{"id":3341,"date":"2023-05-22T05:29:15","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T05:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/?p=3341"},"modified":"2023-05-24T05:15:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T05:15:06","slug":"mark-spencer-on-ocean-of-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/articles\/2023\/05\/22\/3341\/mark-spencer-on-ocean-of-self\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Spencer on ‘Ocean of Self’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Spencer is the author of Ocean of Self: Beneath the waves of our individual selves<\/em>, in which he correlates his experiences with ocean diving with the practice of transcendental meditation. Spencer spoke to Independent Publishing <\/em>about the inspiration for his book and some of the lessons he learned publishing Ocean of Self<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Please tell us what your book\u00a0Ocean\u00a0of Self\u00a0<\/em>is about.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The book\u00a0Ocean\u00a0of Self<\/em>\u00a0(subtitle:\u00a0Beneath the waves of our individual selves<\/em>) is an examination of the nature of consciousness from the perspective of an ocean explorer who has also been a long-term meditator. The experience of diving into the watery ocean and the experience of diving into the realm of consciousness through the silence of meditation, are in many ways similar. The ocean is a great metaphor to see consciousness as not merely a by-product of the brain but something at the basis of all of nature\u2019s functioning. The book proposes that one universal ocean of consciousness (\u2018ocean of self\u2019) underlies and gives rise to our individual \u2018waves\u2019 of consciousness, each wave operating through a unique nervous system. The individual \u2018waves\u2019 of consciousness (each of us) live the illusion that they are separate from each other, but in fact, from the perspective of our shared deeper self, we are all literally one<\/em>. This is the important \u2018unity\u2019 theme that is developed in the book. The other theme developed is the ultimate \u2018empowerment\u2019 theme\u2014that we can all work at the most fundamental level of nature\u2019s laws to make \u2018miracles\u2019 possible.<\/p>\n

What were some of your inspirations for writing\u00a0Ocean\u00a0of Self<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The inspirations came to me some 30 years ago when\u2014even as a young practitioner of the Transcendental Meditation program\u2014I noticed that some experiences I had diving on deep shipwrecks were similar to my experiences in meditation. An added stimulus was coming to terms with death. I lost a good friend to a deep diving accident (both of us at the tender age of 31) and would in years to come, lose other friends and acquaintances to deep diving accidents. I also had\u2014in my 30\u2019s\u2014a couple of \u2018transcendent\u2019 \/ spiritual experiences that were very inspirational for me in writing this book. The book is not meant to be dictatorial, prescriptive or dogmatic but hopes to trigger a resonance of sorts that enables the reader to relate to the material in the book with their own life experience\u2014to conclude that, in essence, we are \u2018spiritual beings having a human experience\u2019.<\/p>\n

What did you hope to achieve by self-publishing your book and have you been successful at reaching this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frankly, I would have liked an established publishing company to have taken my book on. I would rather have restricted my energy to ocean exploration, writing and photography\u2014not publication. But no literary agent would even extend the courtesy of responding to my enquiries. Even though I was well-known and accomplished in the relatively \u2018small pond\u2019 of the diving world, I had no way into the publishing industry. It was like trying to break into Fort Knox. Around 2014, I became aware that technology and resources were increasingly available for authors to publish their own book, so I joined as a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA, USA-based). With the help of my wife Becca, we self-published\u00a0Ocean\u00a0of Self<\/em>\u00a0first as an ebook (2016), after I had it professionally edited and illustrated. There were some challenging learning curves for us (eg. the W-8BEN US tax treaty form), but we eventually had the ebook available through all the major on-line outlets. But I wanted the book available in a printed version also. I became increasingly aware that print on demand (POD) digital printing technology was a more sensible, financially less-risky way for new authors to test the market without outlaying tens of thousands of dollars for a big run of books through the off-set printing presses. To cut a long story short, I\u2019m happy to have found Evan Shapiro of\u00a0Green Avenue Design\u00a0(Cilento Publishing) in Sydney. He cleverly designed the printed book\u2019s front, spine and back cover, designed the internal layout and also uploaded the book to\u00a0Ingram Spark\u2019s\u00a0POD facility in Melbourne for me. I\u2019ve been very happy with the quality and readability of the book.\u00a0Ingram Spark are well acknowledged by books stores, who can readily order copies of my book for interested customers.<\/p>\n

