AN OPEN LETTER TO LITERARY AGENTS
AND PUBISHERS CONCERNING

OUR EXISTENTIAL PREDICAMENT:
Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death

    Our Existential Predicament: Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death
has been a surprise seller since it first appeared as 10 small books in the 1970s.
XP is now in its fifth edition—2006.
In its most recent editions, it has been kept in print
by readers who discovered it on the Internet.
Without any additional publicity,
people keep buying it and reading it,
even tho it was only available by mail-order.

    Literary agents and publishers will have to decide for themselves
whether Our Existential Predicament has potential to become more popular
if it is published by a well-known publisher
and possibly made available in bookstores.
It will probably sell best from on-line booksellers,
which reach even very narrow audiences.
The extremely bleak title has attracted serious readers,
even tho it might prevent the book from ever becoming a best-seller.

    This letter presents a basic profile of the book for agents and publishers.
Which publisher would be able to make this book more widely available?
When more copies are printed at one time,
the price per copy can be significantly reduced
from the present prices of $45 wholesale or $100 retail.
And which publisher will keep it in print indefinitely
because it continues to sell year in and year out?

    The author—James Leonard Park—holds all rights.
The first 5 editions have been published by Existential Books,
a very small publishing company in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
How many people in the wider book world
would like to read this book?


1. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:

AUTHOR: James Leonard Park
TITLE:  Our Existential Predicament
SUBTITLE: Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CALL NUMBER: B819.P37 2006)
NUMBER OF PAGES: 312
SIZE: 8-1/2 inches wide  X  11 inches high  X  3/4 inch thick.
PUBLISHER: Existential Books
PUBLICATION DATE:  April 9, 2006—5th edition
BINDING: aluminum screw posts (5)
BINDING: comb
BINDING: loose-leaf notebook
ISBN: 978-0-89231-950-3
WEBSITE FOR THIS BOOK:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/XP.html
LIST PRICE: $100 US
WHOLESALE PRICE: $45


2. BLURB:

    This book reformulates the deepest form of human suffering,
which has been felt by sensitive human persons
since the dawn of consciousness.  
In the earliest phases of human thinking,
this Dilemma, Predicament, or Malaise
was usually expressed in mythological terms.
But later philosophy and psychology attempted to explain our Malaise
using various philosophical and psychological models.
This book explores our Existential Predicament in the following forms:
existential loneliness, depression, absurdity, meaninglessness,
void, anxiety, splitting, guilt, death, despair, & insecurity.   
    

3. TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Our Existential Predicament:
Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death

by James Park

The first page or two of any chapter will appear if you click the blue title.
The entire text of one chapter—the shortest—will appear.

Introduction
    Transcending Our Existential Predicament                            1

           Becoming and Remaining Existentially Free                  24

Chapter 1 Existential Loneliness:
    Deeper than the Reach of Love                                             25

Chapter 2 Existential Depression:
    Deeper than Psychological Depression                                 39

           Finding Joy, Wholeness, and Fulfillment                         52

Chapter 3 Existential Absurdity:
    Is Life Worth Living?                                                              53

           Finding Harmony, Security, and Hope                             68

Chapter 4 Existential Meaninglessness:
    The Collapse of 'Meanings' and Illusions                               69

           Living in Daily Response to Existential Freedom             76

Chapter 5 The Existential Void:
    Discovering Our Bottomless Emptiness                                 77

           Joy                                                                                  88

Chapter 6 Existential Anxiety:
    Angst                                                                                     89

           Peace                                                                            150

Chapter 7 Existential Splitting:
    Søren Kierkegaard's Sickness Unto Death                           151

           Fulfillment                                                                     164

Chapter 8 Existential Guilt:
    Deeper than Moral Conscience                                            165

           Three Dimensions of Death                                           180

Chapter 9 An Existential Understanding of Death:
    A Phenomenology of Ontological Anxiety                            181

Chapter 10 Existential Despair:
    Floating Down the River of Despair                                      253

Chapter 11 Existential Insecurity:
    When all Security-Operations Fail                                         267

Afterword
    Obstacles to Existential Freedom                                          275

Bibliography                                                                              309

4. AUDIENCE:
    Our Existential Predicament: Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death
has been written for serious, sensitive readers
who have at least some preliminary sense of their Malaise.
Reader feed-back often suggests
that these readers have been struggling with their Existential Predicament
for many years before they discovered this book.
Usually they were using psychological methods
in their attempts to cope with what this book claims is really an existential problem.

