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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | how on earth were you recruited? |
It's quite funny. To me.
About two years prior, I had read Hancock's book (this was just a year or two after leaving University). I said to my girlfriend (now my wife), "My dream job would be to work for this man." And then, two years later, I was.
I had become an enthusiastic participant in the Web site. The existing editor resigned. They put out a notice and I applied with my resume (I was working in Web development). I got hired and got to meet Hancock and Bauval in person, with Hancock flying me to the UK.
BTW - the entire Author of the Month promotion was my idea, and it's still running to this day. The Author of the Month promotion was what enabled you to promote your book there and enabled me to get to read it.
| To be able to rid their mind of what used to be there and replace it with what you have come up with. Root and branch. It is of course something you should be able to do even if you can't come up with the new stuff yourself. |
After I had your book, I stated to my wife, "This man is a true genius. Few people encounter one in life. I have."
I added; "If I have any genius in me, it is evident in my ability to recognize it."
| consider your Bimini TH. Surely not the same as your Equatorial Barrier Quest. |
Oh I completely agree! The principal difference was my Bimini thesis was well-thought out. This Hyperborean thing is more-or-less stream of consciousness. It is a rapid run-through of a complete model that popped into my head within the space of about two minutes. I haven't fleshed it out, nor considered how best to present it; though I am confident that it is, in its essentials, true.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Being flown to the UK? Now that is impressive. In my judgement the Hancock site was one of, if not the best of, its type. I fitted right in. For a time, but I got restive. Ishmael seemed to be following a similar trajectory.
| The two of us agreed to set up the Quest site |
A forerunner of the AEL. It quickly attracted a substantial core of proto-AE-ists and I found it highly satisfying, both socially and intellectually. But, as always, was too much a matter of preaching to the converted to be the answer.
| I came up with the idea of the Treasure Hunt. |
This consisted of a Huntmaster (mostly me, sometimes Ishmael) who knew where it was headed, and two competing teams of Quest members. The Huntmaster posed an initial question and the two teams (it devolved into one after a time) answered it. Say
| Name a point on the earth surface that receives less than ten inches of rain a year. |
So we ended up with ten different places. By posing new (guided) questions, they were able ultimately to unravel the New Hydrological Cycle. It was really quite exciting. I thought this could be parleyed into doing something similar on the grand scale in, say, a newspaper and spent a lot of time preparing a package to present to Competition Editors of various highbrow MSM's.
| I didn't get as much as a reply. |
Heigh ho, on we go...
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | I came up with the idea of the Treasure Hunt. |
There's more to that story, for those interested.
The Treasure Hunt format actually evolved out of me nagging Mick into letting me in on his bigger secrets. After reading THOBR, I knew Mick was the mind I'd wanted as a teacher all my life.
He had a different opinion. I think he regarded me as a pest.
I kept asking questions. He kept refusing answers.
Until finally, he started asking me questions of his own, to make ME do the work.
So began the most intellectually challenging year of my life, as I quickly discovered that Mick was not only a genius but also an asshole. He made me suffer for every morsel of information he shared. But the QUEST was so immensely satisfying.
The answers I gave to Mick's questions were rarely even close to correct. But Mick took pity on me for my efforts and ultimately helped me across the finish line every time I needed the help (which was practically always).
After a year of suffering, I felt like I'd been through intellectual boot camp. It really was rough. Mick probably thought he was merely subjecting me to acerbic British wit but to me it just felt like acid. Nevertheless; I'm glad it was difficult. It made me value the experience and helped turn the ideas and information he shared with me into true gnosis. Despite the promises of higher education, this was the first time I'd truly been taught to think for myself.
It was this process that inspired Mick to subject more people to the same suffering.
Thus, the Treasure Hunt was born.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | I didn't get as much as a reply. |
Heigh ho, on we go... |
It was my view that the Treasure Hunt worked as an interactive teaching method, but not as a written dialogue. Nevertheless; Mick's first big Treasure Hunt (on the true causes of deserts) was re-worked by me, over a year, into something that resembled a classic dialogue. I still didn't think it was publishable, and told Mick so. I was right.
Nevertheless; that finished dialogue became the basis for the book I've been working on for ten fucking years: The Weather Under Ground. Much of it was incorprated wholesale, though then extensively re-written. And re-written. Then re-written again. And goddamit again.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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I should add that the Treasure Hunt, being the basis of a book, works extremely well. Participants have a habit of coming up with things you never thought of, and adding colorful comments that illustrate the points you want to make. I borrowed heavily from our participants for the content of the book.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Damn it all but maybe Treasure Hunts are what we need to go back to.
I'm wanting to write that Titanic book. If I could whittle the thesis down to a Treasure Hunt, I might gain a hell of a lot more insight from those solving the mystery alongside me.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The root of the problem--and it is being covered somewhat in both the Mind vs Brain thread and the AE theory threads--is that the human brain will not stick around for very long if it suspects it is going to have to rewire itself. Which it will have to if it accepts the validity of some radically new theory.
The Treasure Hunt technique (and my serial treatment of your opportunings) was designed to coax the brain in with something that intrigued it without frightening it. It gets drawn in until it's too late, and rejecting it means more rewiring than accepting it. Socratic dialogues are intended to do roughly the same sort of thing.
But before you get to that stage you have to get past a gatekeeper. Remember how many people on the Quest group refused to take part (including, I must confess, me with Bimini) after being told what was intended, however innocently?
That was, I suspect, what happened when the Competition Editors looked at a Treasure Hunt. They are busy people. They flicked to the end and said, 'Good grief, what a fruitcake.' I know it happened in one much lamented case (actually two parallel cases):
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"Well, Mr Harper, THOBR has proved a great success, by our standards here at Icon [UK, then again later with Melville House in America]. What are you going to do for us as a sequel? We're really looking forward to working with you on further projects."
