At the Nonfiction Writers Conference (link at the end of this interview), I’ll be speaking about how to leverage your book awards. Here, I interview Jeff Golden, author of Reclaiming the Sacred, about his book and how his book awards have helped him reach more readers and create more impact.
How the Book Concept Evolved
Lisa: You begin Reclaiming the Sacred with happiness and research on happiness. Why do we start there?
Jeff: When I first conceived of this book, what I had in mind was an approachable, incisive overview of 8 to 10 critical issues we’re facing as a society and a species. What was clear to me was that essential to every one of them was addressing peoples’ obsession with money and stuff. So long as people feel locked into a way of living that relies on work and money and stuff as a way of proving our worth, as fundamental to our well-being, as interwoven with our very purpose—so long as people feel locked into these, there is little hope of really addressing those other issues. Whether we’re talking about climate change, factory farming or child and slave labor worldwide, I wanted to provide a first chapter to the book that would be a foundation for the rest, an exploration of the science of happiness and money.
Many think that money and possessions can only do so much for us. Still, we’re immersed in one of the most materialistic cultures that has ever existed, where the amount of money and stuff that we have and believe that we need, and what we’re willing to do to get it, goes beyond anything most people anywhere in the world and throughout time have ever experienced. So I wanted to give people some really hard science tools to help maybe break some of those chains.
It turns out the book had a very different idea for me, and that chapter basically turned into the whole book!
What it Means to Reclaim the Sacred
Lisa: It takes a certain trust to switch gears like that—and I’m glad you could trust it because it is a powerful book. What does it mean to “Reclaim the Sacred”?
Jeff: By “sacred,” I do not mean something considered sacred within a particular religious tradition or institution. I mean those things that are of the most profound meaning and importance, worthy of being held with the utmost awe and respect. In this case, I’m referring to you, all of us, and this world.
So many of us live as if we were at the peak of a mountain, beneath a sky full of stars, or sitting at the ocean’s edge, expansive and gorgeous before us, yet we have these blinders on. We do our best to make the best of it, be happy, find meaning, and make a difference, but with the blinders still on. Society’s extreme materialism and busyness play a large part in that.
One of the most wonderful lessons in the research on happiness is that absolute joy and deep belonging are our inherent condition. We don’t need to go out there and find them somewhere. It’s who we are. What we need to do, though, is uncover them and remove the barriers that have been erected within us and around us to them. That is what reclaiming the sacred is about: reclaiming the profound wonder, beauty and joy of ourselves and this world.
How the Scope of the Book Changed Over Time
Lisa: That is such a beautiful message, and it is the message we need to get not just in our minds but to feel in our bones, in every part of us. Reclaiming the Sacred is an ambitious project—a vast undertaking. How did you come to write this book, and was it always this ambitious, or did its scope grow over time?
Jeff: The book took me over ten years to research and write. That was not the original plan! Ok, to be honest, I had no idea how long it would take or what it would entail, so in one sense, it’s not like ten years was different from what I expected; I just had no clear expectations in the first place! But it kept extending longer and longer in ways I didn’t see coming. But it also unfolded in a way that was just so right. There was so much grace to it.
For example, I would hit a section that wasn’t working; it wasn’t coming, so I would set it aside and work on another section. Later, whether that was six months or a year or longer when I came back to that section, it was so obvious why I couldn’t write it at that time because something I had experienced or learned in that subsequent time opened up everything that that section needed to be, that I just couldn’t have accessed before.
Pausing your Writing
Lisa: I love how that happens. I’ve experienced having to set aside a book for some time with my own work and my clients’ setting aside their books temporarily. It can lead to an even deeper immersion when you return with new insights and experiences.
Jeff: I want to be clear that when I say it unfolded gracefully, I don’t mean it was always fun or easy. It was often totally not fun, and it was rarely easy—though it was very often inspired, but that’s different. There were times when it was a real slog. I just had to get out in the weeds and slog away and create some space so that the more inspiring stuff could start to reveal itself.
It was always a dance; I would come up with certain ideas and intentions, but then it was about peeling back the layers, moving deeper into the content, and seeing what was revealed. As much of myself as is present in this book, and as much time and energy as I put into it, I also feel that I was very much a conduit for it, that the book was lying out there in wait! It is very much a partnership between me and the universe or spirit.
