(16 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
Loading...I will be sending the very final manuscript of my book Heaven, Hell, and the Invention of the Afterlife off to my editor at Simon & Schuster tomorrow (I still don’t know what the actual title will be). As is always the case, it has been a very long haul, and I want to explain how publishing a trade book like this for a general audience “works” and “happens” since most people who’ve never done it have no idea, or rather, have completely wrong ideas.
But before doing that I need some help so I don’t have egg on my face. One of my many, many faults as a human being is that I don’t keep good enough records of really important information. Just ask my tax person.
As most of you know, in the summer, after writing the first draft, I asked members of the blog if they would be interested in making a donation in order to have the right to read the book in manuscript and make suggestions for improvement. A number of people responded that yes, they would love to do that. I sent them each the manuscript, they read it, and they returned comments to me. I found this extremely helpful.
Now I am writing the Acknowledgments for the book and obviously want to thank everyone who has helped – the editorial staff at Simon & Schuster, the scholars who are experts in one area or another who read part or all of the book, and, of course, these blog members. But I need to make sure that I haven’t left anyone off the list! I know, it’s pathetic – there should be no issue here. But just to make sure, these are the names I have. If anyone is NOT on the list who needs to be, please let me know ASAP. Apologies for this!
The names I have are: Will Ballard, David Ballinger, Alan Bishop, Paul, Ellis, Rob Gilbert, Steve Otteson, Bobby Ross, and Steve Sutter. Anyone else? (If so, I definitely read and used your comments. I just inadvertently didn’t keep good records. Sorry. Just send me an email).
Now, some people may wonder why I’m sending the manuscript in on January 24 when I finished writing the book in August. Ha! Good question. But this is not strange, it is typical.
Writing a book is a long process, and you might think that when you’re done writing it, you’re simply done, and can sent the thing in to be published in a few months. No, no, no! Would that it *were* that simple.
When I finished the draft over the summer …
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Interesting. Remember to make your name very big on the cover and spine so that people know it’s written by a scholar/author, not a humble cleric.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing that with us.
Is it as long a process with a scholarly book? I assume things like book cover, blurbs in back, title discussions, etc. are not as important, as it’s not intended to have appeal to the general public. Or is it still basically the same process and same length of time from finished manuscript to book in hand?
Yup, just as long and complicated. Blurbs, title, cover — all very important! Even publishers of scholarly books want them to be widely sold!
It is intuitively illogical for a publisher to choose book titles. To me choosing a title is part of writing the book’s text.
How about asking your blog followers to suggest titles? Maybe this would help whoever it making that decision.
Actually, publishers are much, much better at this in most cases than authors and the general public. Especially for trade books. The ynow exactly, from decades of experience, what actually works/sells. Most of the rest of us are just guessing. And usually guessing very badly indeed.
What are the differences with the publication process for academic books?
The process is very, very similar.
Hi. I’m a new member of the blog. Is there a way to get access to the book before it’s published? Or should I wait for it to hit amazon?
Also, in your book, do you conclude that Heaven and Hell are figments of the bible author’s imagination? Just curious.
Like the afterlife, it’s just something you need to wait for. And hope it turns out well!
I have a comment and a question:
First the question: with all these steps and all these people involved in the production of a book, what is the end result, financially? What might an author expect to receive as compensation for all their hard work over many months/years of researching, crafting & editing a book (in general terms, I’d never ask about your particular finances)?
Now the comment: I would think that a book about Heaven, Hell and the Invention of the Afterlife would best be released in the Spring, in time for the Christian season of Lent and Easter (just my opinion, whatever that’s worth).
Good luck with the book. I’m looking forward to reading it.
THe author typically expects to make millions and to retire in the Bahamas. But what actually happens is that the author is given an advance contract that provides a percentage of the sales of a book as “royalties” — say, 10%. So for a book that sells for $24.95, the author would be given a royalty of $2.45. For that to reach millions — it almost never does unless you’re fantastically famous. Think Michelle Obama — well, do the math! Most even pretty good books sell in the thousands.
Dan Brown sold what–80 million with The Da Vinci Code? I’m sure that just puts you in “seventh heaven!”
Hello Bart,
What about the translation to other languages? Does that depend only on the publishers? I have seen that you have some books in Spanish, but it would be good to have your latest too.
