The Waltons (TV Series) The Book (1974) User Reviews

The Book Got Printed

[janet-conant · 7/10 · 5 February 2021]

No review really but I did enjoy this episode. I do have one key question and that was how does a first year college student on a scholarship and living at home pay a $50 bill for the box of books? Hey maybe he did peddle them on campus like another reviewer said. John Boy said he wasn't worried about the $50 but he should have been. I'm surprised Olivia didn't have to put at least 15% down before they agreed to publish all those books and Olivia and John Boy were too passive about that contract. John senior really should have demanded they go over the contract but then there wouldn't be an episode. Another mystery is how his writing professor didn't question who his publisher was and make him aware of vanity presses. The others in the class were so prolific in their writing not one questioned how he got published.

After receiving that carton of books a smart guy like John Boy would wonder why they sent him so many. The other plot with Jason getting an audition and then hired by Bobby Bigelow was almost as intriguing as John Boy's excitement.

John-Boy & Jason get a start on the chosen careers

[FlushingCaps · 10/10 · 13 March 2014]

This was one of the more exciting episodes--if you feel empathy for the characters, like you would for a friend, that is. The two oldest Walton children have exciting news concerning their first big chances at their chosen careers of writing and being a musician.

John-Boy's comes shortly after he begins to doubt that he really is any good as a writer, joining a special writing class at Boatwright, with upper class students whose writing seems to be more advanced and more serious than his short stories about his family.

Olivia answers an ad from a local publisher seeking young authors, submitting some of his stories.

The very day the publisher's letter arrives, saying they would like to publish John-Boy's work happens to be the day Jason arrives home all excited because of a chance encounter at Ike's, he has a chance to audition to play with a locally-famous band that performs around the state. Modest Jason, tries to tell people his good news, but everyone is so excited about John-Boy's big news that they literally don't hear him. He decides to just go ahead on his own and shows no anger toward the family, understanding they are not purposely ignoring him.

When the contract arrives, John tries to look at it, but John-Boy pulls it away, saying he'd like his mother to co-sign it because she is the one who submitted his work. She and he both sign and the only one who was actually going to read it, John, just lets it go.

If nothing else, this "success" for John-Boy not only gives him confidence in his class, but the news of it makes him somewhat a celebrity within that class.

Spoiler alert here is only necessary if you haven't read the IMDb plot summary: Some time later a box arrives and again everyone is excited to see a few dozen copies of John-Boy first published work. It is a real hardcover, professionally published book, but what they overlooked is that it came from a "vanity" press. That means they have to pay $50 for those 50 books. The publisher is simply charging people to publish the books. There is no distribution to book stores, no advertising. They do nothing but put the stories onto paper and charge the author for this privilege.

In real life, these publishers still operate today and many people have shed tears because they are fooled into thinking they have a talent for writing based on these publishers, and they wind up owing money to boot.

Meanwhile Jason is really getting a start, impressing Bobby Bigelow and getting a chance to earn money playing with his band whenever they are in the area for $3.50 per night.

The way the family worked together on making a row boat safe for use was a minor plot that was nice to see.

I was caught up in the thought of how exciting for each young man to get a chance to get started on their dream profession. Even though it didn't work out for both, it was an excellent episode to see how excited they were at the prospect of success. We had good things happen to at least one person, a lesson learned about reading contracts and about believing in yourself, and saw the family share each other's joy. Sounds like everything fans of this series like to me. I rate it a 10.

PRIDE GOETH BEFORE THE FALL

[Diosprometheus · 4/10 · 26 March 2020]

The themes of this episode are pride and vanity. John-Boy is the object of both. He enters a special writing class and, at first, feels inferior to the other students. Meanwhile his determined mother, worried about her son, seeks out a book publisher, not realizing it is a Vanity Press.

When John-Boy learns his writings are going to published in book form, his confidence grows as does his ego. He becomes a braggart, and conceited around his pretentious classmates, only to end up embarrassed when he learns his writings are published by a Vanity Press and that he is responsible for the bill.

The program shows the Vanity Press as a shady business run by dishonest people who resort to trickery to sucker people into paying for their writings to be published. John-Boy had ample opportunity to learn the truth when he signed the contract but his pride at being published made him not carefully read the contract agreement to the point of even objecting to his father reading it.

Some people may think a Vanity Press is a con job as a previous reviewer wrote but they are, in fact, a legitimate business.

John-Boy's published short stories were not worthless as shown in the episode, he received his books as agreed in the contract, he also had a responsibility to sell his books. I have known people who have used a Vanity Press to get their writings published, and then have marketed them and had them sold in legitimate bookstores. When interviewing them, they seemed quite happy and excited by their success. I am sure there are less ambitious people who do not follow through but selling your product is part of the agreement you are making when you use such a service. The show simply fails to follow up on this aspect of using a vanity press so John-Boy's are shown as a worthless adventure.

There are things John-Boy could have done to sell his books. He could have taken them to his college book store and worked out an agreement that they would receive a percentage of the sales, and priced his books so that he could pay off his bill to the publisher and made a profit. He could have taken them to the town book store and worked out a similar agreement. He could have advertised them in a local newspapers, or bought advertising in a magazine or comic as bodybuilder Joe Wider did when starting his body-building and nutrition business or Hal Richman did later when starting his famous sport game company Stat-O-Matic. He could have set up a stand on his campus and sold his books from there. John-Boy simply gave up and acted emotionally irrational when he learned of his mother's mistake in publisher and acted like his precious writings were worthless because he was published in a Vanity Press.