When I first started working at Discovery Institute in the fall of 2022, the many bookshelves about the office immediately caught my eye. I still find myself paused in front of our beautiful library, scanning fascinating titles and pulling out more books than I can finish.
In the days before our move to Seattle’s glorious Smith Tower, we had one bookshelf that demanded my attention for a reason other than personal interest. This bookcase boasted the label “Unsolicited Books” and was the repository for a host of mailings going back to the 1990s. Before our move, it was one of my jobs to process these books. I’m sorry to say that meant disposing of as many as I could.
Anywhere and Everywhere
The books that filled these shelves, arranged in no special order, came from anywhere and everywhere around the globe. If you looked through them, you would find all sorts of works that people had mailed us. You would see spiritual books sent to influence our Fellows, or works intended to educate them. Mostly, there were self-published works related to science and faith. Many included letters requesting our Fellows’ time to read, review, and share them. Though all had been deposited in the mail with the best of intentions, we were not able to either help or find a purpose to which we could put them.
By the nature of things, some of these self-published books were better than others (and the very best we received would not have ended up on these shelves in the first place). To put it gently, the motley mailings that had gathered in this collection were not of the highest caliber. The contents might be disorganized, the graphics regrettable, or the writer’s expertise wanting. Through this particular set of unwanted books, I became aware of how some self-publishing businesses abuse the hopes of would-be authors. Digging through hundreds of books, I often found myself wishing I could have redirected these earnest efforts.
Sometimes people with ideas to share receive quick advice to “write a book about it.” True, writing has many benefits — if, as just one example, you simply feel the need put your thoughts down on paper, whether anyone reads them or not. Even the novelist Vladmir Nabokov said the main audience he wrote for was his wife, and presumably winning her approval would have been enough for him. But sometimes this encouragement is misguided. Self-publishing offers are everywhere on the internet, snagging individuals with unpromising manuscripts. But the question, “Could I be a published author?” is not the end of the matter.
If you’ve received advice to write a book on science and faith, yet have some misgivings, here is my own unsolicited advice. It may be as unwanted as some of the well-meant books on our shelf. I will let you decide.
Department of Unsolicited Advice
Instead of writing a full book of your own, it’s possible you might be better off writing a shorter piece. Or here is another suggestion: would you consider giving to enable the publication of more books from Discovery Institute Press? I ask because, apart from sorting through stray books, my primary work at Discovery Institute is to help our wonderful donors see their giving applied to the work here that they most value. Unless you have not only writing skills, but also new material, expertise, funds, a creditable publisher, well-chosen goals, and patience, you will likely get more bang for your buck by trying these different avenues.
Here’s why. First, getting a book published isn’t a walk in the park. A good editor can send back a manuscript full of edits that feel like wounds. A lazy editor can be worse, leaving a manuscript without the care it needs. Next, at one end of the spectrum, a top-of-the-heap publisher will reject many quality manuscripts; at the other, self-publishing can inflate unrealistic expectations. Many self-published works do not see the light of day. Moreover, there’s the personal cost of weekends and evenings spent writing, frustration with the learning curve, and unexpected expenditures. Your manuscript may grow as your pocketbook slims.
Second, a new book on ID could be a duplicate effort. Without new research and scholarship, such a book must rely on works already in existence. Among those already produced by CSC Fellows are landmark books like Return of the God Hypothesis, introductory books like Intelligent Design and Evolution in a Nutshell, anthologies like The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, Catholic books like God’s Grandeur, kids’ books like The Farm at the Center of the Universe, curricula like Discovering Intelligent Design, beginning-to-advanced article series on ID, highly rigorous works like The Design Inference — the list goes on, through biology, mathematics, earth sciences, chemistry, and more. A choosey publisher like Discovery Institute Press will not publish a manuscript without first determining what makes it different from what is currently on the market. Without new material and extensive knowledge of what is already out there, you could easily find yourself doing what many have done before: writing a book that’s already been written.
Moreover, without marketing, a book is unlikely to reach its target audience. To reach a significant body of readers, you have to write carefully for a well-defined audience and then let them know through appropriate marketing. Since only a fraction of people will buy a book they hear about (while still fewer will actually read it), substantial advertising and focused campaigns are necessary to ensure that a good book gets read. Before writing, an author needs realistic expectations and concrete plans to reach them.
A Patron of Books
“But ID changed my life, and I want it to change others’,” you may say. “I want to share the science that made it all come clear for me.” I love that. I truly do. The more personal stories showcasing ID, the better. I’ve shared some readers’ moving stories here at Science and Culture Today. Would an extended social media post or a magazine article be enough space to share your experience, the science that inspired you, or both? It probably would: almost anything can be written at almost any length. And it may reach more readers — with less effort and expense.
Or, if you would like to be a patron of books, Discovery Institute Press has needs. The research, writing, expert review, editing, and marketing to produce a successful book all take money. Consider that the median cost an author spends to get a nonfiction book published is $7,000, per a new report at AuthorROI.com. Spend 5 percent of that and you could be a Discovery Society member, advancing the cause of ID through Discovery Institute Press and other initiatives. We would love to partner with you in this way.
Again, I offer these thoughts because I see the excellence of the work coming from the Center for Science and Culture, and I feel the opportunity cost when I see well-meant but less effectual books. If you have what it takes, by all means, write a book. But for others, I recommend writing an article or financially backing Discovery Institute Press as a worthy alternative.