A Word on Words; 2513; Paul Samuel Dolman

remember oh i'm done say in the once again welcome to word on words our guest paul samuel bowman welcome to word on words good to have you talk about the new book what matters most now there have been over twenty six years i'm a mayday mayday many authors who sat right where you're sitting in the vast majority of them had their books published by publishers sun and new york cities some in boston massachusetts some and the great cities in the world paul semel bowman decided he was going to publish his own book in his own way and that's how we got what matters most now let's there are people out there on the other side until ms green who wonder how can it be done you tell me how you did it well and there's a lot of practical answers to that first you have to do is be crazy enough to think he can do it and then the fearless enough to move forward and take the steps that have to

do first thing i i felt so compelled by the material the collective wisdom of the community so let's listen and we should say at the outset that the book is a series of racial of oral history interviews by you with not just community leaders bug people were not necessarily community leaders there from all walks of life and the new rulers of a diversion which diverse cross section of people in the community and you're asking him about to talk about their own lives and that so that for us rather simple for us to a very interesting concept for mughniyeh dave lehr well i thought there was so many people here in the community including yourself in that hat such a varied quality and i wanted to accumulate the vast knowledge and eclectic differences of the people and show that through all the differences that was a common theme in our humanity in our diversity and

these are people who give something back to the community in a variety of ways whether it's a teacher of the year susan hall the mayor mayor phil bredesen one islamic straight rich who works on the streets of north nashville and this is there for a lot of people stop by and we get it a smile on a good word now that's what the book was about in terms of your question on the publishing of it i just went about it very methodically hand talk to people it had published books talk to publishers and accumulated the resources in terms of the skills for the people to do it and then basically just put my own money went into debt and the differences in the book is not a one year there and went to print but if it was a lot less audio and almost in a long process what many interviews one thing

but not crucial to getting a book published in either done this on any subject anything done a novel as well as this as a book or the streets our book a moral enemies now talk limited did the new technology help you at all in the fact that you're able to to use a computer than in a number one is really to get its a camera to copy a troubled about share the complex nation in the challenge there will the mechanics of it will quite simple i wrote the book and to my little laptop computer i took it to a friend susan gordon rice who had a really good set up artistically she's a graphic designer in nashville and she designed the cover and put the book together and forms of layout i hired an editor marc kaufman and he worked on his computer we actually

sent things to the internet an email to correspond and practicality of that was very easy there was really simple but it's not that hard to get us to live within what did you do about that i gained saved got the text and amazon that the photographs you know what you want to know where but then when i'm bob gainey had a printed and bound that's easy if you have money i just fry shop around and i found a great place here in town bon printing and they do excellent work and tune about ten days they turned over along with a small pressing the first time three thousand copies because there's always going to be a little discrepancies and things you want to tweak and to know when you go but the actual process in putting together the mechanics of it when she's accumulated the body of work for a quite simple i think almost anybody can do it you know you decide you're going to you know sell the senior own local community right and you figured

that i take it that if you were paying reasonably good at selecting people you want interview and it's a lot of people have fallen for example reverend bill sharman mom i guess are there by and bill sharman church is not a war out there but it is would non baptist church colorado about what matters most now but you know there are certain people in the book that i have that are dated following and some people will buy just because there was a role model or leader there and then there's a you know as a market when you have to decide and in yemen and a publishing house how much money am i willing to invest and then you don't have to say and that that that depends on to make people be outed by a car bomb and are you about making those such as well and i think this is gonna play right into the what the book is really about in terms of what i think the people said you really have to listen to your heart and when i came up with the idea when

quiet morning and the book publishers were gone rogue listening to the heart of you know it's funny to write i heard so many people tell me about the things i could do and there are people many people in the book it took a long time to get to them you were example to it there was a lot of phone calls faxes letters and fall persistence annette working through people so they could say so and so did it i know this guy he's okay convincing people that i was after the best in them and neither was an annex to say that this book is i feel this book is an instrument or a catalyst for social change and i know that sounds a bit grandiose but my goal was and says it on the book and it's my personal mission statement building bridges between people for the greater good now i knew was some the moonlight books and publish books and a book published very little money out of all our money on themselves if that's not what he earned money that we don't and that was not

