February 7, 2008
The shelf life of books, including my first
Calvin Trillin once noted that books "have a shelf life somewhere between milk and yogurt."
By this yardstick, my first book, An Amateur's Guide to the Planet
But somehow "Amateur" keeps rolling along, not fragile like yoghurt, maybe more like the hamburger in "Supersize Me" that refused to grow moldy after weeks in the open air ... well on second thought, that may not be the best comparison.
"Amateur" came out in 1996, and I've wanted for a while to overhaul it. It would be neat to update and freshen up some of its information and data, and also convert each of its 12 chapters into expanded, individual e-books packed with new color scans of my photos of the places visited, from China and Madagascar to Borneo and Greece.
One of the big drawbacks of the original was a Photoshop error I made in calibrating for print such that close to all the interior photos came out too dark. New color photos would bring out the full potential of the chapters.
This would take a lot of time away from progressing on new projects, so I haven't assayed this idea yet.
Given the fact that a 12-year-old book should be roughly 11.9 years past retirement, with some shock I filled a bunch of orders in December by Amazon.com.
Then "Amateur" temporarily cracked the top 80,000 ... which is kind of a bigger deal than it sounds, since the competition for any sales is fierce given a glut of 150,000 new books per year ... granted it only takes a few sales to pull out of ranking in the 700,000 to 1 million range.
The Amazon.com ranking of 'An Amateur's Guide to the Planet' circa late December.
The burst seems to have been triggered by the addition of a professor at another college using "Amateur" as required reading for geography course work.
Sure enough, in December I received significant orders from two colleges, explaining the surge.
I want to thank professor Conrad Nicoll at Cal State-Fullerton, who has begun using "Amateur" for his Global Geography course, and to Corban College in Oregon for the latest in a series of orders using "Amateur" to teach intercultural communication to its missions students.
Cal State-Fullerton brings the total to about 31 colleges and universities that have used "Amateur" to teach students (adoptions list here). It is a big wow as an author to be not only read but studied by others.
And it remains an astonishment to me that my first book is taught in colleges. I never expected this ... You always think your readers are going to be people like yourself ... in my case, Northeasterners who travel to exotic places.
Boy was I wrong. "Amateur" has proved strongest in terms of lay readers in Seattle, the Bay Area and the Colorado Front Range ... crunchy granola territory. It also did well in Madison, Wisc., Chapel Hill, N.C., and other college towns.
Nor did I have any notion I had an offbeat college course book on my hands.
"Amateur's" college adoptions list is kind of amazing, an eclectic (to say the least) mix of state universities, independent religious schools, Pacific Northwest colleges and Bible Belt academies with a focus on mission work.
The religious and Bible Belt categories arise from "Amateur's" third chapter on mission work in Borneo, I think, or maybe a later chapter on Bali and how we view Heaven. I reread the Borneo chapter recently and really enjoyed it as a reader ... one can say that as a writer because after many years, you become quite objective about something you wrote. When I reread the Burma chapter for example, I wish it went in a clearer direction as to Burma's impact on me as a tourist.
My accidental career as the author of a cultural geography/intercultural communication book began circa 1998 with a visit to the public radio show at WYSO at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I was about to speak that night at Books and Co. in nearby Dayton, Ohio.
I had gotten over much of my public speaking phobia after numerous media appearances and about 50 bookstore talks. Further, I was playing the writing eccentric a bit, breezing into the station with my sheltie ... I can't remember where we put him ... and being further relaxed by meeting Vick Mickunas, an amiable fellow with long, wavy dark blond hair and if memory serves, a Fu Manchu. From this photo on the Web, he is now clean shaven.
I got into Vick's comfortable studio. He puts visitors at ease and asks fantastic questions, which I answered in a light-hearted manner, and during the breaks whirled in circles on my guest's swivel chair, finally in some kind of relaxed rhythm with this whole idea of being on the radio.
I think later misplaced the tape he gave me of one of my best interviews, drag! It helps the interview so much when someone actually reads and enjoys your book.
Listening to our conversation was communications professor Mike Lopez at nearby Cedarville College. When I got back home to Maryland, an e-mail awaited asking for something called a desk copy of "Amateur" so that he could use it as a possible text for his classes. I wish I remembered what I said about intercultural communication during my radio interview,but it must have been something that sounded intriguing.
From then I got the idea from Mike to get a mailing list to communications professors and sent them a flier about my book, and a related idea from my friend Jill Yesko to similarly mail fliers to cultural geography professors, and the rest is a little bit of travel book history.
Complimentary copies of "Amateur" were also used to reward more than $6,000 in donations to help tsunami victims (see my earlier blog entry, "Book aids tsunami relief"). With its cover photograph of the lovely Thai island of Ko Racha Yai, devastated by the tsunami, its description of a Thai sailing trip, and focus on additional Indian Ocean destinations, "Amateur" was an appropriate vehicle to help charitable organizations solicit help for Thailand's Phangnga Bay.
In restrospect, it all seems so obvious that I had packed my first book with almost too much information -- words, graphics, photos, large format, bibliography -- for someone to cozy into a chair with it, but it was useful for actually teaching information. Professors seemed to like most that "Amateur" was not a traditional textbook. It's organized the way a journalist would organize a newspaper article, 1, 2, 3, and jargon free ... and that is it's selling point, according to professor testimonials.
It's a blessing to see one's book have legs.
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