"I'm going to show the Hydrological Cycle is completely out to lunch."
"That's ridiculous. We could never publish anything like that. What else do you have on the stocks?"
"But you would have thought English not being Anglo-Saxon was ridiculous if I hadn't already sold two thousand copies of THOBR when publishing it myself."
"That's quite different. But let us know if you have any other proposals."
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Needless to say they have rejected all my other offerings. Soon they weren't even bothering to send me rejection letters!
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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After the success/failure of THOBR I settled down to the life of an 'internet controversialist'. (We sometimes forget how very recent, how very revolutionary, the internet is, so ubiquitous it has become.) A combination of the British welfare system and the lax regime of credit card issuance meant I could do the job full time. There are three components:
1. Contributing material to outlets you control to one extent or other. This applies to the Quest group, its successor the AEL and the Megalithic Empire site. It is enjoyable, time consuming, costs more than you think, useful for creativity (oneself and others), not very useful for anything else. There is constant tension between desiring the success of 'your baby' and your baby growing up to do what you want it to do.
I'll deal with the other two tomorrow.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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2. Contributing to serious internet sites over which you have no influence whatsoever. These might be purely academic, specifically set up for the exchange of information between colleagues, or they may be discussion groups on, say, Facebook set up for the same reason but by enthusiasts for enthusiasts (and which will include some academic specialists or people purporting to be so). Any kind of revisionist, even a less than enthusiastic true believer, will get absolutely crucified. It really does turn into a heresy hunt and, sooner or later, you will be ejected as a troll.
3. As for 2, except substituting 'fruitcake' for 'serious'. But otherwise all the same things will happen.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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In the end there is no substitute for DIY and then 'putting it out there'. Which I have been doing for the last twenty years with such conspicuous lack of success you will be anxious for some tips.
| The basic problem is choosing a subject that will play to an audience. |
But that doesn't mean what it means in the straight world i.e.
| Maximising bums on seats to maximise your rewards |
Take Brian's current work on Celestial Mechanics. It will suffer Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium's fate: read by few, affecting the destiny of many. Just not him. And that's something you have to get used to.
| Not careful ignoral, total ignoral. |
I spent many years trying to avoid this. Either by writing books on popular subjects, like the Second World War, or whistle-blowing on recondite subjects, like early medieval manuscripts. You have to be put it down to experience and plug on. Which you won't unless...
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| You find the subject or the medium that unpicks the lock. |
It doesn't have to be anything epochal, just sufficient to get people scurrying to your other, maybe more important, works. Once you have any degree of authoritas, you've cracked it. Unless your other works are crap. We are assuming this cannot possibly be so.
Authoritas has little to do with popularity. In fact the two tend to militate against one another. [Ishmael, I'm sure, will tell you war stories about Graham Hancock.] I've sold thousands of copies of THOBR, we've had thousands of views for the Megalithic Empire YouTube, I've had thousands of reads on Medium for subjects as diverse as Lucy Letby and the Ukraine War.
Worse than that, I'm Mr Nobody who thinks he's the dog's bollocks. To be both unknown and despised is a rare lose double. But I've got one last shot in the locker...
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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You must always retain one last shot in the locker. It's what keeps you going. My current one is the Origins of Agriculture. I am convinced it is a perfect vehicle because there are no competing theories about something that is of (reasonably wide) public and academic interest and what actually happened (o.n.o.) can be explained in (reasonably) clear and simple terms. Heigh-ho.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Self publishing is one sure way of avoiding publishers' rejection letters, though in this day and age--when every man jack thinks he or she has got a book in them--you will be very lucky to get a rejection. Most publishers put up prominent disclaimers of this kind on their websites
| We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts which will be discarded without acknowledgement. You should first acquire a literary agent who will contact us. |
Acquiring a literary agent in this day and age is marginally more difficult than acquiring a book publisher. Though one trick is to claim you 'met them at a party last year' and have enclosed your manuscript 'as you suggested'. This can get it past the bloke who sticks them in the binbag on arrival--whether at publishers or agents--but requires nerves of steel.
If you ever do get a nibble it will probably be a 'vanity publisher': you pay them to publish the book. This is not to be dismissed out of hand, but not recommended either because, in this day and age, publishing it yourself has become immensely easy-peasy.
As I will outline tomorrow (though I would love to hear of others' experiences).
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Pete Jones
In: Virginia
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Since you already know just about my entire story on this topic, here a couple things I can related from others:
One of my best friends is a novelist and writer of popular histories. He published his first novel at about age 30, was the first "winner" of Barnes & Noble's "Best Novelists Under 40" tag, and proceeded to publish 5 more novels before it all dried up. For twenty years, from 1997 on, he would earn thousands each year from movie options of his various books. None of his books were ever turned into movies, which of course would be a jackpot for him had it ever happened. He also wrote some TV show episodes and claims to have had a TV show idea stolen from him at a party, which eventually became a show called "Joan of Arcadia."
Then he couldn't sell anything for love nor money. His longtime agent dropped him. He went with a pen name and used it to get a new agent, after which he sold two popular histories. He stopped trying to sell fiction (at least under the pen name).
He has recently informed me that his most recent agent, who has also dropped him, has suggested that he just set up his own agency. Since all you need to be an agent are contacts at publishing houses and an Agency Name, nothing is stopping him. So, he's building a website, trying to look legit, and using his contacts to gather the email addresses of editors. I will report any progress. His main leg-up is that he knows lots of writers who are in the same boat as he, he has lots of content, and he knows how to write book pitches. I suspect that, once up and running, he will increase his odds of publishing fiction again by 5%.
What is 0 + 5%?
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