Helping Monsignor Michael: PLEASE READ!
Jean Noon
Greetings SDI fans!
Monsignor Michael is interested in finding an outside publisher to publish four of his titles: Arise, Prayer and Temperament, A New Day, and A Christian Worldview. I hope that we can each give back an hour or two a month in helping to get his work published. Collectively, we could easily invest a couple hundred hours a month in this vision! Please let me know if you can help in any way at all by emailing Jean Noon at JN...@WeddingQuilts.com.
We, his students, are the best resources to convince the publishers that there is a market for these works!
This is the information we need to gather for each of the books:
1. Identify other book titles (and their publishers) that have similar content to each of Monsignor Michael’s four titles. It would be helpful if a library science person could identify what the Call Number would be.
2. Explain why each of Monsignor Michael’s books are uniquely different from these identified book titles. Why would a reader purchase Monsignor’s book instead of books with similar content?
3. How do each of the four titles respond to a current cultural need, i.e., why is this the right time for the book?
4. Determine how well similar titles are selling -- if you have any insight into how to conduct that type of study, please let me know.
5. Determine how we can best get each of Monsignor’s books into the hands of his potential readership, e.g., which organizations do his potential readership belong to? How could we promote his work through the diocese, for instance?
Titles with content similar to ARISE are Morton Kelsey’s books Caring: How Can We Love One Another?, Christo-Psychology, Christianity as Psychology: The Healing Power of the Christian Message; John Sanford’s Kingdom Within; Donald Capps’ Jesus the Village Psychiatrist; and Jesus and Psychology ed. Fraser Watts.
Titles with content similar to Prayer and Temperament are Who We Are Is How We Pray: Matching Personality and Spiritualty by Charles Keating, Psychological Perspectives on Prayer ed. Leslie Francis and Jeff Astley. I actually haven’t been able to find any other books about prayer forms and their suitability to various personality types/MBTI. Can anyone help with this?
I need help identifying titles with content similar to A New Day and A Christian Worldview. Another large job related to A Christian Worldview is to get permission to re-publish the excerpts from different chapters.
If you have ever been in library science (or have a friend who is) or have ever been involved in book sales (or have a friend who is) we need your expertise! And if you are simply someone willing to help in any way please contact me so we can get this party started! Since Father Chet has already published Introduction to Spiritual Direction with Paulist Press we will approach them first. Another big job is to help research Paulist Press procedures. If you have any other ideas to help with this process: welcome!
These proposals will take a bit of time and energy! They will benefit from many helpers. I want to thank everyone in advance for their passion in helping to get Monsignor Michael’s work distributed to a wider audience!
Sincerely, Jean Noon, SDI class of 2009, 703-341-6644, Alexandria VA, JN...@WeddingQuilts.com