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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Gene's book (was: Those who move to the land)
  • Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2009 13:13:31 -0700

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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