I haven't mentioned the book project in awhile. Rest assured, I'm still doing it, and I intend to have it submitted to Lulu.com before (or, more likely, at) the end of January. I really should have created a single entry to explain the book project for the benefit of people just now tuning in, but I didn't. If you want to get up to speed, here are the relevant posts:
There's not much to add. A couple of points have been raised over e-mail. The first concerns the issue of royalties, or, more specifically, that I need to thoroughly address the money issues before anything goes to print. I've covered this in part already, but now I'll get as specific as I can. The book will be released at cost. This means no royalties. Then, if we sell over a hundred copies within six months, I'm thinking we can add a dollar to the cover price. (This is simple to do.) Selling at cost for the first few months will give all the participants an opportunity to purchase copies for themselves, their friends and family, and maybe even their local libraries without paying one cent more than they have to. Also, the low price may entice more potential readers to order copies. If we sell enough copies quickly enough and end up making royalties, the first $149 will be used to finance publication of the second volume of the book in 2006. If we end up earning any money beyond that, then things get complicated. Dividing even a substantial sum among several people could be a real headache and would probably result in inconsequential amounts. ($300 divided 15 ways would only be 20 per person.) Unless we reach the point where each author would get at least $50, it might be better to just donate the funds to some charity we can all agree on. In this case, we would designate someone (other than me) as the treasurer; the money would be sent to them; and they would deposit it and write up a check from their account to the charity. They would then document the payment, perhaps by scanning and posting the receipt. If the book does become wildly successful, then the profits would be divided equally among the contributors regardless of the relative amount of material (number of entries) contributed by each. I doubt profits will ever be a major issue. (To me, selling a mere one hundred would be a great accomplishment in and of itself.) Is everyone okay with this arrangement?
The second issue that was raised was what to do if a contributor is uncomfortable with some of the other material in the book and does not want to be associated with it. I suggested a disclaimer at the beginning of the book stating each contributor, by the mere fact of allowing his/her work to appear in the book, does not necessarily endorse, agree with, or find amusing the work of his/her fellow authors. The person who e-mailed me with this concern said he/she was satisfied with the idea of a disclaimer.
Also, today I got permission to add a bit more material to the book. Tonight I went to another meeting of the Eugene Webloggers Meetup, and asked Michael if he would be willing to contribute, and he said yes. There are two bits of material that I consider extremely bookworthy. (Hopefully everyone agrees.) The first is the Victoria's Secret panty saga comprised of this entry, this letter, and the followup. The other one is this post. The original title was much better, being simply "I Want My Damn Baby", and Michael has agreed to allow it to be published under that title.
Also, I'd like people's opinions on this entry, which was composed by one of my students. I think it's delightful, and I'd have enjoyed it even if I didn't know the first thing about Portuguese. But then again, I tend to like anything related to language. I doubt it would appeal to most readers, but I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on it.
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