Hello All,
It has been a real pleasure to read over the bios, approaches to yoga, and thoughts on various issues as they have come in over the past few weeks. There is a good spread of point of view, aspiration, and approach, which suggests the potential for a good volume on yoga. As Lex and I shared with you earlier, the idea is to have Lex write a substantive piece on his history with and take on yoga, which will be a kind of set piece for other authors to discuss their own particular and varied experiences, styles, aspirations, issues and the like. Part of my job will be to provide an introduction that will set all the pieces in a historical perspective with reference to the many developments that helped to create modern yoga.
Part of my job is also to work with Lex on the editorial process that will be a necessary part of producing the book, so let me briefly share with you the thinking Lex and I have put into how things will unfold over the next six months.
Yoga Institute Board / Authors posted notes.
The point of asking you all to make an occasional post to the board is to provide a way for all of us to be, at least a little, in touch with what we are all thinking. Ideally, getting a sense of what is on each other’s minds will help us all more clearly think about our own writing. Because the volume is meant to display the diversity of approaches in one yoga ‘network,’ author’s are charged with nothing more (or less) than laying out their own distinctive take on things. There are no right answers and no better ways to be doing things. Our hope is that the essays, when taken together, will exemplify the fact that people are teaching yoga in ways that may run from the ‘high spiritual’ to the highly pragmatic and lots of shades in between. Just be yourself in your essay.
Editorial Process
Lex and I will have to engage in a range of editorial processes to bring out an appealing and coherent volume. These will entail, eventually, ordering essays into meaningful groups and standard copy-editing. More importantly, we also envisage a process in which, having read all the essays, Lex and I will provide authors with comments and suggestions and ask for clarifications in the name of focusing each essayto make it more compelling. This is a pretty standard approach to working on an edited volume of independently written essays. We have set a November 1 deadline for the first draft, the reasoning being that 1) we can all get the work off the boards by the holidays and 2) Lex and I can begin the editorial process by reading everything and entering into dialogue with authors after the first of the year.
While I have worked in many comparable writing situations in the course of my professional career, neither Lex nor I have taken on a project quite like this before, so please be patient if there are some bumps in the road. With a little luck, we will be looking at a nice volume ready for publication just about a year from now.
Thanks so much,
Richard and Lex