The Foreign Service Journal, November 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2014 43 developed over the years to help readers arrive at informed judg- ments of American foreign policy. Frederic Mabbatt joined the Foreign Service in 1963 and served with the U.S. Information Agency in Sudan, Jordan, Bra- zil, Tanzania, Indonesia and the Netherlands, accompanied by his wife and two children. He now resides in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he lectures and writes about contemporary foreign policy issues, and has been a moderator for the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions Program for 25 years. You Are the Needle and I Am the Thread: A Memoir of an American Foreign Service Wife Pamela Joy Anderson, WestBow Press, 2014, $13.94/paperback, $3.99/Kindle, 192 pages. Though often rewarding, being a Foreign Service spouse has its challenges. Pamela Joy Anderson writes about her journey as an FS spouse and one challenge that was a constant in her and her family’s lives throughout their deployments: retaining their religious beliefs while posted in different countries and cultures throughout the world. Her stories reflect their adapta- tion to life overseas, as well as back home, in this faith journey and memoir. In the late 1980s, after quitting his job and attending classes at the Center for World Missions, her husband, Tim, joined the U.S. Agency for International Development. During his career, the couple and their children lived in Pakistan, Egypt, Bangla- desh, Indonesia and Washington, D.C. Anderson relates experiences ranging from the everyday to once-in-a-lifetime events. In Pakistan, they attended a church where they worshiped with families from many dif- ferent countries and denominations, before being evacuated during the lead-up to the Persian Gulf War. In Egypt, Anderson taught English-writing skills and went on excursions with her students to see the site of the Burning Bush. Throughout it all, Anderson deals with her father’s Alzheimer’s disease diag- nosis and subsequent death from halfway around the world. Ultimately, she finds that home is where the U.S. government sends you. Pamela Joy Anderson studied six languages and taught while living abroad. Many of her vignettes were previously published in The Foreign Service Journal . Currently retired, she and her husband live in Lacey, Washington. authors now account for 31 percent of total daily e-book sales, regardless of genre. Emerging Market Infrastructure But if self-publishing can make life easier for writers, it can present a serious problem for the general reader. Unless a reader has very focused interests in a particular genre, it is difficult to find the “good” books. Mainstream reviewers do not generally entertain what they dismissively refer to as “indie” books, arguing that the culling process involved in traditional publishing is essential to establish a book as worthy. Yet there is no indication that this lively, new industry will be going away anytime soon. In fact, the elements of a “sifting and winnowing” infrastructure are beginning to appear that will help to organize and grow the self- published market. The Guardian , for instance, has debuted a monthly self-published book contest. And Publisher’s Weekly has created BookLife , a website dedicated solely to self-published works where authors can submit their books for review. For those considering self-publishing, here are several helpful online resources. Writer’s Digest provides numerous forums and discussion posts dedicated to the topic of self- publishing. Joel Friedlander’s website, The Book Designer , offers a compendium of self-publishing information, as well as a free download of his guidebook, 10 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing. And Guy Kawasaki, author of APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur—How to Publish a Book , has a useful Tools and Resources section on his web- site, which includes a royalty calculator and self-publishing intelligence test for potential authors. Ultimately, the decision on whether to self-publish comes down to what you hope to achieve and what you are willing to risk. In publishing, there are no definites. You need an excellent product; you need to know your audience; and you need to understand the market. “Publishing has always been risky for the publisher who is investing in a book before it is released,” Grossblatt says. “In self-publishing, the authors have to invest in them- selves.” –Assistant Editor Brittany DeLong and Managing Editor Susan B. Maitra