Earthbound: Pagan Homesteading, by Raven Kaldera

What’s this book about?

It’s a book on homesteading, small farming, and country living....from a uniquely pagan-faith perspective. It’s about using homesteading as an earth-centered spiritual discipline. But really, if you want to find out more, we’ve put the opening chapter up on the Net for you. Check it out.

How do I order a copy of this book?

The CD is $15 plus $3 shipping. I’ve kept it as cheap as I could, considering how much work went into it. Send check or MO to: Raven Kaldera, 12 Simond Hill Rd. Hubbardston MA 01452 or email me at cauldronfarm@hotmail.com to set up a PayPal transfer.

Why is this book on CD-ROM?

Because I couldn’t get it published, and after four years, I decided that it had to get out to the people who needed it, one way or another.

Why isn’t this book published by a real publisher?

I tried, believe me, I tried. I sent the manuscript to both pagan presses and homesteading presses. I got lovely complimentary rejection letters. The pagan presses rejected it for length and number of color illustrations - at more than 450 pages and 132 color photos, it is quite a tome - as they claim that pagans won’t buy expensive color books, but only small, cheap trade paperbacks. The homesteading presses did not like the amount of pagan religious material, and both felt that there weren’t enough people interested in pagan homesteading to make it worth their while to publish.

Why don’t you print it through a print-on-demand publisher?

I’ve published other books through a print-on-demand publisher, with good results. However, all the current POD presses are not doing books with multiple color photos. Five different pagan photographers and one artist donated their work to this book, and I am not cutting a single picture.

Why don’t you print it yourself with a local printing press?

Because that would cost thousands of dollars to do right, and I am a poor farmer, and I don’t have that kind of money. If you’d like to have a book copy, I’m sure that a local printing press will print you one from this CD. If you have access to a printing press that can print these at a reasonable cost, please let me know.

Will this eventually become a real book?

I don’t know, and I’m not waiting around. If you’d like to help, tell people about it. If you know people in the publishing industry, tell them about it. Review it. Send me the reviews. Thanks.

Can I make copies of this CD for all my friends, or put the files up on my website?

No. As the author and copyright holder, I am officially denying you and everyone else the right to copy, distribute or publish this work in any format, without my permission. If you want to put a small section of it somewhere for the purposes of a review or for educational purposes, please contact me for permission.

Obviously I can’t stop you from duplicating a CD, and I don’t have a small fleet of lawyers at my disposal to enforce my copyright, but trust me, it would be bad karma. Things would go very wrong for you, very quickly. If you happen to own a bootlegged copy of it, please consider paying for it.