Winning Book Awards
Lisa: The most moving and impactful books are those that feel like a cosmic co-creation, that the book comes from more than your mind.
Jeff Golden signing copies of “Reclaiming the Sacred”
Winning the Nautilus Book Award Grand Prize is a significant distinction. Congratulations! You’ve also won the IndieReader Discovery Award, and you showcase both at the top of the book’s back cover. Where else do you showcase the awards?
Jeff: Anyone who visits my website, looks at the book, or has received any communication from me related to this book will see the Nautilus Book Awards Grand Prize prominently on the front of every book.
I’ll tell you, winning that prize was beyond anything I dared hope for. It moved me to my core, and I still can’t believe it. I hoped it would do well in one of the two categories I submitted, and I dared to imagine how amazing it would be if I won the gold prize in one of those categories. But the grand prize—I never gave that any serious imagining!
Patience is Key
Other writers might find it somewhat reassuring to know that I submitted this book to probably ten different awards, and for a good number of them, I got nothing—no award, no half-mentioned appreciation, no sideways glance, nothing! And I’m grateful for that because having won the awards that I did win is enough. It helps to get people’s attention and establish the credibility of this book without denying that opportunity to other people who won those other awards where I got nothing.
Getting Publicity for Your Book
In trying to get this book and its messages out into the world, I have reached out to podcasts, radio and TV shows, magazines, newspapers, libraries, bookstores, and colleges. Every one of those communications led to winning the Nautilus Book Awards Grand Prize. From that, I mention other people who have won Nautilus awards: the Dalai Lama, Barbara Kingsolver, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Brené Brown.
The Positives of Self-Publishing
I’m so glad to live in this era of self-publishing, where creating a book is accessible to many people. So many barriers have been removed that, in the past, would have prevented these books from being published. At the same time, what that does, of course, mean, the removal of barriers, is that there is a flood of books out there, and sometimes little or no screen for the quality of those books. So for me, submitting my book to some of the different awards that are out there, and also I submitted it to some of the paid review websites, to help give me something for people to believe in my book, that it’s worthy of their attention in a day where so many people are reading less than they used to do even amid this flood of books.
As a self-published author, this was absolutely vital for me. I think the same is true for published authors, even those from some of the big publishing houses, but it seemed absolutely essential for my book.
Awards Open Doors
Lisa: What doors have opened as a result of the awards?
Jeff: Well, the Nautilus book awards are unique. Short of some top-level book awards like the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, etc., the Nautilus is one of the most competitive and prestigious.
Besides providing prize money, the Nautilus Book Awards are also unique, or at least they were in my year. I was also given two months of complimentary service with Ascot Media Relations, their PR firm that works specifically with authors and books. Thanks to them, I was contacted by nearly 40 different TV shows, podcasts, radio shows, and magazines for interviews and reviews. That included a national evening news show, a podcast with over 3 million listeners, a SiriusXM radio show, and a magazine with over a hundred thousand readers.
In those cases, for the people who heard about me through Ascot, it was much more about the message of the book than the awards I had won. I’m sure the awards made a difference. Still, I also think that what Ascot was able to do is accessible to many authors regardless of winning an award (for a price), but I just never would’ve believed it or thought to try it if it had been gifted to me as part of winning the grand prize.
Book Awards Lead to Introductions
I can definitively say, though, that for everyone I reached out to, I start by telling them about the awards that the book has won, which has made all the difference. They get so many people reaching out to them—authors and people from all walks of life. Honestly, the majority of them never got back to me at all. But the ones who did, it was the awards that caught their eye, kept them reading, and made them think, yeah, this seems worth it.
Do Book Awards Advance Book Sales?
Lisa: How have these awards helped you reach readers?
Jeff: One thing I think is helpful for other authors to understand is that winning these awards, even the Nautilus Grand Prize, did not automatically generate more readers. I sold only a handful of books from winning the Nautilus Grand Prize without lifting a finger. Even the Nautilus Book Awards don’t have that kind of credibility or reach, nothing like the way a Pulitzer or National Book Award does, where just winning the award generates a surge in interest and sales.
