IVP - Behind the Books - April 2008 Archives

The Passionate Writer--Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing

I'm the one in editorial who went to the Calvin Festival and left Dave behind. The thing about being an editor there is that you are torn between going to sessions and having meetings with authors and potential authors. I am always determined to go to the sessions, which stimulate my editorial mind and restore my passion for publishing, so what usually happens is that I am forever walking in late, catching only part of the session and not being quite sure what is going on! But even so, it's always delightful because the speakers are writers who love words and use them well.

One session I can comment on effectively, since it was late night and I was able to catch the whole thing, was Rob Bell's late-night talk "Writing as Pure, Undiluted Slog." He wore black clothing and dark glasses (just as writers always do). He spoke while sitting on stage in a chair with a side table full of books and the Mac laptop that he used to run powerpoint on the screen behind him. I took some notes in regard to his thoughts on writing and publishing. Here you go:

"Great writing pulls you in and then drops you a few paragraphs later."

Quoting Gene Fowler: "Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead."

"We do the work because there's something inside of us that we have to get out, and if we don't get it out we're going to spontaneously combust." Then he quoted Ray Lamontagne, who expressed a similar sentiment aobut music: "Songs are in there and I've got to get them out before they kill me."

Quoting Frederick Buechner: "I was trying too hard and hadn't let the empty space inside me open up."

"Creation always involves risk--like having children." [You don't know quite how they will come out.]

"Do not beome what the market/audience wants. Do not ask an editor 'What's hot? What do people want?'"

These last statements are very important--and echo my own book publishing philosophy: Authors need to write what they are passionate about. They need to write about the thing that God is pressing on them to offer to the world--whether it's a particular approach to spirituality, biblical commentary, ministry paradigm, counseling resource or literary essays. A book is an enormous commitment, and writing simply in order to be published does not generally work. There are a few exceptions to this rule--being invited to contribute to a pre-set series, writing on a hot media topic, journalistic writing, biography, upcoming movie and so forth--but even there the writer is generally working in their field of interest.

One reason I particularly love this "festival" is that it's not simply a writer's conference. It's a celebration of reading and writing. Writer's conferences (which can be very helpful) tend to focus on the mechanics of how to write a proposal and get published. This conference was all about inspiring writers to develop their craft and offering up gems for readers to read. I always discover a few wonderful new books that I want to read when I'm there.

So for me the Calvin Festival was a good reminder to look for the passionate writer: both as an editor in search of books to acquire and as a reader in search of books to enjoy.

Baptism by Book

I have vague tinges of jealousy about this time every April, as my colleagues at the press pack up their booth supplies and business cards and truck off to Calvin College. Each spring the school hosts a festival, alternating annually between music and writing. Last year Sufjan Stevens and Emmylou Harris, true musical geniuses each, performed and discussed their approach to their craft and their faith. This year the festival brought together writers, among them Yann Martel, author of the brilliant Life of Pi. Still a little jealous.

The best conferences spark in their attenders a sort of creative renaissance. Particularly good at this is Andy Crouch, author of our forthcoming book Culture Making. His seminars always generate lots of conversations about the place and function of culture and our participation in it, including the very thoughtful and entertaining riff off his talk at the Transforming Culture symposium by Heather Goodman at L'Chaim. I particularly enjoyed the blogger's introduction of a term I've not encountered before but eagerly embrace nonetheless: luftmensch. Hi. My name is Dave, and I'm a luftmensch.

So I'd be interested in hearing about your most energizing conference experience: what did you talk about, and what did you do with what you took away from it? I promise to pray through my bouts of envy as you comment on your experience here.

Is This Heaven? No, It's the Internet

Writer and former editor Michael Kinsley has thrown down the gauntlet at Time magazine.

Editors are selfless, editors believe. They labor in anonymity and take their satisfaction vicariously. The writer gets all the glory. He gets the big bucks. He gets invited to the parties, the openings, the symposia, while the editors toil at their desks turning the writer's random jottings and pretentious stylistic quirks into something resembling English prose. But that's O.K. Editors don't mind. They say, "Have a lovely time at that writers' conference, and we'll have the rewrite done when you get back." ("And your laundry too, you unappreciative b*****d," they mumble under their breath.)**

That's about the kindest he gets in his representation of the editors guild. You can read the whole diatribe here. Fortunately he's focused his ire on the editors of periodical publishing; book editors like yours truly get a pass, but only for the nanosecond it takes for the average reader to extrapolate from one form of publication to another. I feel a bit like Hillary Clinton to Michael Kinsley's Barack Obama. The ultimate indignity he saves for his closing paragraph:

On the Internet, they don't have editors. Or they don't have many. Writers rule, and a thought can go straight from your head onto the Net. That used to sound hellish. Now it sounds like heaven.

