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Publish A Book?


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I have a thought....don't laugh! Several here have great road stories. Suppose I fronted the money to self publish a book...not too fancy....that included some of the gang's photos and stories. If it sold, after the costs of production were covered (translated, Dave got his money back), we could donate the net proceeds to the American Road Foundation.

 

Reactions, advice, etc. I'm on the road for a few days, but I'll get back to your replies ASAP.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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My thought is that it would be fun. And if you ever had the desire to say you were "published" you could leave a copy on your coffee table for friends to "discover."

 

There is a lot of good research and documentation that has already been done on the forum so it might be easy for folks to recompile their work posted here and put it in the form of a few pages of description and photos for the "book."

 

Just exploring possibilities.......

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Going just a bit further over the past 30+ years I've put together a 300 page book, General Information Book for Hudson Built Automobiles. At least it's 300 pp now - the first one I put together around 1984 ran about 175 pages. It done got fat over the years - which is what computer access will do to you.

 

Now, this effort of mine ain't never gonna make the New York Times best seller list - probably won't ever get out of the basement. The old adage "you got to spend money to make money" is one factor against me. I don't have money to make money with!!! Besides I'd hate to have to change my tax bracket - I get all my with-holding back now so why tempt fate.

 

Anyway, what happens with this is every so often I go on the Hudson forum and nudge people that I do have something to sell out here. I usually do this when I can try and generate sympathy for my cause - like the cat's got to go to the vet and I need a few bucks so buy my book - (actually such things as "I need a few bucks to get to the National meet" - where I might sell a few copies - or "I need some help here paying my dues" help a lot).

 

Point I'm getting to is I got (1) a scanner that one of these days is going to self destruct from over use; (2) a good OCR program (Optical Character Recognition for those of you who don't have a clue what OCR means); and, best of all, an HP Laser Jet 1018 laser printer. Only drawback to this little jewel is toner cartridges are, if you buy "off-the-shelf" around $65, last time I looked. Ah, but there is a little jewel out there called InkJetSuperstore.com who are more than willing to send me rebuilt cartridges for $21 each. Good for at least 1600, 1700 pages, but you can get a little over 2000 if you play with it.

 

So with a laser printer, some 96/24 ink jet/laser paper from Wally World I can print off a 300 pp copy in about 45 min to an hour. Just as an aside, an ink jet printer takes about 2 days and 5 or 6 cartridges - at about $25 a pop for them things.

 

So there's a thought for you. It's about as cheap as you can get. As for binding, I put my production in a 3-ring notebook simply because I got one of them old (weighs a ton) 3 hold punches and 1" binders at Wally World can be had for a tad under $2 once in a great while. A sprial binding would be even better - but I don't have the equipment for that.

 

 

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

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Hey, who would laugh?! :) We all have intersting experiences and stories to share. And Dave, as you know better than most, I just had my 224 full color Broadway of America book published, so if desired, I could elaborate on the process I ultimately ended up using and I can give you a breakdown of the software needed, publishes I investigated and ended up using, etc. But right up front, the I can certainly tell you, a full-color project will be 3-4 times the costs of a B&W project. If color is desired, costs could be reducd if you just had say one section of color, or say a series of color pages at an easily identifed hard-break page segments of the book such as the end of chapters etc. Something where you could tell a publisher that "the book is B&W except for pages 120-124, 180-185 and 220-230 which are to be full color". Somehting I learned the hard way, but I wanted mine to be full color to show off my photography, but boy, do you pay for it! :)

 

Jeff in Tucson

bygonebyways.com

 

 

 

 

 

I have a thought....don't laugh! Several here have great road stories. Suppose I fronted the money to self publish a book...not too fancy....that included some of the gang's photos and stories. If it sold, after the costs of production were covered (translated, Dave got his money back), we could donate the net proceeds to the American Road Foundation.