Part of the contract includes “translation rights.” Normally a foreign publisher (say in Germany or Spain) is interested in publishing a translation; they contact the original publisher; they work out a financial deal; the author gets some of the income, and the publisher some. My books have been translated into 27 languages.
Wow, successfully getting a book published is a ton of work. I understand now why self-published books almost always never match the quality of a published book, the process for publishing is much more rigorous and thorough.
Yeah, I’m afraid there’s no comparison.
Off-topic question: Do you think that mundane events in the life of Jesus were embellished to make them miraculous (e.g. the feeding of the 5000/4000), or do you think that they were mostly composed from whole cloth? What about healings, exorcisms, etc. Any basis in fact?
My sense is that they were generated by later story tellers; I’m not a fan of naturalistic, real-life explanations (e.g., when walking on the water, Jesus actually knew where the stones were….)
I suggest you call it either “Highway to Hell” or “Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be”.
My current project is producing the index for my book, and I am realizing why so many people pay a professional indexer to have it done. I realized after the first chapter I was producing a concordance more than an index, and so will definitely need a second pass.
It’s an unbelievable pain in the neck.
How exhausting. I have no idea how you do all you do. Congratulations on completion of the manuscript.
Even though you write on a PC (I assume), do you ever find yourself committing mistakes like the Bible copyists, like omitting a word or skipping a line, or misspelling a word so that it changes meaning? I wonder what the Bible would be like if ancient scribes had our word processing technology.
Yes, some mistakes are even easier to make. If you’re deleting a sentence, sometimes you delete more than you meant to, and don’t realize it till months later!
A Year before it’s out? Can’t wait!
Yup, a slow train coming….
Don’t care (within reason) I just can’t wait to read it!
This is more a “mechanical” question, but could you say something about the process of merging the “multiple/parallel” edits?
For example, when you get back a set of _multiple_ edited versions from, say, the “domain experts” (or the “blog-readers”), then once you’ve decided which changes to “accept”, how do you actually go about merging the changes?
Do the readers receive (and return) hardcopy which they return with “red-pen” markups? Or electronic copies (in which case, how are changes noted and kept track of)? Do you then maintain a “master” copy into which the changes are merged?
(Presumably a real problem can be merging after one or more of the “helpers” has made significant changes to the original –e.g. re-ordering or re-writing sentences/paragraphs, etc– into which any other changes need to be merged. Hard to keep track of I would imagine.)
Ah, that too is complicated! When I received comments (from about a dozen readers), I looked at each comment carefully, one by one, and decided whether to go with it or note. Took a while!
Congrats! Can’t wait, but guess I’ll have to.
Dr Ehrman, regarding ‘The Invention of the Afterlife’ and whether Jesus more likely held a view of
eternal torment, or
universal salvation, or
salvation for some and annihilation for others
Do you think Mark 10:31 is consistent with a belief in annihilation . . ., or eternal torment?
> But many who are first will be last, and the last first
Doesn’t it sounds like the ‘first’ will eventually arrive at same destination as the ‘last’, the destination likely being the Kingdom of God. if they are annihilated, this verse doesn’t work without injecting some tangled sense to normal manners of speech.
Also doesn’t Mark 10:31 imply entrance to Kingdom of God occurs over a somewhat large span to time, rather than occurring with some short cataclysmic phenomenon such as a guy appearing on a cloud then moving quickly to a divine court of justice. Just like the time it takes for a mustard see to mature into the one of the greatest of all trees.
I don’t think it gives an indication one way or the other about whether torment is involved. And no, I don’t see why the reversal of fortunes could not come at a single point of judgment, as in a court of law.
i was more asking in regards to universal salvation
first/last
if i am in line for a movie, sure I prefer to be first, cause I get the best seat, but if I am last at least I can watch it (but maybe in a very poor seat in the very first row).
Not so in the case of annihilation or eternal torment in neither of those cases do I even get into the show (ie the Kingdom of God)
doesn’t LAST probably imply, if we are talking of the Kingdom of God, they will eventually get there?
Yes, this saying could indeed be used to argue that Jesus held to some universalistic view; of course that would stand at odds with other things he says (sheep and goats)
Hello Dr. Ehrman,
Thank you for your posts about the new trade book. I’m looking forward to reading it. Question: Is there a fear (either with yourself or editors) that if too much time goes by, the general public will lose interest in certain topics and when a book is finally released, it lacks the impact it could’ve had if published sooner?
Have a great weekend!
