[Homestead] Gene's book (was: Those who move to the land)
Gene GeRue
genegerue at ruralize.com
Wed Feb 4 15:13:31 EST 2009
Karen,
With the last edition now a teenager, I have been thinking about a new
edition. I choose not to invest the price of a couple thousand copies
to keep the per-unit printing cost reasonable. As I recall it was one
of your posts that led me to start thinking obout Print-On-Demand
publishing. So, thank you for that. I feel my book is still useful and
with regard to current economic conditions may well be helpful to yet
the next wave of back-to-the-landers. The historic record is one of
reverse migrations as city living becomes expensive, uncertain or
economic conditions become bad. I expect such conditions to intensify.
Amazon has a POD program that I have begun to consider. They want
several hundred dollars to convert PDF files to whatever it is that
they use to print books in very small runs. They offer thirty-five
percent of sale price. Alas, my old PageMaker files are no longer
supported, so there would be lots of scanning and layout to be done
even after the rewriting.
I figure it would take me three to six months to rewrite, bring all
text and references up to current knowledge, make a new index, perhaps
draw some new illustrations. There are new conditions for rural land
seekers to consider, such as potential climate change effects on
growing seasons in the various parts of the country.
As always I have more ideas and passions than time, so I am not yet
motivated to make the time investment. I feel a new edition would make
at least a modest financial payback and I am certain that there are
people whose journeys would be helped by the book, but, well, see above.
I am also considering three versions of the next edition, one, a
short, no-illustration, fast-read edition for those who just want the
synopsized info; two, a "coffee table" version in the larger format I
prefer for old eyes and detailed maps, and, three, I am also
considering making the book available for free on the new Ruralize.com
site that Don is creating.
I will take a look at Lightning Source.
Thank you for your suggestions,
Gene
On Feb 4, 2009, at 12:10 PM, Karen L. Black wrote:
> Gene writes:
>
>> The bad and the good news is that it is out of print..
>
> Gene, do you have the rights to your book? If you do, you could
> republish it
> through Lightning Source. It costs us roughly $100 (not counting
> labor) to
> set up a book for publication, which can be recouped in a fairly small
> number of sales. Robert has even republished his old book "Through
> Dungeons
> Deep"
> (http://www.amazon.com/Through-Dungeons-Deep-Robert-Plamondon/dp/0972177078/
> ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233774459&sr=8-1) because used
> copies
> of the original hardback were going for quite ridiculous prices
> (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0835976874/ref=sr_1_olp_5?ie=UTF8&s=
> books&qid=1233774503&sr=1-5).
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