Table Of Contents Chapter Links For "From Volcanoes To Vitality - The Untold Story of Asao Shimanishi - The Man Who Cracked Earth's Hidden Code For Vitality And Health"

It just dawned on me (painfully, spectacularly) that I failed to tell my own readers the entire book is already available online. Diagnosis: severe messaging deficiency. Anyway, here are the links.

Ed: For those interested in reading the entire book, I would suggest bookmarking this post so you have easy access to all of the hyperlinked chapters in the Table of Contents below :)

The Day I Invented Substack Book Publishing (Badly)

I woke up this morning with a colossal “palm-to-forehead” moment.
While enjoying my first coffee and replying to reader comments on my book, I slowly realized I had somehow failed to make it clear that the entire book is already available to paid subscribers—right now!

Not-so-fun fact: as far as I know, no one has ever published a whole book on Substack, in serial fashion—meaning each post is a chapter with a link at the bottom to the next one. (Brilliant idea, right? Well, just wait.)

Of course, publishing in serial form isn’t “novel” (ignore the pun, please). From the 1830s through the early 1900s, literary giants like Dickens, Tolstoy, Hardy, Zola, and James all released their novels in installments—one chapter at a time in weekly or monthly magazines (not that I am putting myself in their category). Readers followed them like we now binge-watch TV seasons, breathlessly awaiting the next cliffhanger.

It was actually one of the greatest advances in the dissemination of writing and thought - just as literacy rates were surging, it allowed working and middle-class readers to access major works cheaply. The approach revolutionized reading: cheap, accessible, and addictive. It turned literature into a communal event—people discussed each new “episode” around literal water coolers (well, pubs). It was also great business: publishers got repeat customers, writers got steady paychecks, and the world got Great Expectations and Anna Karenina.

Now, I’d like to say that “Pierre’s Publishing Plan” was inspired by this noble history. But no—I dreamed it up entirely on my own, convinced it was a genius idea. Except that, when it came time to execute this plan… it turned out to be a complete pain in the ass.

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How I Spent Saturday, October 25, 2025

I woke up pumped. The night before, I’d finally finished the book that had consumed ten obsessive weeks of my life. I couldn’t wait to share it with my paid Substack subscribers—an audience I’d neglected while writing the book and I desperately wanted to make it up to them.

Little did I know I was about to spend the next thirteen straight hours at my desk.

Normally, posting on Substack is simple. But my “brilliant” idea—to publish the entire book at once, each chapter as its own post, linked sequentially—quickly turned into a logistical nightmare. Here’s what that looked like:

1. Publish backward: I had to start from the last chapter and work my way to the first so they’d appear in order on the archive.

2. Avoid email chaos: Each post had to not go out to subscribers—otherwise, you’d have gotten random emails like “Chapter 9: Volcano Alchemist: Asao Shimanishi and the Code Hidden in Black Mica.

3. Link madness: Each chapter’s link to the next only existed after publishing the next one—so I was constantly jumping back and forth.

4. Typos galore: I discovered a templated post-script message typo after posting all 42 chapters, sub-chapters, and appendices.

5. Mangled chapter numbering: Fixing that took eons (and possibly part of my soul).

Finally, exhausted but triumphant, after “carefully” reviewing all, I published the “Intro to the Book” post and hit “launch” (i.e. an email to just my paid subscribers as I will be soon publishing the book in hard copy to the rest of the public). Everything looked perfect—until I realized I’d forgotten to include the Table of Contents with all the chapter links.

Hence, the forehead-slap (I am also pretty sure my readers can imagine the many swear words reverberating throughout the house).

Anyway, I needed to vent (and laugh at myself a bit). So, without further ado—here’s the actual Table of Contents and the full book, for all you patient, paid subscribers. Enjoy.