Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

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).