I just finished a full draft of the book on Natural Design that has been in progress for far too long. It is just over 90,000 words, or 330 manuscript pages. About 3 months ago I went from thinking "Man, this is good writing, I'd like to get it out there" to "Wow, this is a book, and I need to get it published," which was quite an interesting mental transition.
The concept of Natural Design supplements Natural Selection in crucial ways. Just as Darwin showed that there can be selection without a selector, we show that there can be design without a designer. "Design" is a matching of form to function, and that pattern can arise in various ways. The presence of design is not merely subjective; it is a feature of the world that can be revealed (where it exists) by appropriate investigation. The first half of the book uses that insight to fix conceptual issues in evolutionary biology, and the second half uses it to fix conceptual issues in psychology. Especially when dealing with psychology, this approach has significant implications for our interactions with other people, including offering protection against various ways people try to manipulate us with psychological language.
We argue that psychological terms often, perhaps always, refer to patterns of behavior across circumstances. This isn't just an abstract academic claim, it also — despite our knee jerk reactions to the contrary — matches most of our normal, everyday uses of those terms. The Natural Design perspective is a type of "descriptive mentalism." A hundred years ago it might have been called "molar behaviorism," but that label is misleading, as it is not the boogeyman reductive behaviorism that haunts intro psychology textbooks. Instead, our approach is part of the broad legacy of Pragmatist philosophy, and it pulls together insights from historic figures like James J. Gibson, E.C. Tolman, E.B. Holt, and Niko Tinbergen, as well as modern figures such as Tony Chemero, Dan Hutto, and Louise Barrett.
I sent drafts out to a few readers for feedback, and am going to start looking for a literary agent. I have tried to write the book for a popular audience, rather than a purely academic audience, as I think the ideas are important and have implications that extend well beyond discussions of science history and philosophy. Plus, I enjoy learning things, like how the publishing industry, including the book-agent profession, works more broadly.
One thing I have realized, however, is that the categories used in publishing are symptomatic of some of the broader problems in society. The category of nonfiction and the interests of agents specializing in nonfiction are incredibly broad, and most have nothing to do with the book I have written. This is not inherently problematic, just the realities of life. Many agents with nonfiction interests, for example, focus on true-crime stories or travel guides, business advice or self-improvement books, memoirs of immigrant or minority experiences, or narrative retellings of important historic events. Even in the context of those squarely interested in science, there is often a desire for books focused on clearly demarcated events and salacious aspects, such as the debates in physics between Mach and Boltzmann and the latter's eventual suicide. As many of those topics also interest me, I fully understand, and don't begrudge them one bit!
Trying to find agents interested in science-focused Idea books is hard, but they are out there. I have a growing list of agencies and agents that I might reach out to once my query letter is ready... and any suggestions are more than welcome.
What within this process has started to seem problematic? Well....
While all the interests mentioned above are solid examples of non-fiction, I have also seen a lot of interest lists that are not so solid. I see a lot of agents "interested in nonfiction topics" with a focus on astrology, psychic powers, paranormal encounters, or spiritual transcendence. For example, the "nonfiction" book Embody Your Magic: Create the Life of your Dreams Through Astrology, Numerology, Mediumship, Metaphysics, and Human Design. And I'm not even saying many people might not find such a book helpful, I expect that the book has helped people. But only in the same ways that the Hunger Games or Lord of the Rings helped many people. Fantasy can be very helpful. But we are now at a point where you could find a book on the ground in Barnes and Nobel titled Moon Magick, and until you read the back cover you might not know if you should return it to the fantasy shelf or the nonfiction shelf.
Of course, there has to be a line somewhere. I am not sure exactly where it is, and I am glad I don't have to be the arbiter. That said: At this point I have probably skimmed a thousand agents' wish lists, across a hundred literary agencies, and the size of the gray area between fiction from non-fiction in the publishing world has been bugging me.