my primary goal but how much did you should how much a crapshoot in with an altar mean for people who want it published three thousand copies of the wrong book how much of an investment what we can be anywhere for a huge revival of propriety were from eight thousand twenty thousand dollars a dozen to twenty thousand dollars right depending on the size and and when you charge twenty dollars a book which you charge for this yes but you're a retailer to wholesalers at a lower price i sewed so he will list all with us tonight so you've got a man you've got together a copy you i've tried it got the design it's a good approach united bound naive at three the books on an ideal a bookstore that's a selling face to selling phase one was begging and cajoling people to purchase a page in the book exactly and then phase two was convincing the market people the sellers the vendors that this is something thats book this

is something that these people could sell and that has not been difficult not in an arrogant way and i think that people are naturally curious about the people in our community special especially people ac in the various forms of the media or that they come to go and share it and their jarrell tried general who runs radio national airport and then you've got a chief justice of the state supreme court and blackened you've got bill moore used to just happen to be coming through towns and also chris joyce and you nail him for an interview you've got the force do picked by president clinton to be his the nation's doctors been like to be both but the president had had had picked him as you say you've got the mayor are you know woman rudolf track coach shula blue arrow set a record at the olympics adventure capitalist the

former ambassador to france former ambassador france night you've got there were no jobs and no explanation necessary afraid of france's preston this broadcast is again the nation's biggest country music so then at the end and an end and the one who signed the most contracts with country music writer so that so you got all of them involved in than any say that because you had that diverse cross section of people the vendors the bookstore owners the booksellers were interested they jumped all over did emmi force have to convince a month i think you hit the books sell itself what i've been doing is giving the people who are in charge of tapping the book and saying take a look at this in an interview one carrot you get in your car your own bookstores and insanity and any bookstore or to give as well i've only had it out on the market for about three and half weeks and i'm probably already been to twenty outlets and i'd

say so far we have eighteen or nineteen adequate care and i you still counsels of three thousand books will you be on that now i haven't sold out first printing know but what i want to do is given out have a couple goals one first to get out as many outlets as possible and or something else that we talked about i have a program called food for thought and this is gonna start to fall of ninety seven where i want to give every high school senior and davidson county a copy of what matters most if they will give me a couple cans of food food for thought if they give me that cans of food i'm going to donate those cans of food to the nashville union rescue mission and car wiesner runs that mission is as elizabeth iris mann very generous for a real servant and the gift of the second harvest food bank and the battered women's shelter so we give the food to the people are hungry we give the books to the kids who i believe are hungry for guidance nominally the money and audio that's a good

question and i hope the corporate sponsors or are listening or you had a few corporate people in the idea this idea food for thought is only a couple days old and we've already got a couple corporations to pony up some money if a corporation gives sykes eight thousand dollars we can by at least a hundred ochs to give to these kids so the corporations are investing in the actual infrastructure of our community now you not a layout thousand bucks i mean it's a two dollars out of that money for each book and give that to an endowment that i started the call the what matters most and down which is another thing that i've done the sound of that little sounds unlikely given all your money away anyone's thomas thomas first was worried about this done for dr thomas frist has in the book and he is the founder of one of the great people lovers of all time and the greatest man i've ever met in the last week of his family doesn't mind was in the hospital for a minor ailments and i went to visit him in

and it does actually privileged to be theirs holds hand he's in the hospital has been through everything he's an amazing human being and he said the same thing you did he said that it had given away too much money or are you taking care your family because i have two beautiful step sons ryan conner and one for what is a treasure and i said no i mean there is something in it from am a nap time joe rogers who's a capitalist is in the book really happy to know that i'm sure members were arrested in france that i am i need to make enough money to pay my bills paid my house note and to keep writing books i'm not looking to get rich from this in a monetary sense the richness comes from experiences like this here today i mean i have to pinch myself and said here of what's a chauffeur longtime don't wear senate seat it's surreal and couple weeks ago a city police chief amateurs table than a banquet for a wonderful organization called honor blackman and now was meeting all kinds of new people involved in the community and there's doubt the mayor's office a few

