“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I asked Jane to hold this session so that we could get information on two questions: 1. The sales of her books, both hardcover and paperback. 2. Her status concerning her symptoms.)

When you publish a paperback of ours, this is like publishing a new book for the first time. I am speaking of our books only—not, for example, of novels or other “occult” tracts.

The general public, however, has been obviously largely ignorant of the books. Publishing them in paperback presents a different picture. Again, they do not fit into the overall occult picture as even the general public understands it. There is no position, no God from the mountain top, and no dumb or docile medium to be taken advantage of by the spirits or otherwise. The work is not simplistic.

As you mentioned, you are outside, not fitting into any acceptable mold. The general public, moreover, in those terms does not know how to respond. Many, picking up those paperbacks, do so on impulse, and are unfamiliar with any such books. They cannot laugh the matter off. The books require personal questioning. Some people are frightened. They are also intrigued. But many put off spending more money, say, for a hardcover book, because this would involve a commitment involving the ideas themselves.

(11:33 PM.) Ruburt has been worried about the sale of Oversoul Seven, and also waiting for the paperback—afraid that after all the book might be late in its printing.

(As a matter of fact, Jane received the first copy of the Seth Speaks paperback in the mail today.)

[...] The back cover of the paperback Seth Speaks carries a full page advertisement for Seven.)

[...] I asked if Seth could comment on the fact that F. Fell had canceled, or postponed, the appearance of the paperback edition of Jane’s ESP Power. [...] In the deleted session for October 2, 1972, Seth told us the “paperback will do very well, however.” [...]

There are several issues involved with the Fell paperback. [...]

The paperback will do very well, however.

(The paperback is due this fall according to a letter Jane received from F. Fell some months ago.

[...] She wanted to ask him when the paperback would be out, etc.

(Note: In December, 1972, a fan sent Jane a letter he received from F. Fell re the ESP paperback. [...]

There were other reasons, in that the paperback Seth Material is meant to be read first, and lead readers into Seth Speaks. [...]

[...] The books are well established, and there will be an acceleration even with the hardcover Seth Speaks as the paperback is assimilated. [...]

For example, you can see this operate in terms of creativity: money comes to you now without new work involved, in terms, say, of paperback sales. Those paperback sales were latent, so to speak, when the hardcover books were sold. [...]

[...] Then Saturday we learned by mail that Bantam is about to contract for the paperback edition of Politics. [...]

You feel, however, the new reality take hold in Framework 1, so that you are not worried: the paperbacks will come out (intently).

[...] Tells me a big shot at Bantam called liking God of Jane and inquiring about paperback rights, assures me our paperbacks are selling okay. [...]

[...] (To make the record complete, it should be noted that Jane’s first book on psychic phenomena was How to Develop Your ESP Power. It was published in hardcover and paperback editions in 1966 and 1974, respectively, by Frederick Fell Publishers, Inc., New York, N.Y. 10016. Then in 1976 it was issued in paperback by Pocket Books, New York, N.Y., 10020, under a new title: The Coming of Seth.)

[...] As it is, Prentice-Hall is now applying earnings from the paperback Politics against the hardcover losses—a method Tam says is common in the trade, but which I think is ethically dishonest, to say the least. They did the same thing with Adventures; in this case, that action wiped the board clean for the hardcover Adventures, and even showed a small profit from the paperback sales. [...] Instead of charging hardcover losses against taxes as a business expense, say, they charge the author for them; this means they do not have to pay the author any royalties on paperback sales, for at least several years. [...]

[...] These page numbers apply only to the page numbers in the trade paperback version.

(Because of the press of other matters following the 753rd session — my work doing the notes for Seth’s “Unknown” Reality, Jane’s involvement in writing a new introduction for one of her own books that’s coming out in a new paperback edition, and a stream of unexpected visitors — we didn’t hold any sessions for several weeks. [The paperback in question is The Coming of Seth, originally published in hardcover as How to Develop Your ESP Power.]

(About the letter business: Yesterday Jane had called Tam, and learned to our complete surprise that last August Pocket Books had published a paperback edition of the second Seven book: The Further Education, etc. [...]

(Here Seth refers to the check for $7,500 that Jane recently received from Prentice-Hall as half her payment for the paperback rights of Seth Speaks. [...]

[...] We have read about relativity, for instance, in popular paperbacks, and some other paperback books on a variety of subjects that might have included various kind or examples of mathematical formulas, etc. [...]

[...] Yesterday we’d received our copies of the Bantam paperback issue of The Nature of the Psyche, and I’d brought a book in to show Jane. [...]

[...] It has to do with the paperback rights, and a good price for them.

A paperback edition will indeed appear.

[...] Jane thinks Tam meant the paperback edition of Volume 2 of “Unknown,” since the week’s sales figures, which arrived today, show sales of some 3,000 copies of that edition. [...]

[...] The call was in response to my letter to Nancy on October 22, re Tam telling Jane that Pocket Books had published the paperback edition of Seven II. [...]

[...] My first novel had just been published in paperback, and all my energies were channeled into becoming a good novelist and poet. [...]

The paperback we’d just purchased was on the coffee table between us as we sat talking. [...]