“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Jane finished correcting the page proofs for If We Live Again five days after receiving them from Prentice-Hall, and yesterday I sent them back to our publisher. [...] Tam Mossman has told us the book probably will be published before the end of the year.

[...] Such a book would involve the publication of much Seth material that could either lie in our files for a long time, or never be published. [...]

(Today Jane heard from Tam that Prentice-Hall had signed a contract with a Dutch publisher for a translation of Seth Speaks into that language. [...] Tam told Jane that at our request he’d checked with John Nelson, who in turn had checked the contract with the Swiss publisher, to the effect that the German-language translation of Seth Speaks is definitely not to be cut, as that particular publisher had wanted to do a couple of years ago. [...]

[...] Through a series of misunderstandings, the people at Ankh-Hermes had published an abridged translation of Seth Speaks without having permission for the cutting from Jane and me. We still feel regret that the company had to go to all of that extra expense in order to publish a second edition of the book. I also wrote that “all concerned must wait for at least another year before a full-length version of Seth Speaks will be published in the Dutch language.” [...]

[...] This time the publisher in the Netherlands, Ankh-Hermes, had not cut Seth Spreekt.⁷

[...] I don’t want to overstate the issue, but neither does Jane pay that much attention to a book once it has been published. [...]

“I hope to finish our book (Dreams) regardless of your publishing plans and so forth, and at this general point that will be beneficial to our friend as he sees some daily accomplishment made in that area. [...]

[...] (Jane has been told that everyone at Prentice-Hall, her publishing house, “just loves” Emir.) A couple of weeks ago Sue Watkins delivered the last two chapters of the manuscript for Psyche that she’s been typing for us; we still have to check that book and finish the notes for it. Then yesterday Jane received from her publisher the copyedited manuscript for James, so during the next week or so we’ll be very carefully going over that work, too.

The mechanics of publishing have to come last. [...]

I estimate that it’ll take me five or six weeks to type the final manuscript of the book for our publisher. Then I’ll need another week to go over the manuscript, with colored pens marking instructions of each page as to what copy we want set in roman [upright] type, and in italics; while doing that I’ll also check spelling, punctuation, references, dates, times—all of those mundane details so necessary in helping our publisher produce a finished, good-looking book for the marketplace.¹

[...] Peggy was going to take flash pictures of Jane while she was in trance; Jane’s publisher had asked to see some material of this kind. [...]

[...] (And a photograph—for your edification, not my impression; Ruburt thinks of the word bizarre, since he is thinking of published photos—

—regarding published photos of your flying saucers, in parenthesis.)

[...] Jane received her check from publisher Fell today and was pleased.)

[...] There will be an inquiry, a request for Ruburt to do a book from another publisher. [...]

[...] In June, with no hard feelings involved on anybody’s part, Jane withdrew Emir from consideration at Prentice-Hall when the decision was made there to publish the story in two volumes; on July 12, Eleanor Friede at Delacorte Press accepted Emir for publication as a single book. [...]

[...] It’s a project that Jane herself never figured she’d do, but wanted done — and Sue, who was a class member, is talented psychically herself, has a newspaper and reporting background, and is ideally qualified for the job.¹ (Conversations, we think, is sure to be published before Mass Events, since Tam is supposed to have Sue’s manuscript in hand by January 1980, for publication in the fall of that year. [...]

[...] We received the printer’s sample pages for Seven Two on December 4 [we see these for each book, and they show us just how the work will look when published]. [...]

(Jane and I have been attending to the mechanics of publishing affairs more than ever since she held the 831st session two weeks ago [on January 15]. [...]

[...] At the same time, Tam Mossman, Jane’s editor at Prentice-Hall, is trying to find out whether the Dutch edition of Seth Speaks has been published. [...] The German-language edition of Seth Speaks was published in Switzerland four months ago [in May], and just three weeks ago we received our first fan letter from that country. [...] We know the mail from European readers will very gradually increase, just as it did after Jane published The Seth Material in the United States in 1970.)

I wrote quite a bit in Mass Events about our publishing activities, just to show for the record how complicated certain aspects of the creative life can be as we juggled sessions, manuscripts, proofreading, and deadlines [to list a few of our endeavors]; we “worked” at any time of the day or night—which didn’t bother us at all. [...]

[...] Jane would especially like to do another book of poetry, since she published Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time way back in 1975. [...]

[...] Prentice-Hall will publish it. [...]

And as for books, early in August I returned to our publisher, Prentice-Hall, the page proofs Jane had corrected for her book of poetry: If We Live Again: Or, Public Magic and Private Love. Ordinarily that event would have delighted us, since it meant that before the year was out she’d have another work published. [...] At this time, Prentice-Hall sent us the first published copies of If We Live Again, but as proud as Jane and I are of that book, its appearance didn’t help her. [...]

At the end of May and early in June 1981 we published two books involving years of effort: Seth-Jane’s The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, and Jane’s The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto. I was positive that those volumes contained much excellent work. [...] Perhaps, I thought, that portion was creating a physical disability that allowed Jane to publish forbidden material while protectively isolating herself—and me—from rejection by the physical world. [...]

[...] Ruburt’s feelings and lack of action as far as the publishing house was concerned left much to be desired, and in time his lack of action would have caused an unpleasant reaction on his own part. However he correctly, if subconsciously, interpreted your attitude toward the publishing house as being basically dangerous to you. [...]

The material, our material, will indeed be published. [...]

The people at Prentice and generally speaking at any publishing house, live more or less at the level you saw yesterday. [...]

Your covers represent the attempt to express an ideal in the context that exists in the publishing field. [...]

(On Saturday, August 20, Jane received her first press copy of her book from her publisher, F. Fell: How to Develop Your ESP Power.

[...] His attitude toward his book and publisher largely were responsible for the delays.

1. Speaking of books: Even with all of the help Jane has given me lately on Psyche and Volume 2 of “Unknown” Reality (see the opening notes for sessions 821 and 823, respectively), I’m still only too conscious of the work I have to do to finish the notes and other material for both books, and put together their manuscripts for the publisher. [...]

[...] There’s talk of publishing it in two shorter volumes. [...]

([Pat:] “Will Dick publish his poetry and can you give us more information about him?”)

[...] Will he publish his poetry or can he?

([Pat:] “Will Dick publish his poetry? [...]

([Jane:] “Who’s he trying to get to publish it?”

Our publishing company had very patiently waited for several years while Jane and I struggled to produce the book; in all that time no one ever exerted pressure upon us to hurry up and finish the job. [...]

[...] Tension arising, oddly enough, from the realization that his book will indeed be published. [...]

[...] You have projected it into contacts with publishers. [...]