What is the Derrick Jensen Reading Club?

A couple of years ago I had an idea I’d never encountered anywhere else. I began by thinking about how long the writing and production processes are for books. Then I started thinking about the way I write, about how when I write most of the early book is pretty finished (but still needs an editor's work before it's ready to be in a book). For example, when I'm on page 150, pages 1 - 145 are pretty much final draft. When I'm on page 200, pages 1-195 are pretty much final draft.

Then I began to think about how interested I am in process, and how excited I've been when I've seen early drafts of other writer's work, or heard early versions of musician's songs (Lynrd Skynrd's Free Bird, for example, was at first just a ballad, and the song never worked for audiences until they combined it with a long jam).

And I was thinking about how in the nineteenth century many writers would serialize their novels, and then with Charles Dickens, for example, everybody would gather around the newspaper stands excited to see whether Little Nell was going to die.

Thus was born the Reading Club. Here’s how it works. Each night before I go to bed I upload the most recent version of what I'm working on to a website. I also upload all essays, letters to the editor, and other things I work on that normally most people never get to see.

The subscription website contains a few directories that open into various projects I'm either working on or have recently completed. There is a section for each book, a section for some otherwise unpublished interviews, a section for some photographs I take occasionally of wild creatures around here.

Just so we're clear, over the past several years my output has been pretty constant at about 750-1500 pages per year (at 275 words per page). If I'm on tour or something obviously I don't write much if at all, but other times I write more. So most days there will be an update. But not all. When I'm on tour we might go as long as two weeks without an update. But most days it's a couple of pages.

Right now as well as many essays, short film scripts, and so on, the reading club contains the following:

• The main book I'm currently working on explores the mutually beneficial and extremely complex relationships between dreaming and waking realities. It is about listening to the voices of the natural world, seen and unseen, on this side and on other sides. It asks the question, if the earth really is intelligent—which I fully believe it is—how come it hasn’t killed us off?

• A children's story, Mischief in the Forest, which is being illustrated by artist Stephanie McMillan.

• Resistance Against Empire, a collection of interviews with ten people, including Ramsey Clark, Anuradha Mittal and Christian Parenti, focused on the problems of conquest and repression, and how to resist.

• A screenplay, written with Stephanie McMillan, with the working title The Knitting Circle Killers. It's a grim comedy about a group of women who fight back against rape. This script may, at some point, become a graphic novel.

Conditions:

Members of the group will be allowed to download these documents, under conditions spelled out below.

•  You recognize that everything on the website is a work in progress, and that I reserve the right to change my mind about anything I write. These are NOT final drafts. I may express things in these drafts I later find appalling and remove. These are NOT final drafts.

•  Because these are works in progress, you agree that you will not share any of the documents with anyone without my explicit permission. You ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY WILL NOT POST OR DISTRIBUTE OR SHARE ANY OF THIS IN ANY WAY WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT PERMISSION. If you ask, I will probably allow you to share individual parts with family or close friends, but they also MUST NOT POST OR DISTRIBUTE IT IN ANY WAY WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT PERMISSION. Failure to abide by this will result in immediate termination of privileges (with no refund of fees: for fee schedule see below). If it happens too often, I will simply stop offering this service.

•  You also agree that even if you let your subscription lapse that you WILL STILL ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NOT WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT PERMISSION POST OR OR DISTRIBUTE OR SHARE IN ANY WAY ANYTHING YOU DOWNLOADED OR SAW OR READ WHILE YOU WERE A SUBSCRIBER.

•  I want no criticism or editorial suggestions. I cannot stress enough how unhelpful I find criticism or editorial suggestions from people I don't know. I only accept criticism or editorial suggestions from my closest friends (and then only when I ask) and the book's editors. Praise is welcome. Also, if you happen to see an incorrect fact or a typo, I would appreciate learning of those. This latter is NOT an invitation for criticism.

•  This subscription is a fee service. For payment of your fee you will receive a password that will be changed monthly. You agree that you will not share this password with anyone else without my explicit permission.

•  The documents will be in Word format.

All that out of the way, I think it will be fun.

Costs:

Here are the fees for the subscription
One month: $10
Six months: $35
One year: $60

You can either subscribe through PayPal or by sending a check.

When you subscribe, I will send the link and a password. This password will be changed monthly. So long as your subscription is current, I will send you the password for the new month. Because a subscription entitles you to download everything already on the site, I will not be able to offer refunds.

As an additional bonus for being part of the Derrick Jensen reading club, so long as your subscription is current, you will receive ten percent off any purchases you make through my website. If you send me a check, simply remind me that you are a member of the club, and deduct ten percent from your check. If you pay through PayPal, send me an email reminding me, and I will send you back a check or cash for the discount. Also, I will occasionally offer special deals on books or CDs only to club members.

Also, when any reading club members renew their subscription, they will get free months added to their subscription. Here is how it works: if you renew before your current subscription ends, you will receive the same number of months free as your current subscription. I know that sounds complicated, but an example should make it clear. If someone signed up for six months, and then right before their sub runs out they sign up for an additional month, they would get one month (paid for) and then six extra months (free), for a total of seven months. Then if at the end of that seven months they sign up for an additional six months, they would get six months (paid for) and one extra month (free: one month this time since their most recent previous sub was one month).

Payment:

To join, click the appropriate PayPal button below.

One month: $10

Six months: $35

One year: $60

Or Send Checks to:
Derrick Jensen
P.O. Box 903
Crescent City, CA 95531