what kind of qualifications does an author need to have, to be respected. ?

[HOLMES]

for an author to take some time to write a book and there are some who knock out a book fast there are authors who take their time to do research, and write out well thought out books based on their life experiences , training, and how it affected their lives.

take any subject on new age for a broad approach of numerology, tarot, astrology, to medium, channeling, healing, personal development there are lots of appraoches.
some of these authors have taken courses, like ata for tarot,, berklee psychic school or studied with a healer, clairovant. or simply trial and error and study they have come up with these things that worked for them.
or sometimes just a quick rehash of what is in another person book it is sometimes hard to tell.

I think based on their respective fields they should be practicing channels, numerologists, astrologists, etc, and may have taken a course or spent time with a mentor.
Then you have your medium who didn’t need any training and wrote a book on it that I want to read., in their case it is based on their life experiences.
and with the superinformation highway that is the internet once rare techiques are becoming common place.

In other words it isn’t just a person saying something, (though sometimes its but that is true of every field) but it is meant to instruct with what the author thinks is a very good reason based on their training, and experience.
and also a book can have new ideas like for example in a recent book i talked about psychic protection i find it hard to believe that I could create a thought form to protect my home as a guardian but it could be possible and perhaps someone could relate to it.

in my view if a person can learn to read the tarot through books and applying what is in the books, then it is the same for astrology, medium, channeling, palmistry, healing.
especially if the book is full of instruction and is intended as a self study course.

granted not every book is like that in the spiritual/newag/tarot world especially as seems every new moon there is a new basic book out there, yet not every basic book is intended as a money grab.

so the point i was going to ask is based on the field of study that the book is intended for (which opens up to the whole field of spirituality and not just what has recently been discussed ), what kind of qualifcations are you looking for or think they should have for that field.

on another note,, i tend to avoid any books on amazon from create space for i feel if a publisher didnt' think they were publishing then they can't be good.
but i think that is prejudice on my part for perhaps they lack the funds to try to get published.
another reason that i avoid create space books is that they tend to have 100 or so pages which unless it is a specalized book can't really have all that information on what it is intending to teach.
so that is already a strike against an author in my own book, though it could be that their create space book is quite good.

 

[newlillith]

Respected metaphysical authors are hard for newbies, like me, to spot. Since I have no background in the field and no real knowledge at the moment of where metaphysical practices come from it's hard for me to know if an author is just spouting off their own opinions or writing based on tradition, or at least research.

So I guess in a basic answer to your question, they need to have done lots and lots of research. I look at bibliographies to see what kind of books they pulled from. Am I sure what I'm looking at at this point in my life? No! But if they at least HAVE a bibliography that's a big plus for me.

This is another reason metaphysical bookstores need to stay around (and places like AT too!). I have a good chance of getting a good recommendation from the owners, or a forum member. Amazon is also a good source of information, but can be faulty at times...people don't always comment on books they enjoyed and it's mostly books that were popular at one point that get all the reviews.

 

[tarotbear]

on another note, i tend to avoid any books on amazon from create space for i feel if a publisher didnt' think they were publishing then they can't be good. ..another reason that i avoid create space books is that they tend to have 100 or so pages which unless it is a specialized book can't really have all that information on what it is intending to teach...so that is already a strike against an author in my own book, though it could be that their create space book is quite good.

Sorry, HOLMES! Gotta disagree with what you said and agree that you are prejudiced by the mode of publication and not the content of the book.

Publishing your book the 'old-fashioned' way where you send letters and copies out to faceless entities and wait months and months and not get a book published is going the way of the dinosaur. Many times a manuscript is 'borderline' in the Acquistitions committee's mind and then they decide not to run with it. That doesn't mean the author's book wasn't worth publishing because it was worthless. It also doesn't mean selecting something for publishing will automatically make it a successful book, either. A real piece of garbage like "Jonathan Livingston Seagull' - IMHO one of the worst piles of sh*t ever to hit print became one of the best-selling books of all time. One publisher decides to run with a manscript; another doesn't. A best-selling book means that it was popular- it doesn't hold true that it was necessarily good. Read 'As*holes Finish First' which was on the NY Times best-seller list for months.

I will grant you that just because Createspace exists means that a lot of so-so books will get published, the way that YouTube uploads anything someone wants to upload without regards to talent, quality, or taste. But just because someone chooses Createspace to get their book in print does not guarantee it is automatically tripe, either.

 

[HOLMES]

also

by extension those who teach workshops/courses/mento, the question must be asked what kind of qualifications should an teacher have in the respective field they are in.

as newlilith said it is hard for people who are new to the ideas, to discern if they are well researched, or if they are just out for a quick buck putting out a quick rehash of the latest book. (well i added a little to it).

the thing about amazon reviews is sometimes they are done by a person who is shill for the author. i once was contacted by a person to commend on his book on amazon (about poker ) after I put a good review on it on a poker forum. I didn't do it out of principle also while i did like the book, i felt that if i wanted to do a review on amazon it should be unsolicated.

but going back to qualifications even for workshops which people are putting money into learning it is hard to judge what is good and not.

