A Proposal for

Progressive Transformation: A Resource Catalog

Compiled and edited by Wade Hudson and Michael Larsen

Growing dissatisfaction about America’s situation and increasing activism demonstrate strong interest in comprehensive social change. Concerned citizens have available more resources than ever that they can use to make a difference. The number of these resources, especially with the advent of the Web, is growing rapidly. And the re-election of George W. Bush is motivating progressive activists to re-double their efforts.

Yet no book presents a selective compilation of resources for Americans who are interested in progressive change. These people need a resource that puts at their fingertips the most productive ways for them to help.

Progressive Transformation: A Progressive Resource Catalog will be the first book to provide comprehensive resources for Americans who want to bring about personal, social, and political progress. It will help them whether they’re acting alone or as part of a group. The book will include short, enjoyable-to-read entries in the following chapters:

• Health
• Personal Growth
• Family
• Community
• Environment
• Education
• Media
• Internet & Computers
• Money & Work
• Arts & Culture
• Recreation
• Science & Technology
• Government

A two-page introduction to each chapter will provide an overview of the problems and the resources for solving them. Chapters will include entries and information about:

• Activist and advocacy organizations
• Service organizations
• Books and other written materials
• Events
• Short bios and photos of leading progressive opinion-makers of the past and present
• Inspirational moments in history that can serve as models for solving problems such as the nonviolent liberation of India from the British
• Internships
• A quote on every page from a change agent about the need for change, or a quote that will inspire readers

Entries will include contact information when needed.

The editors envision the book as a sequel to the Whole Earth Catalog, but they see it as 8 ½” x 11.” To help make the catalog enjoyable to read, entries will be illustrated with graphics, photos of book covers and people, cartoons, logos of organizations, and stills from films.

The manuscript will be xxx pages and have xxx illustrations.

The editors want the book to:

• Have the visual appeal of a magazine
• Be as enjoyable to read as it is informative by using drama, humor and inspirational writing
• Inspire readers to take action

The editors will use a Web site to update the book with changes and new information, and they will ask readers to contribute. They believe that readers and the people connected to the entries will be eager to make it more helpful.

The editors will recruit experts in each field to serve as Associate Editors to insure that the catalog includes all that it should.

Markets for the Book

The largest market for the book will be men and women from high school students with passion and idealism to retired people with time and maturity, all of whom are dissatisfied with the status quo and want to know how they can help leave the country better than they found it. It will be a one-stop resource for anyone who wants to help make America live up to its ideals

Public, high school, and college libraries will buy the book. It will have gift potential for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, high school and college graduations, anniversaries, and retirement parties.

Colleges programs in which students alternate working in the community and taking classes can use the book to find ways for students to get involved with the community. Church groups and organizations like Rotary whose mission is to serve the community will find the book helpful in focusing their energies.

Promotion

The book will be a labor of love for the editors. To promote it, they will:

• Form or affiliate with a non-profit corporation and establish partnerships with existing businesses, nonprofits, and foundations to help compile and promote the book.
• Hire a publicist to help arrange a nationwide, four-month tour, drawing on the network of activist organizations around the country.
• Give 100 talks a year to religious and business groups, activist organizations, and conferences and colleges.
• Distribute information about the book on the Internet.
• Establish reciprocal links on the website with as many sites as possible to the book’s site, starting with the sites mentioned in the book.
• Create and constantly update the website, which will give visitors reasons to return often because what they find inspires, delights, and enlightens them with reports from the front by readers who use the information and report on what they accomplish and the new resources they find or create.
• Write a teacher’s guide for the site for teachers who want to use the book as the basis for high school or college classes.
• Contact online and print media about writing articles and reviews, and serializing the book.
• Choose or create a holiday, a week, or a month that will give the authors opportunities to contact the media and give talks at the same time every year.
• Seek endorsements from opinion-makers in government, the media, academia, and nongovernmental organizations.
• A cofounder of the San Francisco Writers Conference, Mike will create a panel about how books can be catalysts for change.
• Supplement the publisher’s list of review media with those the compilers find likely to review the book.
• Encourage the people behind the entries to invite the editors to speak, publicize the book, buy copies to sell to raise funds, or use the book as a premium for new members or for a contribution.
• Find a partner to co-sponsor an annual event to give awards to people who have made change happen during the previous year, as well as awards for lifetime contributions.

The authors believe that the people behind the entries will be eager to publicize the awards before and after they take place, and will provide information about potential winners.

The editors will:

• Deliver the manuscript nine months after receipt of the advance
• Update the book every five years

If the publisher wishes, the editors will work with a packager to provide the publisher with a disk ready for the printer or finished books.

Outline (tc)

Four Sample Pages (tc)

Sample Chapter with unannotated listings

About the Editors

Wade Hudson

Wade Hudson has been a community organizer, activist, and writer in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than forty years. Wade graduated in 1967 with a Field Major in Social Sciences (with a concentration on political science and psychology) from University of California at Berkeley and then studied theology for two years at the Pacific School of Religion.

Wade moved to San Francisco in 1969. Since then, he initiated the Alternative Futures Community, Network Against Psychiatric Assault, Muni Coalition, Bay Area Transit Coalition, District Eleven Residents Association, Bay Area Committee for Alternatives to Psychiatry, Tenderloin Self-Help Center, Tenderloin Jobs Coalition, 509 Cultural Center, Solutions to Poverty Workshop, Campaign to Abolish Poverty, Economic Security Project, Internet Learning Center, San Francisco Progressive Challenge, Inlet.org, TowardPeace.org, and Reaching Beyond the Choir Project. He also has played significant roles with Regional Young Adult Project, Baker Places, Westside Community Mental Health Center, Mental Health Advisory Board, Madness Network News, Vanguard Public Foundation, San Francisco Community Congress, Alliance for Democracy, Iraq Peace Team, and other community-based projects.

In addition, he has been employed by three Methodist churches, Marin Crisis Center, two hospitals, two neighborhood food cooperatives, an award-winning neighborhood newspaper, a low-income housing cooperative, and the Campaign Against More Prisons. Since 1988, Wade has worked part-time as a cab driver while continuing his community-service work full-time as a volunteer.

Wade has had a number of articles published in various outlets, co-edited Madness Network News Reader (Glide Publications, 1972), and has self-published three paperback books that are also online: Economic Security for All: How To End Poverty in the United States, Baghdad Journal, and Promoting the General Welfare: A Campaign for American Values.

Michael Larsen

Before moving to San Francisco, Michael Larsen worked for Bantam, Morrow and Pyramid Books, which was absorbed into Berkley Books. He and his wife Elizabeth Pomada started Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents in 1972. They are members of the Association of Author’s Representatives, and they have sold books to more than 100 publishers.

Writer’s Digest published the third edition of Michael’s book How to Write a Book Proposal early this year. He also wrote Literary Agents: What They Do, How They Do It, and How to Find and Work with the Right One for You, which was selected by two books clubs. With Jay Conrad Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing and Rick Frishman, President of Planned Television Arts, Mike co-authored Guerrilla Marketing for Writers: 100 Weapons for Selling Your Work.

Mike is the author or coauthor of eleven books. He and Elizabeth coauthored California Publicity Outlets (now called Metro California Media), a directory of more than 2,500 consumer media. He and Elizabeth coauthored the six books in the Painted Ladies series. Publishers’ Weekly chose the second book in the series, Daughters of Painted Ladies, as one of the best books of the year.

Along with Wendy Nelder, former President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Mike and Elizabeth are cofounders of the San Francisco Writers Conference, now in its second year, which will take place Presidents Day Weekend, February 18th to 20th at the Sir Francisco Drake Hotel.