Maybe I’m seeing something that just isn’t there, but I don’t think so.
I think that I’m seeing more books about Freemasonry, written by Masons, published than I have before. If that’s true, it has to be a good trend for our Craft. It shows that people are taking Masonry seriously enough to share what they have learned about it. And that in turn will generate further serious interest.
If it is true that more publishing is going on now than just a few short years ago, I have to believe that to be an excellent sign for the future of our Craft.
And it goes without saying that I certainly hope that enough Masons buy the good books that are published to encourage their authors to write more. We do live in a capitalistic society after all, and writers will starve if no one opens their wallets to pay for their work.
I may be noticing something else though. And again, maybe I’m seeing something that isn’t there, but I don’t think so.
I think I’m noticing a lack of story in the books being published now.
What I mean to say is that I think I’m seeing a lot of ‘how to’ books about or Craft, and a lot of ‘meaning of masonry’ books, but I don’t think I’m seeing any ‘this is why I’m a Mason, this is what I’ve done as a Mason, and this is why Masonry is the greatest thing ever’ books.
And I think we need that sort of book as well. Books that inspire through story.
What do you think? Are you seeing the same trends I think I’m seeing, or am I looking at things through distorted glasses?
I think people are prone to writing and talking about what is relevant to their time and their lives. Artists need to earn a living and we have an entire generation of "lost" people just looking for answers or to make sense of it all. It stands to reason that either through monetary or social influence that creative works would follow these trends.
As a species we have a tendency to flow from one extreme to another. I imagine in a couple decades we are likely to have the reverse problem. As long as the story is relatable, maintains a valuable lesson, or meaningful insights I am here for it.
I think Brother Rob is right though, fighting for limited resources is a challenge. I wonder what might happen if we broadened our reach to the greater public. Would we gain a larger return on our efforts if we were to focus on Masonically aligned works, rather than Freemason specific ones... Not that we don't need both, but it might help us find our next generation of Builders, Seekers, and Teachers if we slightly adapted our approach.
Your not alone in noticing this trend. There is certainly an increase in masonic books coming out. Amazon has made it fairly easy to upload a book. There are alot of platforms that help for free to typeset and format a book cleanly. AI art is being used for book covers. Love it or hate it, it does it well. I certainly use AI art currently for my cover art as its good and what I can afford. Someday, I would love to make enough from the books to justify the cost of a good digital artist.
There are quite a few books on history of masonry and estoric side coming out now as well. Ken Peck and Burx Norrod come to my mind for that.
I have written 3 books so far on masonry. One is very much a "how to" on leadership and management though a masonic lense and setting. The other is for masons to learn and grow (meaning of masonry). the last is useful for honestly anyone and looks at society and how masonry can improve not just the lives of masons, but shows how anyone can use the framework to improve themselves.
for myself, the idea of writing of "this is why im a mason and whats it done for me" is that i struggle with the idea that people would want to hear that story. I consider myself to be a good man and good mason, but outside of my small masonic corner of the world no one knows me. I write mostly because I want to. But I also want to ensure there is a market for said books. Maybe there is one. Maybe a common average guy writing about it might resonate more with a person picking up the book then if it was a well known national figure who wrote it. Something to consider.
Lastly. One your topic of book sales. By nature, I am in competition with every masonic writer. Brothers only have so much money and time to spend on books. They must choose one writer over another. But masonic writers also support each other and promote others books. I would love to see more masons support by sharing our books as well. There are only 2 real masonic publishers. Lewis and Macoy. They are very hard to get your book with them. So we must write, self publish and market ourselves. I would love to see a new book publishing company come out of all this, with a new book store to put all of the self published stuff together in one spot.