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PREFACE

Manuals on many topics are entering the ISKCON market: cooking,
teaching, communications, Āyurveda, home schooling, Deity worship, tulasī
care, the āśramas, the dhāmas, studying śāstra, Ratha-cart construction.
Now, also, a manual is available that will help devotees become proficient
in the art of distributing books: The Nectar of Book Distribution. This book
consists mainly of statements by pioneers, leaders, and other experienced
devotees in the field of book distribution. Fearing that the wisdom of their
years of experience might be lost, we compiled this book as a service for
the present and future generations of ISKCON devotees. It systematically
presents for the first time both philosophical explanations of the mission of
book distribution and practical guidelines.
ISKCON has only a few books about book distribution. Distribute Books,
Distribute Books, Distribute Books, by Satsvarūpa Dāsa Goswami, gives
inspiring accounts of the early years of book distribution, the development
of large-scale book distribution, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s great pleasure in seeing
book distribution increase, and the invention of the Christmas marathon (now
called the Prabhupāda marathon). If You Want to Please Me is a compilation
of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s statements on book distribution and publication. And
several other books mention book distribution, for example, Prabhupāda
Śikṣāmṛta, Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, Preaching Is the Essence, ISKCON
in the 1970s, Servant of the Servant and A Transcendental Diary.
Because the books just mentioned already recount the history of book
distribution and reproduce every one of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s statements on
the topic, The Nectar of Book Distribution has another purpose to serve.
First of all, space limited our selection of Prabhupāda’s statements to
passages relevant to the context. (Whoever desires to read the complete
quotations can do so easily nowadays with the available source material.)
In selecting statements, we were on guard not to present a one-sided view of
Śrīla Prabhupāda’s preaching mission. Rather, the statements we used show
how Śrīla Prabhupāda taught that all of ISKCON benefits from successful
book distribution. Therefore this publication is important not only for book
distributors but for ISKCON at large.
Second, book distribution has unlimited aspects, so we had to be
selective, and thus this book does not cover all the possible topics in detail.
The Nectar of Book Distribution is simply meant to be an outline of basic
points, illustrated by a selection of statements by Śrīla Prabhupāda and his
followers on the philosophy and practice of book distribution. Because it