Guest guest Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 Dear Ac, My apologies to you and to the group - I did not mean to initiate discussions on the merits and demerits of buying the book or upon whether it was worth the cost. My motives in promoting it on the group were purely so that those members who might find it useful would be made aware of it. I can assure you that I am most unlikely to make any profit at all from the sales. I have been writing books on Advaita for the past five years as my sole activity. The Book of One, which was published in 2003, has still sold fewer than 3000 copies. It is simply not possible to earn a living from writing books on Advaita – there are far too few people interested in the west. In the past three years, I have earned £500 ($1000). This was an advance on sales of Back to the Truth and I will not earn any more until more than 250 copies have been sold. I do it because I find the subject endlessly fascinating and want to share my understanding and enthusiasm with others. The reason for the high price is simply the size of the book. There are over 600 pages. And, as I have pointed out before, it aims to cover Advaita in depth, with the help of over 550 separate extracts from over 350 different sources, including the Upanishads and later scriptural texts; classical interpretations of Shankara; writings from contemporary sages such as Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi and modern teachers such as Swami Dayananda and Eckhart Tolle; writers on Internet discussion groups and recent email exchanges with current satsang teachers. And, yes, I do believe it is worth the money because it brings together all of those extracts that I have discovered in the past ten years that provide the clearest explanations of the most complex topics in Advaita. Whether you want to pay so much for so much is entirely up to you! Best wishes, Dennis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 >>Dear Ac, >>My apologies to you and to the group - I did not mean to initiate discussions on the merits and demerits of buying the book or upon whether it was worth the cost. My motives in promoting it on the group were purely so that those members who might find it useful would be made aware of it. >>I can assure you that I am most unlikely to make any profit at all from the sales. I have been writing books on Advaita for the past five years as my sole activity. The Book of One, which was published in 2003, has still sold fewer than 3000 copies. It is simply not possible to earn a living from writing books on Advaita - there are far too few people interested in the west. In the past three years, I have earned £500 ($1000). This was an advance on sales of Back to the Truth and I will not earn any more until more than 250 copies have been sold. I do it because I find the subject endlessly fascinating and want to share my understanding and enthusiasm with others. >>The reason for the high price is simply the size of the book. There are over 600 pages. And, as I have pointed out before, it aims to cover Advaita in depth, with the help of over 550 separate extracts from over 350 different sources, including the Upanishads and later scriptural texts; classical interpretations of Shankara; writings from contemporary sages such as Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi and modern teachers such as Swami Dayananda and Eckhart Tolle; writers on Internet discussion groups and recent email exchanges with current satsang teachers. >> And, yes, I do believe it is worth the money because it brings together all of those extracts that I have discovered in the past ten years that provide the clearest explanations of the most complex topics in Advaita. Whether you want to pay so much for so much is entirely up to you! >>Best wishes, >>Dennis Thank you Sir! Thank for the very kind, generous and balanced response. I can understand the difficulty involved in selling books on Advaita and I appreciate the great efforts that you have made in bringing out these books in spite of extremely little financial payoff. Being an author, I take you to be a better judge on these matters, but, I wonder if lower price (such as $18 for example, which I paid for Tolle's book) wouldn't mean more sales. Also, the option of ebook for download, audio mp3 CD for download could increase its accessibility. I for example, might strongly consider buying the softcopy (PDF) if it was for less than 12 dollars, mp3 downloads if they were less than 15 dollars and printed book if it was less than $20. But, at its current price, I am very unlikely to consider buying it. I can understand that selling books on Advaita can be a financially losing proposition. My guess is that listing it with price more easily accessible would increase its reach. But, that is just me and I am certainly not an expert. Best wishes and thank you, ac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dennis for his work. The book is priceless. I live near major University where graduate students and private organizations will help to prepare your term papers for $200 per 4-page research paper. Also at the place of my employment, we are contracting with consultants and auditors. Consultants charge $80 per hour and auditors $120/hr for their work. They charge travel time and lunch as well. We pay $4,000 for simple audit and $14,000 for in-depth audit for each of 400+ schools. These are yearly reports. I am not even mentioning how much program developers charge. 5,000 years of advaita, hundreds hours of research and equivalent of 3 regular books of precious material at such a price is a bargain of lifetime! I for one am eternally greatful to Dennis and to the publishers of this book. Mila Makal --- Dennis Waite <dwaite wrote: > Dear Ac, > > > > My apologies to you and to the group - I did not > mean to initiate > discussions on the merits and demerits of buying the > book or upon whether it > was worth the cost. My motives in promoting it on > the group were purely so > that those members who might find it useful would be > made aware of it. > > I can assure you that I am most unlikely to make > any profit at all from the > sales. I have been writing books on Advaita for the > past five years as my > sole activity. The Book of One, which was published > in 2003, has still sold > fewer than 3000 copies. It is simply not possible to > earn a living from > writing books on Advaita – there are far too few > people interested in the > west. In the past three years, I have earned £500 > ($1000). This was an > advance on sales of Back to the Truth and I will not > earn any more until > more than 250 copies have been sold. I do it because > I find the subject > endlessly fascinating and want to share my > understanding and enthusiasm with > others. > > The reason for the high price is simply the size of > the book. There are > over 600 pages. And, as I have pointed out before, > it aims to cover Advaita > in depth, with the help of over 550 separate > extracts from over 350 > different sources, including the Upanishads and > later scriptural texts; > classical interpretations of Shankara; writings from > contemporary sages such > as Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi and modern > teachers such as Swami > Dayananda and Eckhart Tolle; writers on Internet > discussion groups and > recent email exchanges with current satsang > teachers. > > And, yes, I do believe it is worth the money because > it brings together all > of those extracts that I have discovered in the past > ten years that provide > the clearest explanations of the most complex topics > in Advaita. Whether you > want to pay so much for so much is entirely up to > you! > > > > Best wishes, > > Dennis > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been > removed] > > ______________________________\ ____ Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Answers Food & Drink Q & A. http://answers./dir/?link=list & sid=396545367 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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