McGuire’s Nautilus Awards: “Changing the World, One Book at a Time”

Nautilus Awards Consultants,clockwise from lower left, Antoinette Botsford, Patty Monaco and Shawn Shelton, assist Marilyn McGuire at the Nautilus offices

As winter hibernation slowly yields through the rainy days of spring into the warmth of summer, many Orcas Islanders are enjoying their favorite indoor sport — curled up with good books.

Over two dozen islanders are a part of the national Nautilus Awards process, shepherded by island publisher Marilyn McGuire.  The Nautilus Awards annually recognize “Books and Audio Books that Promote Spiritual Growth,
Conscious Living, and Positive Social Change as they stimulate the imagination and inspire the reader to new possibilities for a better world.”

Authors recognized by winning Nautilus Awards include Deepak Chopra, Barbara Kingsolver, Marianne Williamson, Thich Nhat Hanh, Julia Cameron, Eckhart Tolle, Naomi Wolf, the Dalai Lama, Riane Eisler, Matthew Fox and Christiane Northrup, among many others.

McGuire’s professional career has incorporated most of the facets of publishing, from editing to printing to marketing and internet publishing. She came to Orcas Island from Alabama in 1986 on a publishing project. While working on the project, she became increasingly aware of all the books that were being written that spoke to her own interests in spirituality, awareness and positive change.

“I was always interested in getting good information out to the world,” she says, but saw that the explorations in human consciousness had not gained the respect and recognition they are awarded today. So she launched the trade organization, “New Alternatives for Publishers, Retailers and Artists” (NAPRA). “I saw a lot of good in these books about positive social change, spiritual understanding and conscious living,” says McGuire, “but they were being criticized and invalidated.”

For years, NAPRA operated out of the second story of Eastsound Square, reviewing books in the body-mind-spirit “niche” in a bi-monthly magazine.

In addition to the magazine, McGuire created the Nautilus Book Awards, a prestigious awards program for books that supported NAPRA’s vision. McGuire makes liberal use of colorful idioms in her Southern-tinged accent, but she dismisses the label “New Age” as “newage” (rhymes with “sewage”), as overused and without definition.

It took a big staff to produce the magazine, and eventually McGuire recognized the advance of electronic information meant the economic basis of book publishing had irrevocably changed. Also she reasoned that it is not sustainable ecologically to continue printing magazines.  By the time she closed NAPRA offices in 2003, she was the employer of 25 employees including 20 island residents and others from California, Washington D.C., Michigan and Colorado working on the publication of the magazine and NAPRA’s membership.

But since reviewing books was the primary focus of the magazine, and certain books “were stellar,” McGuire has maintained the Nautilus Book Awards program, named after the image in the Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem “The Chambered Nautilus.”

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

McGuire says, “The shell of the chambered nautilus contains the Golden Mean, a sacred symbol in nature.  The configuration of the chambered nautilus shell represents the continual evolution into one’s highest self as we move to ever more vaulted ceilings until at last we’re free.  And as we evolve we become better, kinder, more loving …

“With  mass global communication, political upheaval, depletion and destruction of our natural resources along with religious and secular fanaticism all growing at an alarming rate,  we believe the need for books that promote viable options for positive social change is vast, and the phrase,  “Changing the World One Book at a Time” is more meaningful than ever before. Authors and publishers and their books CAN and ARE making a difference.”

McGuire says, “We provide space in our booths at the Book Expo America for these inspirational and life-changing books where many of the authors of Silver- and Gold-Winning titles exhibit and sign their books.” With the Nautilus Award, a book gets more attention and often second notice from major publishers such as  National Geographic and others, who have come to the Nautilus Book Awards booth and made arrangements to  purchase the copyrights from the author or small publishers of the winning titles.

In the last 10 years, McGuire’s organization and book awards program  has experienced “very subtle growth,” and the Nautilus Award is “a lot more recognized now, we represent a small part of the market, but now it is totally embraced by the mainstream.”

The Nautilus Award’s comprehensive, three-tier structure for judging the books has earned the respect of publishers and the reading public.

The first pass is an evaluation, with revisions to the evaluation form each year. A book must “rate” on this sheet before going on to the second test – reading separately by two judges in each of the 28 categories.  Most of these Nautilus judges live on Orcas Island, where McGuire has found a coterie of qualified, experienced, and critical readers.  There’s a “weight” to the Nautilus awards in that there is a variety of people reading with expertise or experience in different areas, she says.  Due to contest rules, the judges can’t be identified to the public.

The judging process also involves an orientation workshop for the readers, and a debriefing following the season’s work.

Shawn Shelton is Office Manager at the OPAL building, and says, “I read everything and I’m a book addict.” She also assists Patty Monaco and Antoinette Botsford, who have been with McGuire since the late 80s: Monaco as Assistant Publisher of the magazine, and Botsford as the editor of children’s books.

The three women also organize the judging process.

Botsford reads all the book entries in the children’s categories and is sometimes the tie-breaker in judging a book.  She says, “The last thing you want to do is overlook a good book, but there’s a danger in getting blasé.” Sometimes she’ll refresh her literary palate by re-reading all of a great author, such as Madeline L’Engel.

Speaking of the Memoir category, Monaco says she is always amazed at how many people have a compelling story to tell. “I’m also amazed at the breadth of the writing, the interest in writing in all genres, not just their own story.”

The consultants note the growth of “visionary fiction,” a category that suggests the possibility of something to make life better than it is now and conveys the principals of higher life without preaching, “much the way a movie or drama can change one’s perspective,” says Monaco.

Although the two mid-level judges usually come from different perspectives, several have said they are surprised how frequently they recognize the qualities that sink a book or sail it across the silver medal threshold. After reading and writing evaluations of each entry, the two judges then meet and agree on 4 to 6 “Silver” candidates, who go on to final judging for the “Gold” award in their categories.

“A gold winner in each category is not guaranteed, though,” says McGuire. “Sometimes we don’t have a gold because a certain standard hasn’t been met. There are so many books the world could do without — we’re looking for those books worth cutting down a tree for.” She values the feedback and dialogue with the authors, many of whom receive personalized feedback on his or her entry.

Marilyn McGuire & Associates now occupies a corner office in the OPAL building on Enchanted Forest Road. McGuire has weathered the  personal and professional bumps and dips on the road of bringing worthwhile books to the reading public.  She says, “It’s a wonder I’m sitting here,” and recalls that when she closed the NAPRA offices, she had a tremendous debt to repay, “because after 9-11, when people were afraid to advertise, I gave credit to our advertisers – and  it took me a long time to pay my vendors.

“But I’ve developed something I believe in and I’ve kept it going somehow, although the margins are thin,  we believe we are providing a curriculum for those folks out there who are yearning for a new story. Books are a wonderful resource, and along with them bookstores, publishers, authors, editors and others, creating with the written world. “

Last year, McGuire created the Nautilus Library of Imagination and Possibility, a website where all gold and silver winners are listed and the titles are being  linked to their publishers’ websites. She continues her work as a publishing consultant.

“We have felt as an organization that the world has operated without a clear vision for a long time. We have to have imagination in order to create a vision for  a better world, and we’re looking for books with thoughts and ideas of how we can  do that .”

For more information about the Nautilus Awards visit www.nautilusbookawards.com