I'll keep silent and wait patiently for our authors to leap to our defense. Anyone? Anyone?

**Modesty added for your protection by your friends at Behind the Books.

Book Storage Idea

In regard to the earlier discussions about book storage solutions (and spousal negotiations), here's a book chair!

It's called a bibliochase and you can find it at Nobody and Co. Of course, the retail cost is $4,800, not including the books.

Introducing IVP's Wiki-Books

One of the biggest limitations about publishing print books these days is how quickly material gets out of date. We labor for months or years to publish a book, and soon after it comes back from the printer, something happens that makes us wish we could reprint. We notice embarrassing typos. Significant developments occur in a theological debate or cultural issue, or an important new book needs to be added to a bibliography. We can make corrections at the next printing, but that could be months after the initial release. We occasionally do revised and new editions of our books, but those often don't happen until years after publication.

Well, thanks to new technology, a remedy is in the works. We are pleased to announce that we will soon be launching IVP's own Wiki-books, using a program platform similar to that which powers Wikipedia. These are not replacing our print books, but are online, open-source versions of selected titles. That way we have immediate flexibility to change the text, whether something in the main content, or to update a bibliographic reference or biographical information. Typos can be corrected immediately. If an author has second thoughts about a statement or a change of heart on a position, things can be revised right away.

And we benefit from our readers' collective wisdom and expertise as well. Sometimes we get letters from our readers telling us that they noticed that a citation was incorrect, or that a reference to Bultmann really should have been Moltmann. Well, with the new wiki-editions, readers can make those changes directly themselves.

For certain volumes, like our reference books, wiki-editions create the opportunity to fill in gaps in our print books. For example, our Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters or Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals certainly couldn't include every imaginable commentator or evangelical notable. The books are hefty enough as they are! But with unlimited online page count, we are able to add neglected personalities that otherwise wouldn't get covered. If readers think we overlooked someone, they can insert their own entries, whether of still-living thinkers like N. T. Wright or obscure geniuses like Franz Bibfeldt.

Some might object that all this will dilute the authoritativeness of our books. On the contrary, we trust that the wisdom of crowds and the self-correcting nature of wiki-technology will provide the peer review and accountability needed to weed out theological error. No single author is an expert in everything, and by opening up our books to open-source contribution, we benefit from scholarship and perspectives from around the world.

If you're worried about losing authorial intent, the technology has a "track changes" function that allows you to revert to the original edition to compare differences and even see the entire history of addenda and revision. This provides the additional benefit of seeing the development of content, how an argument was edited or a paragraph shifted one way or another.

Will all this be monitored? Well, it may be next to impossible for us to police every single change, but editors, interns or other staff will periodically review global changes. In fact, improvements may loop back to the print book. If readers make significant enough changes (and have sufficient peer review, by way of reader ratings), we may well introduce the new material into the print editions of our books. Imagine a four-views book that neglects a key position. An online commenter could provide a fifth view, and we might decide to publish it in the next print edition of the book.

These online wiki-editions will have virtually unlimited room for bonus material that didn't fit in print, whether extra chapters, or in the case of conference collections, additional papers, responses or panel discussion transcripts. Wiki-books also provide something readers have been asking for for years - customization. Other publishers are already selling books a chapter at a time. Professors often assign selected chapters or articles for coursepacks. If students don't want to purchase the whole book, they can get access to only the needed material. If you want just the Reformed commentators, or the Lutherans or the Baptists, you can set the parameters so your desktop edition provides exactly the version and content you need.

We're not unaware of the potential for abuse. In beta testing, we asked the authors of our four-views book The Nature of the Atonement if they wanted to add any additional response or rebuttal to their counterparts' comments. Tom Schreiner took the opportunity to cut out several key paragraphs from Greg Boyd's response to penal substitution. Boyd retaliated by deleting whole sections of Schreiner's chapter and declared that Christus Victor had triumphed over the powers and principalities. We're still exploring how best to prevent abuse; the software will alert administrators if it appears that someone is taking advantage of the system, if, for instance, someone does a global search and replace to swap "God" out for "Bob." At a minimum, all reader/contributors are required to register and log in.

All of this is a natural development in the evolution of books and technology. CD-ROMs of our reference books and commentaries introduced convenient searchability to our texts. Wiki-books take things a step further, adding reader interaction and leveling the playing field so all can dialogue with authors' content, shape books and participate in the exchange of ideas. So look for our online wiki-book store, coming soon! We look forward to your participation.