Ronna Smithrim and Christopher Oliphant, authors of
Accepting the Radical: You Can Not Be Fixed, have chosen CGW Publishing to get
their first book into print.
“I was thrilled that a publisher was interested in my work
and have not been disappointed”, says Oliphant, who had previously been
considering self publishing as an alternative to every author’s worst
nightmare; endless rejection from the traditional, risk averse publishing
houses. However CGW’s Christopher Greenaway recognised the quality of writing
in the book and the potential of the subject as fitting with the existing range
of books and addressing an important niche in the market.
“There’s no doubt that the self-help book market is saturated,
with everyone from Donald Trump, Jack Canfield and Paul Mckenna through a range
of minor celebrities and business gurus, down to every street corner life coach
publishing a book or ebook.”, says Amelia Hartley, CGW’s co-founder and
Director. “The proliferation of ebook readers such as the Kindle, iPad or Kobo
have also lowered the barriers to producing a book, and that has definitely
impacted on the quality of what’s out there. So when we see a book that is
genuinely well written, with clarity, passion and strong case studies, we know
that it will stand head and shoulders above the rest of the books out there.”
CGW Publishing specialise in working with authors whose
books are written to support their service businesses, by packaging their
intellectual property, providing additional revenue and demonstrating
credibility.
“We launched and ran a successful management consultancy for
ten years, and the books that we published in that time played a huge part in
our success”, says Christopher Greenaway, CGW Publishing’s Managing Director. “The
publishing imprint that we launched back in 2002 has evolved over the last ten
years to become CGW, and we’re now very proud of the authors we’ve attracted
and pleased to apply our expertise in this area to helping them grow their
businesses”
For the authors of Accepting the Radical, the primary push
behind writing the book came from their clients. According to Smithrim, “Their
push came from two questions. The first being, “This teaching is really
powerful, why haven’t you written a book?” The second was, “Are there any books
that teach acceptance?” The answer to the second question was a sad, “I know of
only one other author and she who wrote from a Buddhist point of view.” Any
other books that talk about acceptance apply conditions to acceptance or
support it in one sentence and then contradict that support in the next
sentence.”
Like many expert authors, Smithrim and Oliphant found it
relatively easy to get their ideas down on paper, but less easy to organise those
ideas into the structure required for a book. Oliphant says, “The writing was
easy. I have taught the material often and the words just flew from my mind on
to the page. The editing process was another matter. I worked with a wonderful
editor who helped my structure my ideas and wouldn’t stop until the text made
each concept clear to her. This process with my editor also gave me some
insight into just how difficult these ideas are to understand: how they run
contrary to much of the popular thinking of today.”
Oliphant summarises the publishing experience by saying, “CGW
Publishing have been professional and thorough. They delivered a quality
product quickly and efficiently, saving us months of work in text formatting,
cover design and the many mysteries around getting a book ready for print.
Christopher went above and beyond in the graphics work, proofing editing and both
text and eBook formatting and we remain very grateful to everyone at CGW
Publishing for all their hard work.
Accepting the Radical by Ronna Smithrim and Christopher
Oliphant, published by CGW Publishing, is available now from all good book
stores, ISBN 978-1-9082931-0-7.
