Bookworks Presents Shelf Awareness for Readers: Jonathan Tasini: 'Crashing' a Book

How do you capture the spirit and energy of a lightning-fast movement and get that information to people in a hurry? That's the task I faced in writing about Bernie Sanders and his populist presidential campaign.

I was perfectly suited to writing The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America (Chelsea Green, $14) because half of my professional life has been in social and political organizing. To be useful, this book had to be about Bernie and speak to the millions of people who want to hear what he has to say. Which means, as the author, I had to get out of the way.

Roughly 95% of the book is Bernie's words taken from his speeches, statements and media appearances over the course of his political career. Because he is relatively unknown to a large swath of the voting public outside of his home state of Vermont, it was important to end each chapter with a few clear examples of Bernie's voluminous, concrete accomplishments.

I also worked to make the book light and easy to carry, and to make sure each chapter is very short so people could easily find the individual issue or issues drawing them to Bernie's campaign.

This whole publishing miracle was made possible by the dream relationship with Chelsea Green. To try to keep pace with the surge fueling Bernie's campaign, I believe we broke a record: only 22 days elapsed from the time publisher Margo Baldwin asked for an outline to the day I submitted the final copy; then only 37 more days until we had bound books! And who better to work with than a Vermont, independent, employee-owned publisher?

The stars aligned perfectly with a movement's messenger, who questions the dominance of powerful corporations, linking up with a nimble publisher dedicated to independent voices. --Jonathan Tasini

Tasini is a writer, organizational strategist and an economics and political analyst. He served as president of the National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981) for 13 years.

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