A Visionary Mustard Seed

How Namaste Publishing Came into Being
 

By Constance Kellough, Publisher and President

I hesitated to respond to the many requests to tell how Namaste Publishing came into being because the story of how this wonderful venture came about very much involves me, and yet it is so much more than me. It is all about authors and noble intent.

My spiritual practice had for many years been personal and quite private. But in early 1996, a yearning emerged within me to sit in spiritual practice with a group—or what the East calls a Sangha, which is a Sanskrit word.

This desire was so different for me that I did not act on it immediately—did not go out and try to find a group that I could join. I simply noted the presence of this yearning. Perhaps it was a passing whim and would shortly fade away.

The yearning I was experiencing did not go away. So one day after a meeting in our management consultant boardroom, I mentioned it to one of my colleagues.

“That’s interesting,” he said, “because I just met a fellow who arrived from England a few weeks ago and is said to be a spiritual teacher.”

Surprised, but also delighted, I responded, “I would like to meet this fellow.”

“Then I’ll ask if he would be open to leading meditation sessions in your office,” my colleague said.

A week later, at the end of the work day, our office door opened and in walked a gentle, almost diminutive, unassuming man who was introduced to me as Eckhart Tolle. Beginning that evening, each week Eckhart came to my office, where a small group gathered. As the months went by, he led us deeper and deeper into a state of stillness, in which we became increasingly attuned to the spiritual Presence at the heart of everything that exists.

Eckhart not only exuded the energy of Presence, he was also able to express perennial spiritual truths in an idiom suited to our times. His clear, contemporary language conveyed deep insights that very quickly enabled me to recognize him for the profound and timely teacher he is, especially for the West.

As time passed, I learned that Eckhart was writing a book. I thought this was a wonderful idea, but did not give it a further thought.

One day in the summer, after a semi-private session of spiritual practice, Eckhart asked me, “Constance, would you consider being my publisher?”

I was happily ensconced in my career as a management consultant. True, for ten years I had been in the college system as both an instructor and Department Chair of English Literature, but I knew absolutely nothing about publishing.

When Eckhart made this request of me, I was shocked—and not. As I drove home that evening, I began to see that behind the chronological storylines of Eckhart’s life and my own ran a thread of spiritual intent that was the work of an invisible weaver. Life had orchestrated our coming together at just the moment I was seeking a deeper and more public form of spirituality.

On my way home, as I crossed the Lions Gate Bridge from West Vancouver, I symbolically crossed an inner bridge. Yes, I would be Eckhart’s publisher!

 And so the mustard seed was dropped in the soil.

Of course, I went through the predictable egoic vacillations. I had never published a book before. What if I failed? What if I let Eckhart down? And how was I going to find the time to do this? Not to mention the money.

As Eckhart and I sat together month after month editing his book, we were in total oneness in feeling compelled to put his book out to the world. We really did not know, nor care, whether 80, 800, or 800,000 people would read it. 

The Power of Now was born into the world in 1997. But many tests of our commitment lay ahead. As first-time author and publisher, Eckhart and I defied many of the publishing industry norms and practices. With no marketing budget to speak of, we at Namaste Publishing often walked the books into stores ourselves. Sometimes we met with no interest, and other times the store would order a few copies at a time.

After two failed attempts to convince a Canadian national book distributor to carry the book, Eckhart suggested that perhaps we just leave it at that. But I was not ready to give up yet. Our third attempt met with success. The rest is publishing history. To-date The Power of Now has sold almost four million copies worldwide, is available in over 30 languages, and is increasingly catching the public eye through the media of press and television.

Would Eckhart write another book? At all times our publishing decisions were led by life itself, which is where the invisible weaver’s influence is always experienced. The answer came as Eckhart’s teaching evolved. The Power of Now was followed by Stillness Speaks, then by A New Earth. Currently, a book explaining how to live in the now is being prepared for children.

Much to my surprise, I was also led by the hand of life to publish other authors. I did not seek them out, they came to me—as have the handful of staff members who today work with me in Namaste Publishing. 

All of our publications are born of the intent of giving noble service to our fellow humans. This intent to serve is propelled by the shared vision of our authors and staff members—a vision of bringing to people an awareness of their divine nature and inestimable worth.

It was only after our books proved successful that others in the industry were eager to pick them up and carry them forward. I have always been driven to effect the largest sphere of influence for our authors’ books. This led to selling rights to our books at the appropriate time to the “right” publishing partners, in order to get the books into the large international market. We also entered into creative distribution and co-publishing agreements, together with attracting a good foreign rights sales partner. Each step of the way, it has been important not to allow ego to affect either our business decisions or our communication, whether internal or with our business partners. 

I brought to our publishing venture a business acumen that enabled me to see that even a mustard seed publishing house can—with common intent, enlightened management practices, effective use of the new technologies, and hard work—reach a worldwide readership. Our purpose has never been to become a large publishing concern nor a money-making machine, but to provide an avenue for Spirit to raise the consciousness of our fellow humans.

As a publisher, one needs to have a foot in two different worlds—one in the world of sound business practices, the other in the world of spiritual vision. It’s also crucial to always remember which one to lean on!

Again and again I have seen how Spirit works not only through seasoned authors, but also—as in the case of Eckhart himself—with individuals who have not written a book before. Whereas most of the large publishing houses rarely publish first time authors because the financial risks are so high, Namaste Publishing not only began with the work of a first time author but continues to publish first time authors who are brought to us through Spirit.

Just as initially our books sold by word of mouth on their own merit, so also today this is still the case for our new authors. When a new author is published, readers who are supportive of our publications take it upon themselves to “spread the word” in whatever way they are able—by introducing the book to friends, contacting their email lists, and encouraging book stores to carry our titles. To these friends of Namaste Publishing, we owe a great measure of our success. We are deeply grateful for all they do. 

Life orchestrated Eckhart’s move from Europe to Vancouver at about the same time that it stirred within me a desire for group spiritual practice. It simultaneously led Eckhart to write a book. It just so happens that life had already prepared me through my previous careers, positioning me to carry the requisite experience and skills forward into publishing

Now, life has guided Namaste Publishing to take a further step. 

Operating with an open-door submissions policy, Namaste Publishing does not require that authors who submit manuscripts are represented by an agent, as do most publishers. This means that far more manuscripts come to us than we can possibly read, and only a tiny percentage of those we read fit our publishing mission. And so, we have launched the Namaste Literary Agency. Today, we can enable a wider range of deserving books to reach readers who long for fiction and nonfiction of a kind that deepens their spiritual lives. Submission guidelines can be found on the Contact page of this website.

My own role at Namaste Publishing is also evolving. I too have been led to write a book, entitled, The Leap—Are You Ready to Live a New Reality? It will be published in the fall of 2007. I am now once again also being asked to give teachings and talks, perhaps further evidence of my shifting role.

No matter what work role I have functioned in or may yet function in, my driving purpose is to bring the reality pointed to by the word Namaste to those I serve—be they students, clients, a readership, or an audience.

The Hindu word Namaste originated from the Sanskrit “Namaskara.” It is a word used to greet a person in a way that signifies honoring the divinity within them. The extended meaning of Namaste is, “I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light, and of peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One.”

Namaste.