Best-selling author Richard Paul Evans recently spoke with the Deseret News about the economy, his latest books and other efforts.
Deseret News: In this current economy, many people don't have a lot of money, many don't have jobs. Are there any solutions or hope to offer?
Richard Paul Evans: Well, the first thing I would tell them is to find joy where they're at. Some of the things that are being shaken by the economy are things that really weren't that important on one level. We create false securities; we create false gods, so to speak. When, you know, the reality is that my dad used to always say to me this country could use a good depression because during the Depression we'd sit around and talk to each other and feel like we have each other; we had time for each other. So, that's the first thing, but that doesn't seem very comforting when you're losing your home, but all things in the past I've lost homes in my life, growing up we lost three homes … you know, I understand.
DN: This is a time, especially with people out of work, when many are working to become authors. What advice would you give them?
EVANS: You know, it's a soulful time to write. It's probably a good time to write, but a bad time to be an author. It's really tough in the book industry, just like other industries. Mainly the major publishers are not taking new authors or they claim not to be. They're very selective about who they'll publish right now. It's a matter of money so the average book is selling fewer copies. They're doing smaller runs so it's kind of a tough time to break into it especially if your idea is to make money at it. It's almost a better time to self-publish; that's if you want to make money to self–publish. If you have the kind of book that you can speak about it. If it's a topic that people can come and listen to you can probably make more money.
DN: Do you think anyone can become an author?
EVANS: Can anyone become an author? No, no. That's so broad. No, I think a lot of people have stories to tell. I think everyone should, as a matter of action in their life, they should write their story. They should bear witness of their life and I think there's something very beautiful about capturing that; what happens to us when we write our own story.
DN: So it could even be like someone writing a journal, not necessarily publishing a story, something like that?
EVANS: Yeah, certainly not everyone should be published anymore than everyone should be a singer. Believe me, you don't want me on "American Idol."
DN: Your "The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me for Women" came out this year. How is it different from your "The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me About Life & Wealth" that was published in 2004 other than it's specifically targeted for women?
EVANS: First of all, all of these stories and examples are based on women because people want to see people they can relate to and so by turning all these stories on women and sharing women's stories that makes it really important. And second, I deal with five issues that women seem to have (different outlooks than men), the problems that women have with money that men don't have. But outside of that, there's part of it that's also kind of a maturity of the book. I've talked to thousands and thousands of people about the five lessons since it came out and met with many women and I've heard their comments from all around the world and what it's done is given me an advantage point I didn't have when I wrote the first book. So, there are parts that I highlight a little more and a little more forceful about some parts and that's the value of the book to actually see it in real life and also to see life's changing. I love it when people come up to me at book signings and tell me they have no debt because of my book.
DN: I love your, "Is that the best you can do?" question.
EVANS: The seven golden words, yes.
DN: Any great short story about how that phrase has helped you?
EVANS: Actually, it helps me all the time. I use it all the time. My staff uses it all the time, but actually the best stories aren't mine. The best story I know of is of a woman who adopted a little Cambodian baby and when the baby came — there were medical bills that came close to $20,000 and they accepted this as part of the deal — but after reading my book the woman thought, 'You know I'm going to try this. I'm going to try this' so she calls the hospital and thanks them for the care of her baby and asks the seven golden words. The administrator, the woman she's talking to, says, 'I don't know. Let me go ask' and she comes back a minute later and she says very happily, 'If you can pay off the balance this month, we can give you 80 percent off.' So this woman saves nearly $16,000 based on the seven golden words.
DN: I'm sure you hear stories like that all over when you travel.
EVANS: I actually do. In fact in every crowd I'm in, I'll ask about using the seven golden words, and there's always a group no matter where I am in the country. People know the seven golden words and every time I ask very confidently, "Do you have a story to share" and they throw their arms up and just want to share. Last night a woman told me that she asked her boss — he was talking to her about her bonus and he asked her what she thought about it. She said she was very grateful, but asked, "Is that the best you can do?" She said she actually ended up making an extra $2,000.
DN: Are you still providing financial seminars? How are they being received and do you plan on taking them international?
EVANS: I do seminars (but) we're not pursuing it nearly as heavy as we were. I will probably this fall, start up again, but I'm in the middle of writing my next novel so I've had to slow down. No, I've had no reason to take it internationally. I would, though, like to do it in Taiwan someday because the book ("The Five Lessons" was) the No. 1 best-seller in Taiwan. In fact I just saw another version in Taiwan that they sent out; it's also a workbook or something. It seems to have quite a following over there, but with the exception of Canada, I haven't toured internationally with any of my books.
DN: Is the economy affecting what you do?
EVANS: You know what, not really, I've been incredibly blessed. My agent informs me that I'm one of just less than a handful of authors whose sales have actually increased over the last few years and so I'm very fortunate. Thank goodness for my fans and that people discover my books, but overall book sales are definitely down across the board.