weeks ago talking to him about education it's opened a lot of doors my reward is coming intrinsically for two has its own reward there will be a monetary reward to but i do want to get the books to the kids now is crucial stage of development then they're going to go out read the book in the spring of ninety eight i wanna have a pep rally at the rain were bridges spence like yourself and mayor bredesen have agreed to come down and the kids who have had the books or anyone who has a book can come in asking the questions could maybe there's a question they want to ask what you are yes the questions less assist you with some questions that you serve with the people that i was born or to slow it and they're on this early part of your motivation it looks mean as if this is a mile from the difference or do your own employer crawford's maybe i need a business manager i think that's pretty well i mean you've done pretty well with this business up and i just don't know how much

it is so three thousand for twenty bucks apiece personally yeah ok and then and then you have my endowment half of my writing world to be on every book we figured the cost actual cost it will make a pie make about or what we would sell on to the retailers for is about ten to twelve dollars we take two dollars out of that at least for the ymca why can't program epstein down you seen it when when when one office and that the bookstore publisher for may get a relatively small percentage points of the sale we're driving on a center city built on the stand that for late before they'll go bad and so what you're telling me is that you really expect to make any more of his work then if you had gone through a commercial publishing great question and probably not but the differences and this is the reason self

published i can direct that money nothing against corporate fraud was yours just spy wonderful and geese but i wanted to be able to give that looks nice good singers for food i wanted to be able to give a few dollars out of every book to the ymca why caught for scholarships for these kids to go on college i wanted to be able to give a few these books to a woman who does healing so she did gives scholarships to people can afford to the narrative bonnie jobs and use a holistic healer she's a nurse that used to be at vanderbilt gets hired the mechanics and this and this the hands on so we run through some names and look and just ask you what impression most about what the people interviewed said sure let's begin with maurice mo well i love the morris in fact his work with joseph campbell the power miss yours was a turning point in my life and whatever voice it was the told me to write this book deep inside me told me that interview bill moyers and i said when and where and how and he's not in nashville

long behold about a week later i look in the paper and he's coming to town to speak and then the person and then i find out is going to be on your show and then what happens is i approach him in an interview here can imagine your grace when pressed me about bill moyers was the fact that he said you're never too old to learn and that the only way you can really get through the process of life i think is to look at it like it's a great learning experience and that every day is a new discovery and i would agree with what obama will adjourn i love one and i think the one thing that struck me is for someone who could easily encumbered by tremendous amount celebrity she was so down to earth and unreal and touch with an inner party herself not afraid to be open and honest deeply spiritual woman very generous and why did you pick go another not know me

an email has also very spiritual i was that i was in fact my first choice might've been to go in ira's direction just because the fact that she has talked about these things a lot but i deferred from that because she has her own book and she's a much more public figure about what she believes sufi year that her stance on things was probably out that someone as more than strictly did not holy at the world famous track coach so movingly of his memories will move all at is another beautiful man the great question want to move my foot was when the most important questions in the book was when he talked about winning or i think is just either ten gold medals in rome in nineteen sixty two olympics more than most countries with this little tin girls and i asked him what it was like to be on top of the world in rome of all places in nineteen sixty to be glorified and then come home to your own hometown and not be able to

sit at the counter any a hamburger because of the color of your skin and i like the people are reading about when he was a very honest and does a kind of questions in the book france's preston leon louis urges executive of brought it has a gig in new york who began her career now working for radio station nashville using years ago not too many years ago in conferences isn't much much younger than their two words are the semi for francis i would think where's hard work big heart person very dedicated disciplined driven focused strongly intelligent but i would say that's also tremendous kindness she's founded a cancer center she's pretty much on everybody's shared interest for because she always gives gives his kids and i'm mara because you boys live trials for women in business that were not there before she came i'll walk in a strict who is a very wealthy

