We asked our clients to share their self-publishing journey and provide suggestions for new authors.
Author: Thomas Harry Pearce
Book: A Path for All Beings – A Joyful Homemade Path to Happy Living and World Peace
Website: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KB34IC2
Please tell us a little about yourself and what prompted you to write a book:
In 1974, I was a spiritual hippie living in Boston and I received a remarkable gift from India’s two greatest teachers: Krishna (ca. 3000 BCE) and the Buddha (ca. 563-483 BCE). I then spent the next 30 years learning through many humorous misadventures and misunderstandings about the gift (which ancient legends revere as the “Golden Lotus of Love”) and how to use it to help the world! Most importantly, I discerned from the logic of the gift that the six major crises facing the world and all social ills are human-made and preventable; and that they can be solved by a grassroots movement that inspires each of us to create our own life as a joyful expression of ever-widening circles of love and understanding in order to relieve the suffering of all beings – all humans, animals, plants and the Earth! I call this solution a “Path for All Beings’ because it can guide all of us – young or old, religious or non-religious – to the happy living and world peace we so urgently seek!
Please tell us a little about your book:
“A Path for All Beings” has been born from the intersection of the two contemporary currents of history – our worldwide integration and disintegration. It is an amazingly simple yet comprehensive path which can give each of us the dedication, motivation, framework and goal to step-by-step generate the love, wisdom and creativity that can ease the suffering in our own life and eventually that of our seven billion-plus neighbors! And all in all, the Path will most likely inspire what future historians will describe as the “Age of Awakening!”
How long did it take you to finish your book?
In 2002, I presented a lecture which I entitled “Life is a School” to a college classroom of empty seats. This then became the first prototype (1 of 3) of “A Path for All Beings.” Several years later, I wrote the second prototype: “A True Gentleman” which explains the roles, relationships and responsibilities that we all must fulfill in order to secure a harmonious society; and the third prototype: “All Beings Buddhism” which describes a self-transformative householder Buddhism and the accomplishment of both material fulfillment and spiritual realization. However, because an explanation of a “Path for All Beings” (which is the “de-Buddhafied” version of “All Beings Buddhism”) would only take about thirty pages, I added another ninety pages of the compelling story of my discovery of the Path in order to finish the book in the autumn of 2013!
Do you offer your book as an ebook? Yes
What has been the most challenging aspect of self-publishing and what suggestions would you give to a new author?
Though people self-publish for a variety of reasons, I have observed one common thread and that is that we all hope to have a professional-looking book! However, regrettably, it appears that most self-publishing companies – even those with stellar reviews on the Internet – are interested in devoting the least time and effort into producing each book; and are hoping that their customers will be satisfied with the most amateurish of books! For instance, the editors of the company that I contracted made dozens of errors in creating the cover, formatting the book and converting it to an e-book. Their mistakes were irrational, unprofessional and due to sheer laziness! And most importantly, several times they returned the book to me for my final approval though they had ignored the fact that it still lacked many of the features that all book have! Therefore, I would advise a new author to study carefully the features of a library book similar to the book that he or she hopes to produce and be very strict with their self-publishing company to insure that they create a perfect book!
