My Signature Book
The Joy of NOT Working
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35 YEARS LATER — THE JOY OF NOT WORKING
The above photo is of all the editions of my signature book The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked that I first self-published in English on September 13, 1991.
Rod Stewart sang, "Every picture tells a story." This picture tells at least 100 stories. The book will still earn me over $10,000 this year. How is that for staying power in a supersaturated marketplace for retirement books?
The Joy of Not Working has now sold over 325,000 copies and has been published in 17 foreign languages — besides English.
It has had 21 foreign publishers. There have been 3 different Korean publishers, 2 different Japanese publishers, and 2 different Chinese publishers, including one that published the book both in Chinese traditional characters and in Chinese simplified characters.
Incidentally, I secured 125 foreign rights deals for my 21 books without using a North Amercian foreign rights agent. I have never gone to the Frankfurt Book Fair in October which is known as the exclusive book fair where foreign rights sales are negotiated by mainstream publishers.
How have I been able to achieve this? Simple: I have my own way to Rock — That's the way I Roll.
Below is the rejection letter I received from Ten Speed Press dated November 19, 1992. I let the publisher know that The Joy of Not Working had sold 10,000 copies in Canada in the first year. But TSP sent me a standard rejection letter that had the title and date handwritten. Talk about no respect.
Below is the list of possible titles for my book about leisure that I had printed out on a dot martrix printer in February 1991. None of the titles worked. It wasn't until the end of March, 1991 that I came up with the blockbuster, The Joy of NOT Working. Nowadays the bungling babbling bozos who have never written a book — and never will — tell me they could have written the book and come up with the title. Go figure.
100 Stories about The Joy of Not Working Told with Pictures & Words
Over 35 years ago, I told anyone who would listen to me — including an order taker at McDonald’s, two derelicts on a Vancouver park bench, and a Nigerian scam artist trying to steal $2,500 from me — about my idea for a book on how to escape from the work-until-you-drop mentality. After three months of creative contemplation, the book’s title became The Joy of NOT Working.
This earned me “The Bum in the Family Award” — both on my father’s extended side and my mother’s extended side. I was okay with that. I wore that as a badge of honor at the time — and still do today.
I fantasized at the time that The Joy of Not Working would launch my career as a successful author. Many people laughed at the idea; others seriously thought that I was crazy. With my creative marketing efforts, the book has now sold over 325,000 copies and has been published in 17 foreign languages. It still earns me money today.
The edition on the extreme left in the top row of the top photo is the one I self-published in 1991. Kinda reeks of self-publishing — doesn't it? It had over 150 spelling errors. Nevertheless, it sold 50,000 copies in the first 4 years before I published the updated edition to the right of it.
That's what happens when you create a remarkable book — one worth making remarks about! (There are 5 R's of a Remarkable Book.)
People still do make remarks about it 35 years later. Check out this video on YouTube:
The Joy of Not Working Explained in 14 Minutes
Here is another recent YouTube video about TJONW that I had nothing to do with:
The Joy Of Not Working — What This Book Gets Right About Retirement
The two photos are of the first two rejections letters I received.
The one on the left is
The one on the right is the one I received from Ten Speed Press dated November 19, 1992. I let the publisher know that The Joy of Not Working had sold 10,000 copies in Canada in the first year. But TSP sent me a standard rejection letter that had the title and date handwritten. Talk about no respect.
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