Where have you been selling your book, and how else have you approached the marketing and publicity of your book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Book Warehouse\u00a0in Coffs Harbour (where we live) sell my books, although I\u2019m unaware if they have books on the shelf at all times. I do know they can quickly order books through\u00a0Lightning Source\u00a0at a customer\u2019s request. My website<\/a> lists a number of online printed book outlets but a simple Google search for the book will reveal more sites than I list in the website. I have had ebbs and flows with my marketing efforts. The IBPA registered my book (at a discount fee) for independent reviews via NetGalley.com. That proved very useful for marketing purposes. Marketing and publicity are not really life-skills I\u2019ve developed (my professional life as a dental surgeon always involved a different type of \u2018marketing\u2019), even though I am passionate about my book. I\u2019ve been interviewed by two podcasters and will seek more podcast interviews. I\u2019ve had no success gaining interviews by radio stations. I\u2019ve written a couple of articles on my book\u2014or subjects covered by the book\u2014in a dive magazine and The Explorers Log\u00a0<\/em>(I\u2019m a Fellow International of the\u00a0Explorers Club). I love giving talks along with audio-visual presentations to Rotary clubs and have been a keynote speaker at two large Rotary District Conferences in the last two years. These conferences are one way I can sell books directly to audience participants. Currently, I\u2019m doing my best to make libraries aware of my book and its niche qualities. I\u2019m represented by\u00a0Australian Library Services\u00a0and\u00a0James Bennett, but they have not had any requests for the book by any of their libraries.<\/p>\n

Can you tell us about any services you used in the process of publishing your book and what your experience was like with them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We found Joel Friedlander of\u00a0The Book Designer<\/a>\u00a0really helpful in learning the technicalities of self-publishing. As I mentioned, we started out publishing the book as an ebook. I think it was Joel who recommended\u00a0Calibre<\/a>\u00a0to convert my Word document into the specific ebook file format. We chose one of a number of ebook design templates available through\u00a0The Book Designer\u00a0<\/em>and let Calibre do the file conversion through this design template. That was all pretty straight forward, so I can recommend both services. With regard to uploading the ebook into the various emedia outlets, we did that individually for Amazon and iBooks – with the goal of maintaining maximum profit\u2014and let\u00a0Smashwords<\/a>\u00a0do the rest. But in hindsight maybe we should have let Smashwords upload to all the different retail sites. Their fee of 10-15% of book sales is probably a fair payment if it means someone else is effectively making my book available across all e-retail outlets. With regard to the printed book, I asked Evan Shapiro of\u00a0Green Avenue Design\u00a0<\/em>to do all the processing for me with regard to the appropriate file uploading to\u00a0Ingram Spark.<\/p>\n

What have you learned about publishing (and bookselling) since releasing the book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As first-timers in book publishing, my wife and I found the publication of the book itself was a slow and piece-meal learning process. When it came to publishing the printed version, we were more than happy to pass on the nitty-gritty work to someone else\u2014in our case Green Avenue Design. <\/em>The overall cost of self-publishing is expensive too! When you add in professional editing, artistic and graphic illustration (fortunately, most of the illustration was with Becca\u2019s and my photography), well\u2014all I can say is\u2014the book really has to be a major life passion and goal. I honestly thought I would have sold many more books by now, but that might be a common author\u2019s report. Digital (POD) publication is a sensible way to go financially, when one\u2019s passion can easily override sensible decision-making. I bet there are many books sitting in garages accumulating dust, mildew, insect marks and scuffing.<\/p>\n

What would you have done differently in publishing your book if you were to have your time again?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My personal conclusion is that, in hindsight, if you can find someone you trust to do the whole ebook and printed book publication for you\u2014book design process, specific file uploading\u2014then that would have saved us a lot of time and energy. In my case Green Avenue Design\u00a0could have handled the ebook publication process as well. Where I am still deficient in skill and knowledge, is the marketing and advertising process. If people don\u2019t know about my book, then it will not even get a \u2018look-in\u2019. That marketing process is where authors should direct their time and energy. To this day, I still don\u2019t know how to get libraries to \u2018notice\u2019 my book and place a copy on their shelves, despite being represented by two large library book providers. The libraries should have my book, because the book represents a freshly unique and uplifting examination of a fundamental part of our nature \u2013 a part that has been hidden and ignored for too long; a part that the world of humanity urgently needs to give attention to.<\/p>\n

What advice would you share to someone looking to self-publish their first book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you have the time and energy, then you might enjoy the mechanics of the self-publication process. Seek the wisdom of others who share their knowledge in this area, like\u00a0Joel Friedlander of\u00a0The Book Designer.\u00a0<\/em>Do your research on the most advertised services that promise to help you get your first book published. Are they timely and accurate with their payments? Do they provide caring follow-up attention to your queries once your book is published? Consider the services of smaller operators that are located in your country. That one-on-one contact with a person on the phone can be very comforting. Have your book officially archived as \u2018legal copy\u2019 with the Australian National Library, State Library and State Parliamentary Library. With regard to advertising and marketing, you\u2019ll just have to keep plugging away there. Offer your services for interview with local radio stations and podcasters. Offer your speaking services to Rotary and other service clubs. Ask your local book store and library if you can be present to sign books and talk to customers about your book. There are many more marketing techniques. Good luck, but be happy and proud too, because you are now a published author, and your book will be a legacy for all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Spencer is the author of Ocean of Self: Beneath the waves of our individual selves, in which he correlates his experiences with ocean diving with the practice of transcendental meditation. Spencer spoke to Independent Publishing about the inspiration for his book and some of the lessons he learned publishing Ocean of Self. Please tell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newsletter-features"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3341"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3360,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions\/3360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}