The Real Value of Book Awards
So, the real value was in what I did with that award. As I mentioned, it is at the top of the book’s webpage, on the front cover of the book, and it’s the first thing I mention when I reach out to anyone. That hook and that credibility of winning these awards has allowed me to reach, I would guess, at least 100 times the number of people I would have been able to without them. And actually, that estimate is probably way low. Again, I am not saying book sales; I’m talking about the number of people I have been able to reach with the book’s message, which, of course, translates into a certain number of sales. Still, it is a small fraction, as I think it is for almost any book, even one that does win one of the most famous awards.
Choosing an Impactful Title
Lisa: Reclaiming the Sacred sounds like a self-help book, but in many ways, it exposes an unsustainable way of living and orienting one to the world. It’s a rethinking of capitalism and the materialism-driven lifestyle that dominates our culture, thoughts, activities, responses and actions. How and why did you choose a title that was more about the promise than the problem?
Jeff: There’s a lot of science around the importance of leaning into the positive and not just focusing on the negative. I think it’s essential to look at the negative, to talk about the negative things happening in the world and the things that will happen if we keep doing certain things. I don’t shy away from including that in this book. But if we follow the research and look at history and culture, what emerges is this beautiful, inspiring vision of who we are and what is possible, which is what I want to invite people into.
The wonderful thing is that we each make that decision when we lean into the wondrousness of ourselves and the world, which can be its own reward for us and the people around us, regardless of what other people and our society do. But at the same time, the more of us who lean in that direction, the more we can transform our society and get at the root of some of these problems. We and the world both deserve that!
How to Write an Award-Winning Book
Lisa: Do you have any advice for our readers on how to write an award-worthy book?
Jeff: Well, each of us is different, and what brings us to writing and the path we follow will be different for each of us, but there are a few things I would offer. First, stay true to yourself and your sense of where you and your writing must go. I’ve undertaken many projects, and none have ever turned out how I had hoped. I think the best we can do is bring as much beauty and integrity as possible to the things we do, and then, at some point, we have to release into how things will naturally unfold and where they will go.
I think there is both a beauty and a truth in that. Just as I don’t think any of us is responsible for single-handedly saving the world or solving some of the enormous problems in the world—it’s much more about all of us collectively blossoming in our unique ways and bringing our unique hearts and insight and skill to what we do, each of us doing our part— I think the best we can do with our writing is to invest in it as much beauty and integrity as we can, whatever that means for each of us, whatever that looks like, and let that be enough, wherever else it goes from there.
There are so many wonderful people, writers and artists who have done incredible things that never really get the recognition they deserve. Whether any particular book ever wins an award, I think there can be great contentment and meaning in writing a book that is, as you put it, award-worthy. It is itself a blossom, and then we do our best from there.
Long-Term Benefits of Winning Book Awards
Lisa: Any parting thoughts?
Jeff: I will always mark the journey of my book as “before and after the Nautilus Grand Prize.”
It’s worth noting also that it’s only been a year since I won the Nautilus Grand Prize. You might expect that some of the most significant shifts would take place soon after winning the award, but I expect that my book and career are still on an upward trajectory. I hope that five, ten, or twenty years from now, I will see even more clearly how the Nautilus Grand Prize was a real turning point, a huge boost.
To me, the validation of winning an award or getting a positive review is meaningful in itself, regardless of how the awards help increase credibility, recognition and access.
About Jeff Golden
Jeff Golden has been teaching and writing about these topics for over thirty years, most recently at Vassar College. He was a Fulbright Scholar in sustainable development and a recipient of the State Department’s Millennium International Volunteer Award. Jeff is a prison reform and animal rights activist and has headed several nonprofits promoting social justice, sustainability, and international education. A native of Idaho, he resides in the Mohicanituk Valley in New York with his children, the river, and the stars. Visit Reclaiming the Sacred.
Lisa Tener will speak on how to leverage book awards at the Nonfiction Writers Conference in May. Register here. [This is an affiliate link; if you sign up, I will receive a commission, which does not affect your price.]