DN: So, what's it like being a writer?
EVANS: Well, it could be a really nice easy life in a sense if that's all I did. My staff laughs when people ask if I just sit home and write all day. The truth is the vast majority of my time isn't spent writing and that's because of my own personality flaws. I have to be doing six things at once and that's too bad because it would be much more enjoyable to just sit down and write. If that's all I did I would have a very simple life. I could probably move to the country somewhere or move back to Italy and hang out and write because that was a very simple lifestyle and actually some days I really want to do that — the solitude of it — and someday I will do that because I can't keep up the pace that I've been doing for the last 15 years.
DN: What's it like for you writing at your ranch in Zion's? Is it a special place for you?
EVANS: The ranch is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. It's the only place I've ever seen in the United States that seems to get the same sun as in Italy where in the morning it turns everything pink and blue birds perch on our front porch. It's the most beautiful place. I just long to be there all the time. It's the only place I can truly get out of the world and shut off my phone and not care.
DN: So, back to the financial seminars, are you going from state to state to recruit members?
EVANS: Yeah, but we haven't done the heavy recruiting yet. We'll probably wait until the fall to do that. We're just building slowly right now, getting our experts solidified and making all that work. But right now we're happy with 2,000 members. It's a lot of people in our community and our net worth is approaching $80 million.
DN: That's amazing, and when did it start? It hasn't even been a year old has it?
EVANS: No, we started it about February.
DN: Are you finding that woman are buying "The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me for Women" and are also signing up on your community.5lessons.com site as well?
EVANS: Yeah, a lot of them are. The best way I describe to people is that it's like a financial Facebook.
DN: You've been giving away free copies of "The Christmas Box" books?
EVANS: Oh, we shipped out more than 200,000 copies, almost 300,000 last December. There's a reason for that and we're going to do it again this December. When I printed up "The Christmas Box" and then took it off the market, when I sold the rights, I had all these books in storage and they actually sat in storage for more than 10 years. So I finally decided it's time to do something with them and with the economy being bad, I thought I'd just give them away. So if I didn't have the books, I wouldn't have done that. It would have been massively expensive. It would have cost me close to a half a million dollars. But because I had the books I was able to do it, and again we still have some books left, more than 100,000, and we'll finish them off this year.
DN: Would you say it's important for us to be more generous now especially during a down economy?
EVANS: Well, actually, I would because, first of all, there are more people that need help. It might be a different kind of donation but it's definitely needed. You know, in tough times everyone needs to band together. Second, because I think this is a good time for us to reshape our priorities. You know, what really is important and charity is really important … helping others, caring about people is really important. So this is a good time to learn. If you can't learn it in these kinds of times how do you plan to learn it in prosperous times.
There's another side to that … you know a spiritual side … but I also believe there's a certain karma to it, when we give away we're blessed, we receive. And while I can't prove that, my life has more than borne that out … it just feels that way.
DN: What do you want people to know about you and what you're doing that they might not already know?
EVANS: There are two things that they might not know what we're doing. One is The Christmas Box Initiative. We're actually moving ahead in these hard times. We have less money available, but have actually increased our services. It's our goal, within five years, to start out every youth in the foster care system or every youth who's leaving the foster care system, to give them what we call a life starter kit. To contact every youth in the foster care system in America who've aged out of the system and eventually to have mentors for all these youth. So it's a huge, huge thing we're working on but it's a very, very exciting and worthwhile thing because we're losing these kids. More than 50 percent of these kids who age out of foster care, after all the time and money that's been put into their care, more than 50 percent of them will either be in prison, homeless or dead. These are pretty bad stats. We need to address this and we are addressing it. It's our hope to make some measurable change and help these kids so we've partnered up with the National Youth Runaway Hotline. They're working with us so we can help these kids. Right now we're helping all the kids in six states, I believe, so we have 44 more states to go.
Now the other thing is the five lessons institute at community.5lessons.com/ which is our free community that people can go in and join. We're pushing 2,000 members and it's really interesting where we get to share money saving ideas, talk about everything from bankruptcy … we have webinars every week, sometimes several a week. We just signed a new expert on mortgages, "How to make the most of the Obama relief package," who qualifies, who doesn't. The important information is that if you call a bank they probably won't give it to you. A lot of people might not be aware that we have this community and it's a very cool thing. I mean, families should join as a family. You can start family groups. It's a great way to address money to build together.
And the third thing that they probably already do know is that I continue to write. But this fall, I will be writing my first really overt Christmas story. It's the first book that has Christmas in it since "The Christmas Box" and I just think America really needs a Christmas story this year. I think Christmas is just healing; a wonderful time.
E-mail: kimball@every1counts.net