I did llike the book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" mostly i brought it because it was talked in the book "Edgar Cayce on Channeling Your Higher Self". i did get the message of it but after i read it,, and once i think, it lost its value.
the "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah " that someone off the forum sent me was better i thought mostly because it dealt with how people dont' like you speaking truths and i think he was killed at the end.
though there it wasn't so much teaching a techique but was presenting a way of looking at life, like spiritual philopshy i think.

so that is one classification to make is it a spirtual philopshy book as some channelling books dont' give techiques but a way of looking at the universe as a way of expanding consciousness, so it could become spirtual fiction if one doesn't believe in guides, or channelling in general. so the classification could be that when it comes to techiques that are based as teachings of a system that the person has to have some training for it to be considered authoriative.
that is hard to judge when you take a book like seth speaks, I Come as a Brother, Emmanuel's Book: A Manual for Living Comfortably in the Cosmos, that it comes down does the teachings resonate in ones hearts, mind or not, and that is true of today channelled books as well, conversations with god, the teachings of abraham.
edited to add
the reason for that is because spirit guides ideas aside it is just one person writing what inspiration brings to them and so there is no school for that, or training.

 

[gregory]

To get respect you have to earn it. I am aware of a few excellent books from createspace- and I respect their authors because I have read their books and found them a good fit (FOR ME !) (there is one up there form a member here, in fact !) I am also aware of some total IMHO rubbish put out by publishers I respect. We all make mistakes... Judge what you read, not who gets it out there.

Don't forget - Harry Potter almost didn't make it !

ETA just reminded of this, on another forum:

You don’t have to be a professional to build a successful product. Amateurs started Google and Apple. Professionals built the Titanic.

Any book will stand or fall on its merits, I hope.

 

[poopsie]

I was reading this thread. I was wondering if the question is from the perspective of the author writing the book - should he/she have good credentials , or from the reader - are there credentials which they are looking for in choosing a book to read?

In my opinion, at least from a reader's perspective, the contents of the book would help me make this decision. If I were reading a book which contains insights if an author about a topic, say, on how tarot has helped reshaped my life, i probably would not care much about the credentials. she can be a nurse, a clerk who used tarot and learned from her experiences. Her style may matter more. Now, if it is someone who is teaching me how to use the cards, i most likely will want examples or cases, or even own experiences, and still, credentials sufh as a certification or PHD in whatever may not necessarily matter. If it's a book on How different cultured (e.g. Asians, Africans, Caucasians, etc) use the celtic cross and their interpretations (does culture affect interpretation)" I may need some credentials (e.g. sociologist, psychologist, journalist, etc.) . However, even if the author would not have the academic discipline, as long as the style of writing is quite insightful, i learn from it, my paradigms about cultures and life expands, and i feel i would have become richer after each page, it's good enough.

 

[celticnoodle]

I have to agree with gregory here.

To get respect you have to earn it. I am aware of a few excellent books from createspace- and I respect their authors because I have read their books and found them a good fit (FOR ME !) (there is one up there form a member here, in fact !) I am also aware of some total IMHO rubbish put out by publishers I respect. We all make mistakes... Judge what you read, not who gets it out there.

Don't forget - Harry Potter almost didn't make it !

ETA just reminded of this, on another forum:



Any book will stand or fall on its merits, I hope.

I've read books by people who have a great reputation in their field, only to find their books boring and not worth the money I paid for it. I've also read books that were one time deals by the author--and found the book they wrote to be incredibly insightful.

So, it is also a matter of personal choice, and like poopsie also pointed out, just because an author may carry a PhD, be certified in the field, or just have many years of experience in the field they write about, doesn't necessarily make the book or author fantastic and well respected--at least by me.

same thing for people practicing their chosen profession. Some doctors, lawyers, and other professionals---such as authors, can have a fantastic reputation and be well respected, but I may not feel the same way about them and find a newbie in the same field that I respect and get more out of. So, I guess it really is a personal thing for whomever is buying/reading the book.

 

[AJ]

writing well is much akin to other arts, painting, sculpting, mechanical aptitude.

Because someone knows a lot about a subject doesn't mean they can write about it.

I don't hold the Llewellyn authors in much esteem because they are mostly company writers, given a subject and then off they go. Same with Bear & Co., yet the companies have indeed published some great books by writers that can write.

What we enjoy reading (cookbooks, scientific manuals, bibles, yadayada) is mostly based on our personal taste and likes. I used to work next door to a great used bookshop so I stopped in one day and bought 9 of the Oprah picks. I couldn't stand any of them, they pretty much left me depressed and angry.

Right now I'm reading a pre-WWII book on geology and how the earth's crust is/was formed. Absolutely fascinating.

 

[Zephyros]

A very interesting thread, this and the New Age one, but it seems we have no answer! We seem to "respect" "old-school" writers like Blavatsky, Crowley, Waite and Regardie, but still have no real definition of what a good metaphysical author is.

Ordinary literature is easier to qualify; even if you like a book a lot, you can usually tell if it's well written or not by how well the characters are defined, pace, style, etc. But on metaphysical topics the waters are murkier.

 

[tarotbear]

A need to needle ....

HOLMES - what qualifications do YOU require an author to have to be respected?

This thread - as do the ones on Tarot Certification - is getting circular. Do we need to be "Tarot Certified" to read the cards? Can we afford 'NOT to be 'Tarot Certified"? 'Round and 'round it goes.

I think - IMHO - that it is the wording 'Need to have' that is bothersome. By whose standards are we to judge, be judged, certify, or not certify, write a book, or just doodle in the margins?

Side-by-side with such titans as 'Gone With the Wind,' or 'The Old Man and The Sea,' a book like 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' is a total piece of literary crap. However, millions around the world did not share my opinion and made it the best-selling book of the twenieth century. What qualifications did Margaret Mitchell, Ernest Hemingway, or Richard Bach (especially Richard Bach) have to produce these works?

And so it is with Tarot authors. There are Hemingways and Bachs in the Tarot world, too. There are also unknowns, such as myself, who wrote one book and the Library Journal Review stated 'It should be in every public library." Some people love my book; some people hate my book. How I wish more people hated 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull'!