading up to a book’s anticipated delivery date, anticipating its delivery—loitering around the shipping/receiving bay, sneaking peeks inside the production manager’s in-box, even sometimes e-mailing my poor friend Taryn incessantly, asking if she’s heard news of when the book will arrive.

Such is the midwifery of editing as a profession. But there’s one other parallel: my work on a book, like a midwife’s on a baby, is effectively finished when it’s safely delivered.

From that point on in the publishing process, the author works primarily with the sales and marketing department to sell and market the book. In this analogy, if the editor is a midwife, the sales/marketing folk are the nannies. They attend to the book’s needs and, with the author, look after its best interests. They’re eager to see the book flourish (we lovingly refer to a book’s point person in sales/marketing as its “champion”), and they do what they can to help it along the way. But in a similar way to the editor, their investment is nowhere near that of the author.

In publishing, especially publishing in a long-tail environment, each book is a never-ending story bound only by its own inherent limitations, the limitations of a finite publishing program and the limitations of its story-teller and greatest advocate.

A book’s inherent limitations may involve time-bound illustrations or a very tightly focused argument or audience, but they’re generally recognized by the author and publisher going in. Also inherently obvious are the limitations of the publisher, who (in our case) has ninety other new babies to dress and feed and burp every year, and some twelve hundred older children who need attention of a different sort.

That leaves the book’s author, who like a parent has his or her own life to live but is also intimately invested in the growth and prospering of this little offspring. So publisher and book alike rely on the author to "parent" the book--to attend to the lion’s share of its promotion and even a fair bit of its sales. If you’re an author or even a would-be author, this fact perhaps more than any other should guide your approach to publication.

Your book will have inherent strengths and, yes, inherent weaknesses; so will your publisher, I daresay. So will you, of course, but you knew that going in and decided to birth a book anyway. So regardless of how exciting and gratifying the birth of a book is, for you the author it’s not the end: it’s the beginning.

Laura Barkat is about to birth her first book, Stone Crossings. I suppose you could say she’s been nesting—making space in her life for the responsibility of bearing a book. Some of her creative ideas include a book wiki, a book club blog and a media/blogger toolkit. If thinking beyond the ecstasy of writing for publication to the responsibilities of “parenting” a real, live book gives you the willies, you could do worse than turn to Laura as a mentor. And keep in mind that despite all the caveats listed above, you're not alone: an anxious editor and a champion marketer are right there with you, tapping their feet and biting their nails.

On the Keeping of Books

The last blog post drew quite a lot of comments, some of which opened up a secondary topic--how do we store all of those delicious books (or "friends," as Dan Reid put it) we are reading, and how many do we need to keep anyway? One of my seminary professors, David Scholer, had a lovely storage solution in his suburban Chicago home--rows of library-style stacks built right into his home office! That was a thing of beauty.

I personally favor bookshelves in every room of the house. (Well, actually, I dream of a library with floor-to-ceiling books and one of those ladders that slides on a rail around the room.) However, if you read my husband's (Dan Sullivan) comments, you will see that he does not favor being surrounded by books in every room of the house.

And that moves us into the delicate area of negotiating the storage of books with one's spouse. Greg Jao, author of the Bible study guide Kingdom of God, has a wonderful anecdote on that topic:

Scene 1: Soon after my girlfriend metamorphosized into my fiancee (an overly-long process, from her perspective), she wandered through my apartment and saw things with new eyes. "So, . . . are all those books coming with you?"

"Yes," I said. "And I'm buying more too."

This launched a conversation about whether I would give up books for her (and whether she would give up breathing oxygen for me) and what would happen (theoretically) if a book-elimination ultimatum was issued (note the passive) in the post-marriage future. A person willing to live with a profoundly unhappy spouse could issue such an ultimatum, I allowed.

Scene 2: When we moved to New Jersey, our movers demonstrated preternatural skill in estimating the number of boxes needed to pack our books--and their weight. "About 1200 lbs," he noted.*

This horrified my wife.

Me? I'm thrilled. When people come to visit and say, "Wow--you have a ton of books," I can say, "Not really. But don't worry--I'm working towards it!"

*I also have books stashed at my office and at my parents' home in sufficent quantities to move me well into the 2000 lbs range.

How Many Books Are You Reading?

The other day I counted and my son is currently reading four books at the same time. I am so proud! Spencer is in third grade, and now books are long enough that he doesn't just sit and read them straight through.

While eating breakfast he is reading a book from the school library called Eoin Colfer's Legend of . . . Spud Murphy. After school he is reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder for a school project. Each night before bed he reads with his grandfather via speaker phone. They have just started a Tom Swift story that belonged to my grandfather. Then after we say prayers he reads a bit more on his own. He just finished Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and started SuperFudge.

Watching him read all of these books gives me pleasure because that's how I read. I've got a book for morning prayer and another for evening prayer (when I get to it). Then I've got a spirituality text that I'm reading for work. While driving to work, I usually have an audio book to listen to in the car--often something funny. At nighttime I have a bit of useful nonfiction as well as a novel by the bed. (All this is not to mention all of the manuscripts in various states I'm reading at work!)

Why do we read this way? There's just so many exciting and interesting books to tackle. I can't always wait till one is done to start the next.

Of course not everyone sees it that way. When I enthusiastically told my husband (an engineer) of Spencer's multi-book-reading achievement, he said, "Oh no, he's got the disease."