 

Reactions, advice, etc. I'm on the road for a few days, but I'll get back to your replies ASAP.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Hey, who would laugh?! :) We all have intersting experiences and stories to share. And Dave, as you know better than most, I just had my 224 full color Broadway of America book published, so if desired, I could elaborate on the process I ultimately ended up using and I can give you a breakdown of the software needed, publishes I investigated and ended up using, etc. But right up front, the I can certainly tell you, a full-color project will be 3-4 times the costs of a B&W project. If color is desired, costs could be reducd if you just had say one section of color, or say a series of color pages at an easily identifed hard-break page segments of the book such as the end of chapters etc. Something where you could tell a publisher that "the book is B&W except for pages 120-124, 180-185 and 220-230 which are to be full color". Somehting I learned the hard way, but I wanted mine to be full color to show off my photography, but boy, do you pay for it! :)

 

Jeff in Tucson

bygonebyways.com

 

I am going to let this idea "mature" a bit, but here is the follow-up as of today (June 11, 2010)

 

First, Thanks to each for your cogent comments.

 

Jeff, you produced a top professional grade product in every way, better than 90% of the books out there, and in my view a must have for anyone who loves the old roads. Your advice will be gold, but I have no aspirations to even approach the quality of your effort.

 

However, you indirectly raise a serious problem I didn't consider. Expectations may differ.

 

I was "inspired" by a little self published book of perhaps 80 - 100 pages that a fellow in Florida did describing his 50 years in light houses along the Florida Gulf Coast. I figured that I could just about compile a similar quality book from stories already posted here, if the "gang" wanted to send me their text and photos, in some agreed to format. I would just reformat. I have an old version of PageMaker 5 for layout.

 

I think I can have printed 100 copies of a 75 to 100 page book (soft cover) with color cover with 25-30 pages of color inside for $600 or less. If ten of us wanted to contribute a piece, each of us could get 7-9 pages of text and photos in the book.

 

But that is vastly different than your book, and if contributors of pieces expected a top quality product, they could be disappointed.

 

I think I will take a wait and see attitude. I'm game to consider pulling together a little amateur self published book, and spend a few hundred for the fun, but I don't want to spend money and have friends expectations not met.

 

I'll keep the topic open for more thoughts.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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I am going to let this idea "mature" a bit, but here is the follow-up as of today (June 11, 2010)

 

 

I think I can have printed 100 copies of a 75 to 100 page book (soft cover) with color cover with 25-30 pages of color inside for $600 or less. If ten of us wanted to contribute a piece, each of us could get 7-9 pages of text and photos in the book.

 

But that is vastly different than your book, and if contributors of pieces expected a top quality product, they could be disappointed.

 

I think I will take a wait and see attitude. I'm game to consider pulling together a little amateur self published book, and spend a few hundred for the fun, but I don't want to spend money and have friends expectations not met.

 

I'll keep the topic open for more thoughts.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

 

 

Sometimes off-the-wall is better. We are a diverse group - I for one would not expect professional style production (ie, Houghton Mifflin, William Morrow, et al) - I would enjoy having a self-published book on my shelf that contained writings by, and for, my fellow road travelers. I can go to one of the on-line .com's (Alibris, Amazon) or my local book stores and buy pretty much anything I'd like to read (tho these days I'm trying to "read-out" the library).

 

No, I'd love to have a little book, such you propose, and it would be something I'd point out to people who came by to visit as something special. I do hope you will pursue this - and I hope, if and when, I have a little spare cash (I'll get it somewhere) to purchase a copy.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

Edited by Alex Burr - hester_nec
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Sometimes off-the-wall is better. We are a diverse group - I for one would not expect professional style production (ie, Houghton Mifflin, William Morrow, et al) - I would enjoy having a self-published book on my shelf that contained writings by, and for, my fellow road travelers. I can go to one of the on-line .com's (Alibris, Amazon) or my local book stores and buy pretty much anything I'd like to read (tho these days I'm trying to "read-out" the library).

 

No, I'd love to have a little book, such you propose, and it would be something I'd point out to people who came by to visit as something special. I do hope you will pursue this - and I hope, if and when, I have a little spare cash (I'll get it somewhere) to purchase a copy.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

 

Alex,

 

Good....I'll count you in if we go ahead. I think you have characterized my view of the project pretty well. We aren't likely to launch anyone's writing career! Just a group of roadies who will get a kick out of having a piece in a book.

 

Let's see what others have to say.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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