I am working on the third printing of, on a set of two volumes of my philosophical treaties and on the promotion of my newest tome, "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East" (ISBN: 802385173X). Additionally, I am weekly columnist in a few periodicals and on the web, like "Central Europe Review" (http://www.ce-review.org/authorarchives/vaknin_archive/vaknin_main.html) and eBookWeb.org.

4. Interview granted to JustViews (not published)

Just Views: From the moment you received THE CALL for your first book, what is the one thing that you have learned about the publishing business which has remained constant?

Sam: In the last 20 years, I have published 11 books in five countries in three continents (only one of which is self-published). I regret to say that the only thing constant in these varied experiences was the tendency of publishers to dumb down material in order to attract the largest common denominator. I was often told by publishers to limit my vocabulary to the level of American teenagers'. Not much to work with.

Just Views: We'd like to know a little about your first book.
(When was it sold? How many rejections did you receive before it sold? Did you use an agent? Is this a self-published book? If so, explain the process you went through to make this decision.)

Sam: I had three "first books". Three experiences so different that each one constituted a new beginning.
When I was a soldier in the Israeli army, I published short horror fiction in the army's official publication. These vignettes were so well received that a major Israeli pulp fiction publisher signed a contract for four books with me. I got paid a pittance but just seeing my pseudonym on the cover was ample reward. These were sexually explicit, sizzling, action-adventure pieces within a never-ending series featuring a Korea-born CIA agent as the protagonist.
Sixteen years later I found myself incarcerated in one of Israel's more notorious prisons. I lost everything: my deeply-loved wife, all my possessions and my reputation. I was derided and bandied about as a symbol of corruption and avarice. Jail is a great place for soul-searching. It is am imposed vacation but without the amenities and with indescribable psychological pressure. I wrote 60 short stories, 30 of which were accepted for publication (while I was a prisoner). The publisher was Israel's largest daily paper, "Yedioth Aharonot". The book won critical acclaim and the coveted 1997 Minister of Education Prose prize.
The third "first book" is my favourite - "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited". While in jail, I was tentatively diagnosed by a psychiatrist there as the victim of a narcissistic / borderline personality disorder. Alarmed by this foreign sounding diagnosis and unable to secure an unequivocal description of its problematics from the psychiatrist in question - I embarked on a road of self discovery. I made notes in an improvized and tattered cardboard-bound notebook while still in prison. Upon my release, I placed these notes on a web site. I later augmented them with research conducted alone and with others. I have corresponded with well over 5000 individuals who suffer from this disorder or are affected by someone who does. There are 2000 members in my mailing lists. My web site receives 4000 hits - DAILY. Pathological narcissism is possibly the most under-diagnosed and prevalent disorder of the latter part of the 20th century.

Just Views: Describe your feelings when you received the contract from the publisher...

Sam: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. This feeling - of constant, excited, agitated, floating - never left me. Not even during the endless and tedious revisions of my texts.

Just Views: Let's be honest. Do you like the covers designed for your books? Do you have any say?

Sam: When I contributed to their design - yes. This happened with "Malignant Self Love" and with my latest tome, "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East". Otherwise, I found the visual statements incorporated in the cover-art of most of my titles to be between off-putting and wrong. Cover art is the Achilles heel of publishing, it would seem.

Just Views: What would you be doing if you weren't writing? Do you have another job in addition to your writing career?

Sam (laughing): I am the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia. Until 1995 I co-owned businesses with a consolidated annual turnover of 10 million US dollars. I left jail penniless but now I am recovering. I can tell you this: publishing a book may be small business. But it can yield hi-tech returns, if you hit the right raw nerve. My publisher has made 1000% on her investment in "Malignant Self Love" in less than 18 months!

Just Views: What/who influenced you to write for this market?

Sam: The readers. At first, I posted the material on my web site, as I told you earlier. The response was overwhelming and heart rending. People agonized over loved ones, irreparably broken relationships, sadistic behaviours. I just HAD to publish a book to help them. The entire text of "Malignant Self Love" is available on this website, free of charge, for those who cannot afford the print version, by the way.
"After the Rain" was prompted by the reactions to a series of texts I published in "The New Presence" (a high-brow Prague magazine) and in "Central Europe Review" (the year 2000 NetMedia Award winner for journalism). These texts dealt with communism not as a political phenomenon, but as a mass psychopathology - a mental health disorder. It was a persepective sufficiently unique and controversial to provoke heated debates and daily threats on my life. Again, I must have hit a raw nerve. The book was a natural extension of this realization.

Just Views: Tell us the hardest part of writing that you experience either day to day or contract to contract.

Sam: Finding the words, THE words, the music. I believe in poetry in prose. I believe that the reader should be able to SING my texts, should he choose to. I write with tempo, rhythm, harmony and melody in mind. But words are unwieldy creatures. They rebel. They refuse to be contorted. It is a Procrustean bed.