Ending My Re-Editing Project Early; Amazons Copyright Team Has Some... Quirks

Alright everyone the weather is finally summer-esque so it's time for a re-editing project update!

The update is that I am going to complete two more works and then shelf the project indefinitely with respect to all works I didn't personally author. For those works the new editions will run alongside the old ones for some time.

Why? It isn't like it's hard to skim over a text I already proofread and corrected, since all I need to do is correct it once its new font and format are done, then make a new cover since the early editions weren't up to my new standards. Since the payoff is so high (I can lower the cost and improve the product, which likely means more readership- a win win for everyone) and the effort fairly low (I can re-edit a text every day, and could re-edit all of them by mid June) why would I end the project?

The answer is Amazons' arcane and slow copyright related processes; right now three of my works are awaiting confirmation that I have the right to release editions of them- one of them was written in the 17th century. I already supplied this needed proof (since these are just re-edits of extant editions from 2015 and early 2016) when I first released them. In the case of the Grimorium Verum (one of my top sellers among edited works- I managed to sell 47 copies of it this month before it got suppressed awaiting confirmation) it has been in this gray area for five days now, since twice I have supplied proof it is a public domain work only to be told I somehow need a signed statement regarding permission to utilize it.

But, Amazon, I AM the one giving myself permission; the original work was ALSO mine! And I can't supply you the authors' name or date of death- the author is not known! (Clearly listed in the text and on the BISAC info) Since it dates to the middle of the 18th century the general assumption is the author "probably" died prior to the 1800s, let alone the 1920s cutoff for public domain status.

The use of createspace/amazon for self publishing remains exceptionally easy overall but this is one part of the process that needs a tweaking desperately.

The Black Pullet: Now Available!

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This work never got its own entry either. Now in a proper format, this work primarily revolves around the usage of a series of magical talismans, as part of a larger story (Napoleonic in origin and era) in which the author has been saved by a Turkish mage from an angry group of Arabs. The author then is instructed in magic, including how to raise a hen which will create eggs made of gold.

The invocations and talismans are meant to be considered literal and the back story appears to have been used to justify the odd content. It should be noted that ascribing works to Napoleon, a Napoleonic soldier, or related things, was common for half a century thereafter due to his fascination with pre-anthropological ruin-diving.

82 pages.

Arbatel of Magick: Now Available!

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This short grimoire is almost purely white magick; as a series of aphorisms in septenary form, it differentiates types of magick and some philosophy therein. This is one of the re-edited early works I crafted which needed a new format and never got an individual entry. It's well written, and due to its largely positive, angelic content, largely escaped censoring through time.

44 pages.

The Life After Death: Now Available!

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Yet another early work with no individual entry!

This tract is quite interesting and revolves- you guessed it- around the concept of the afterlife, that which happens after one is dead. To the theosophists a fusion of eastern and western lore is the answer; especially a sort of eastern-ized conceptualization of purgatory. Having expounded upon the form of the spirit world, Leadbeater also prescribes why Theosophists must help the departed and how.

56 pages.

Occultism For Beginners: Now Available!

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In what may be the most odd discovery I've made as I was updating files and re-editing and organizing, I suddenly remembered that for the first few works I ever edited there aren't individual entries on my blogs since I had merely compiled them on one general update.

This particular work is one of the first I ever edited, now refined into a 5x8 format with a few typographical errors eliminated and a new cover. Here, Dower ruminates on biology, chemistry, and early radiological studies and formulates a sort of synchronistic worldview (As above, so below!) which coincides, he believes, with both eastern and western philosophy. Altogether it's a fine work and one I recommend as a few must-read works on the subject.

64 pages.

Ars Paulina: Now Available!

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This is one of the four (true) works comprising the Lesser Keys of Solomon (the Notoria is not of the same era.) Less well known than the Ars Goetia, it is nonetheless 1. a distinct work and 2. important to the general tradition it is part of; specifically, it is an astrological work before anything else, which fails to give the sort of detailed list of powers for each of the angels it purports to allow one to summon.

It is broken into two sections. The first details the angels of the hours and the second one the twelve signs of the zodiac. In both cases, seals are constructed and used with a complex table of practice in combination with several invocations. It's quite a good work overall albeit shorter than the Goetia it shares tradition with.

44 pages

150th Edition Literary Update

Over the course of the next 48 or so hours I'll be completing another section of the Lesser Keys of Solomon (The Ars Paulina) and releasing it. This will be the 150th edition of occult literature I have released, between edited and self-written works, and so it's a fairly significant milestone.

It also means it's time for disclosing my subsequent plans!

For some time now I've let my files (pdfs, odt files, text file descriptions, illustrations, etc) build up in various folders, unsorted and so forth- I am going to take a day subsequent to the release of the Ars Paulina to simply organize my files. After that, I need to take a good couple of weeks for some other planned catching up for previous releases:

1. Remaking about three dozen covers, since I use a different, better font, trim, and logo.
2. A cursory grammar and spelling check for said releases.
3. Re-illustration of a few early works.
4. Completely re-processing every pdf file into an epub file so all the kindle ebooks will be 100% perfect in format. No more complaints about blank pages, etc.

This will occupy me probably through all of May and so, as such, after I link out the Ars Paulina there may not be any further updates until June. Releases will resume thereafter; I promised at least 200 editions, and it will almost surely be hundreds more over the years.

Shaman Saiva and Sufi: Now Available!

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Of all the academic works I have edited thus far this is one of the most interesting of all; it dates to that sweet-spot period of occult study between the 1880s and the 1920s which I favor. This particular work delves fairly deep into Malaysian magic but it isn't just magic per se, in the sense of spells and such, but also religious ritualism, how it overlaps between, in the case of Malaysia, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and other practice.

Perhaps most notable here is the inclusion of both cryptozoology and demonology along with folklore and superstition itself.

135 pages.