I Want You to Write!

I honestly believe that Llewellyn publishes some of the most important and valuable books around. The authors you read today may be the Gerald Gardners, Doreen Valientes, Israel Regardies, Aleister Crowleys, and Arthur Avalons of tomorrow.

Which authors today will take their place in that pantheon of names? I don’t know. My guess is that a mixture of good writing and great information, combined with fortunate timing and popular interest will make that choice.

I’d like to see you there.

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel all over the U.S. and Europe giving workshops. Everywhere I go I hear the same sort of thing, “I could write a better book!”

Whenever I hear people say that I encourage them! “Please do! We need new books and better books all the time.” Some of the people I’ve encouraged have gone on to write numerous popular books. They had the determination to do the work and see it through to the end. I congratulate them!

Until recently, all I could do was encourage them from the sidelines, with advice and “attaboys.” Recently, however, that has changed. As part of my responsibilities I now have added to my titles, “Acquisitions Editor: Magic(k) and Occult Topics.” If you have written or are writing a book, and if it’s good, I may be able to help you get it published.

As I wrote, lots of people say they can write a book, but completing it is something else. I recently attended the Ninth Annual Conference on Current Pagan Studies. I talked with several of the presenters there about potential books based on the papers they delivered. Several said they were interested. I hope some of them will come through with great books. I believe they all have it in them.

I also believe that many of you reading this have a book within you, too. If so, contact me. You can write to me  here: DonK@llewellyn.com . Tell me about your book and let’s see what we can do.

One Way to Get Started

A lot of people are insecure as to their writing ability. One of the biggest challenges to writers is perfectionism. We feel it’s never good enough or could be better. Sometimes, however, you simply have to do your best and let your literary child go on its own. Write it and let’s see what happens.

However, you might want to try your writing skills by scripting shorter documents, first. Starting your own blog and writing articles is one way to do this. But as we all know, any sort of cr@p stuff appears on the internet. How can you really know if what you’re writing is any good? One possibility is to see if someone else will publish your writing.

As you may know, Hermetic Virtues has an on-line journal. You can get an index of all their articles HERE and you can order back issues and subscriptions HERE. They are now starting something new. They are going to publish a hardbound book entitled The Book of Rituals. They are currently looking for submissions to include in the publication. Rituals or Ceremonies must be original and previously unpublished works. Submissions must be well-written, clear and articulate, and be a maximum of 10,000 words. It is preferred that they be Inner Order/Adept level rituals or ceremonies, although Outer Order ceremonies are acceptable as well. The deadline for submissions is June 1st, 2013. The entire proceeds from the project will be donated to the HOGD Legal Fund.

Here is your chance to get something shorter but meaningful published. For more information, or to make a submission, contact vic@hermeticvirtues.org .

The Truth

Okay, I take a lot of time considering what I’m going to write for my blog. I hope readers appreciate it. If you have a ritual or ceremony that could become part of HV’s The Book of Rituals, I really do hope you’ll contact them. And if you have something longer, I really hope you’ll contact me!

But the time I’d normally be spending thinking about my blog I’ve been spending getting everything ready for next week’s PantheaCon in San Jose, CA. It’s going to have many workshops with speakers from all over the country, including many Llewellyn authors. Before that:

• I’m in the midst of working with three authors who have manuscripts ready
• I’m working with several others who are working on their books
• I’m finishing my own next book which, I hope, will open of Pagans to the little-known pre-Hindu traditions of India.
• AND, I have to finish my slides and handouts for my two workshops.

And there’s less than a week left!

PantheaCon is the biggest and arguably the most important Pagan/Occult/Metaphysical/New Age event on the West Coast. Llewellyn will be there with its largest booth ever. I’ll be helping out at the booth and doing a book signing. I hope to see you all there!