For some books, certainly. If someone were to write a response to The Da Vinci Code today, everyone would yawn and buy something else. But a book on the afterlife is perennially relevant, for obvious reasons!
You have blogged about writing for Harper and now for S&S. In each case, you were very positive about the editors who had been assigned to review your work. Does this sort of rigorous editorial practice happen when you publish your more academic books? I have read (not yours) some academic books from otherwise prestigious publishing houses that were either poorly edited or, seemingly, not edited at all. For all the dollars that some presses ask for their academic titles, you would hope that some editing would have taken place!
It completely depends on which publisher it is, but, for example, with Oxford University Press, with whom I’ve published a number of my academic books, the answer is absolutely yes.
Off topic, sorry. But I am aware (from reading this blog and your books, thank you) that Mark is dated to approximately 60 CE and that P45 (circa 200 CE) is fragmentary. Is there any estimate about when the disputed final 12 verses were appended?
It’s debated. They *may* be known to Irenaeus at the end of the second century. Since they are found in both (later) Latin and Syriac mss, that usually points to a second century origin. They don’t start showing up in Greek mss until the early fifth-century, but we only have a couple of Greek mss with Mark 16 before that.
What a stunning revelation! You and your likes are my heroes!
Thank you!!
“…I will be sending the very final manuscript of my book…off to my editor…”
I will assume this does not mean a folio of loose-leaf parchment wrapped in silk delivered by horseback. Or even a satchel of type-written double spaced pages.dispatched by Fedex.
So what does “sending the final manuscript” mean in 2019?
Thanks, looking forward to the new book very much!
It means an electronic file.
It will be my hope that thousands of us bloggers will email Terry Gross as soon as your book comes out. Will provide address closer to that time!
I’d love to be back on her show. She’s the best!
Book title suggestion: “A Brief History of the Afterlife”.
In a rather ironic way it summarizes the main premise of the book that ideas about the afterlife have always been prone to continuous development. And bonus, you would position yourself in the company of the illustrious authors that wrote brief histories of Time (Stephen Hawking), Humankind / Tomorrow (Yuval Noah Hariri), Almost Everything (Bill Bryson).
Not bad. We’re toying with something similar. We’ll see!
Wow! Incredible to think how often you have done this. Doing it once would probably be more than enough for most people. it’s like having a baby.
Yeah, lots and lots of scholars don’t get past publishing a dissertation, or at most a second book. As my wife and I say to each other virtually every day, It’s *hard*!!!
Secondly,
if a person thought sinners were going to be annihilated (or stay in eternal torment) he would likely say something on the order of
“Anyone who breaks God’s rules and teaches others to break the commandments will NEVER SEE (or enter) the Kingdom of God”
rather than
Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly WILL BE CALLED LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:19)
Thirdly
Regarding your understanding about Jesus words
in Matt 25:41 “eternal fire” and
in Mark 9:48 “the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched”
It’s a great insight that Jesus doesn’t say nor even imply that the sinners stay in this fire eternally, rather only that the fire and worms themselves are eternal.
And therefore a possible and even reasonable conjecture is
1) that the sinners are annihilated.
on the other hand it seems a no less reasonable idea that the the
2) sinners may eventually be removed from the torments of these never ending flames and worms
And If we were only to look at Matt 25:4 and Mark 9:48 above we probably wouldn’t be able to guess which view/conjecture was more likely the one held by Jesus.
Yet I personally think the second coheres much more nicely with other components of his teachings, consider for one obvious example Luke 15:11-32 (the prodigal son) The son wallows in his misery for a ‘long’ time before he realizes his utter foolishness and returns to his Father who immediately accepts him, (ie the son doesn’t realize his mistake and then ceases existence)
Yes, interesting about the Prodigal Son. But I’m not sure it’s a saying that goes back to Jesus himself (found only in Luke, e.g.) It’s a nice thought that Jesus believed in ultimate salvation for all, but he talks too much about “destruction” and “annihilation” to make it certain (or even probable in my view, though I do see the problems!)
Once is a great while I notice a typo or grammatical error in a published book. Is it worthwhile to bring these instances to the attention of the author or the publisher?
Never hurts! Though it only helps if there will be a new printing, or even better, a new edition!
Decent, relatively brief (for the New Yorker) article on heaven/hell origin (“The Bad Place”) in the 1-21-19 issue. My guess: would not have been useful to you even were you still writing.
Yup, interesting piece!