"On Our Own"

So many of the notes I've been getting mention "On Our Own," often saying how much people cherish their copies, or how hard they had to work to find one, that it's frustrating that NEC hasn't ever gotten out the word (except on the Website) that they are available. When the book went out of print in the U.S., people were importing copies from England, but then MIND (the British Mental Health Association--quite different from the U.S. one!) let it go out of print as well. Since I owned the American rights, NEC was able to publish a new American edition, but because they're not a recognized publisher, it doesn't show up on searches, except as "out of print." So it's been hard to spread the word that it can be bought at the National Empowerment Center Web store (www.power2u.org), and is very much in print.

Of all the editions, it's the one with my favorite cover--the only one, in my opinion, that really carries the spirit of the book. It's a painting by an artist (and psychiatric survivor), very artistically representing a woman in transition. The U.S. paperback edition, the one probably people have seen the most, carries exactly the wrong message--a faceless woman in the shadows. I had no say in any of the cover art except the NEC edition.