highly successful this man who's more interested in art much when his old friend red grooms of it is i think in business what there's another beautiful man i think walker's much more comfortable being behind the scenes doing for everybody and everyone with his name not really on anything i think a lot of people say walter you know they won't know that name i think the common man but they may end up in an art museum downtown because of well i mean there's an aspect of the dummies as many do with art collection to a museum to leave his collection to losing money at this don't like a prophet has is infectious for an informant go out of business i was a little blind of prosperity says the mayor i'll buzz of the merit they were thinking people could tell

me was one k you'll never get the mayor and too if you ever get the mariel never get behind the wall and i found out from kim gordon works at the freedom for now that i was the only person she ever let to do this as a cordon set a source a personal interview with the mayor menino is unfortunate that must've been a bookkeeping mix up or something but i ended up getting in there and i think the mayor was a big gardener first for obvious reasons and after that as he started understand i think intrinsically what i was after he opened up more and more and what i like about mayor bredesen has this was done during the boiler tommy's annoys going to natural poses right and he told me that that was not really where his motivation interests lie he just thought it was a good opportunity at the time but that he was going to do something about education and infrastructure police and fire while he was in office and here is a year later from the interview and those are the main things that he's trying to do right now it is what about term is an honest man and he at what a bad deal radio

the woman sheriff i'm in now way many people would say having a woman share of all impose a caricature artist on television news or is the sheriff is some rides it's a cowboy what is interesting about your and i talked about her to this with her as shes only one administration remove from fake thomas which was the class a good ol boy network of the old south when we've come along way she is a a deeply spiritual and unlike one on the judd and in the book she talks about spirituality and her inner self was nah i was a surprise and it was there i think is there in all of us that it be that she was brave enough courageous enough to talk about it i think it's a shame that in our culture there's spirituality in matters of the heart and soul or uncomfortable subject for us sometimes what about the first black chief justice of the

state a birch justice birch i respect justice birch because he's come a long way i mean just we think about war or just talking about a terrible unknown to have an african american as chief justice as we have in africa great african american police chief chief turner is also in the book i found this is worse than to be a combative man at first he was under family highly intelligent but i would say if perry and maybe right now may be righteously right right we sell longtime when we know we'll make no semen or could've been just my stupid questions it sounds serious me just throw in fact they could have just been the person i think he likes me and wound what struck me is i don't feel it just as bridges angry at me

and in the book to i kept saying was we're talking about some heated topics all i don't think that way and he gets a one of you personally and he was angry about the system sometimes in the way discriminate something his anger about prejudiced discrimination and i think he should be angry are hungry about the sort of things as i know you or your mistress of art so i think just as bridges angry maybe because we test on some issues issued an angry about once the interview was finished and he got i got a sense of what i was trying to do with this book is called the mainers changes sought by language change in a softness appeared and he was genuinely war and i've seen him so it's come a few times and he's been nothing but kind and supportive of the book and and their friendly well as i've looked at it it seems to me that the book is going to have a shelf life and probably longer than some looks of time in the number of people in this program be around

for probably doing pretty much what they're doing now and and some interest and some of them will mean that i think the book will will continue to have some traction but but the question is when it no longer daughters and there will come that time as an author you must know that what then another boat another self published book and off i would self publish again i'd have to explore that at the time i'm already working on a second book down and have a couple ideas for my third and fourth book i think though in fact i know who i am and who i am and that will always until a book that has some sort of social impact and built into the mechanism of it itself some sort of redeeming quality of giving something back you don't want tell a story just look for telling a story you want to love story with a powerpoint i take it that if you write nonfiction and the nonfiction with a social conscience if you write a novel it would be

if you can make it that the modern edition grapes of wrath was that's that's a tall order will i do want to make a defense lawyer and only if only in davidson county or maybe with only within the room in which i stand with a cd with tacit i just feel that that is i think that's why we're all here to help each other to blend together to respect each other's differences and to have a sense of community and to give something back to be given so much that it's certainly an inherent responsibility me to trying to just write in somebody else's were many who hasn't has blessed misfortune