    XP could also be used in college courses
in existential philosophy and existential psychotherapy.
If it were published by a major publisher,
it would have more credibility for this market.

5. SHORT SELECTIONS FROM OUR EXISTENTIAL PREDICAMENT:
    The opening pages of any chapter can be read
by clicking the chapter title in the table of contents (3 above).
All of Chapter 4: "Existential Meaninglessness" is available on the Internet.

6. ONE SAMPLE CHAPTER

    As just mentioned, all 8 pages of the shortest chapter are available on the Internet:
Existential Meaninglessness:
The Collapse of 'Meanings' and Illusions

7. A VERY SHORT SYNOPSIS OF EACH CHAPTER:

    In one continuous file, only about 2 or 3 pages in length,
here is a synopsis of each chapter,
linked to more information for the interested reader.

8. TWO CHAPTERS ARE ALSO PUBLISHED AS SEPARATE BOOKS:

An Existential Understanding of Death:
A Phenomenology of Ontological Anxiety
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/XP181.html
Here is the index page for all information about this separate book:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/UD.html
<>
Existential Anxiety: Angst
Here is the outline and first page of this small book:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/XP89.html
Here is the index page for all information
about Existential Anxiety: Angst:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/AX.html
<>
9. SIX SPIN-OFF ARTICLES AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET
AND READY FOR SUBMISSION TO JOURNALS:

Loneliness of Spirit:
Deeper than the Reach of Love .

Being Depressed in Spirit:
Deeper than Psychological Depression .

Existential Anxiety:
Angst .

Sinking into the River of Existential Despair .

Existential Guilt:
Deeper than the Pangs of Conscience . 

Looking for the Meaning of Life . 

10. A SHORTER SPIN-OFF BOOK BY JAMES PARK:

Opening to Grace
Transcending Our Spiritual Malaise
by James Park

    This book is for thoughtful, intelligent persons from all spiritual traditions.
Anyone in serious, personal spiritual quest will find this book richly rewarding.
Opening to Grace is not an exposition of any specific system of beliefs.
Open-minded readers from all religious backgrounds
—and no religious background—will find that this book begins
with their own experience of spiritual suffering: our spiritual malaise.

    One chapter is devoted to each of the following:
(1) spiritual loneliness, (2) guilt, (3) depression, (4) meaninglessness,
(5) the spiritual Void, (6) insecurity, (7) despair, &  (8) anxiety.

    The book is punctuated by a few one-page poems.
And it concludes with a 5-page bibliography of further reading.

    Concept and organization:
Opening to Grace: Transcending Our Spiritual Malaise
is a small study-book (64 pages) for discussion groups of all types.
Most chapters are limited to 4 pages, about 20 minutes of reading,
which could lead to about an hour of discussion.
Discussion groups from older teens thru retired adults
will be able to read one chapter a week.
Each chapter concludes with a chart summarizing the differences
between the psychological problem and the spiritual dilemma.
Each chapter also has a few open-ended questions for discussion.
The discussion leader might want to read the chapter from the larger book
upon which this study-book is based: Our Existential Predicament:
Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death, also written by James Park.

    Opening to Grace is intended to be intelligible to many levels of readers.
Each chapter is about 1/3 the length
of the original chapter in Our Existential Predicament.
It avoids the most difficult parts of Our Existential Predicament,
but readers of a philosophical bent might wish to read the longer book.

    Complete information about this book will be found on the Internet:
Opening to Grace: Transcending our Spiritual Malaise.
11. COMPLETE WORKS OF JAMES PARK:

    The same author has about a dozen other books in print.
These books are also available to be re-published by a major publisher.
A book contract could include the most likely-to-succeed of these other books.

12. BOOKS BY OTHER AUTHORS ON RELATED THEMES:
    The Existential Spirituality Bibliography presents short reviews of
about 10 books by other authors, most notably Soren Kierkegaard,
which deal with similar themes.
A shorter version of this bibliography is printed in the XP.
 

    If you see publishing possibilities,
write to the author: James Park, e-mail: PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU

Go to the website for this book:
Our Existential Predicament:
Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death
Created April 25, 2008; Revised 3-21-2009
 Go to the beginning of this website
James Leonard Park—Free Library