Nature's God and other hard to find books
Cliff Stabbert
Since there seem to be a number of people interested in acquiring a copy
of the third book of the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, and since it
appears to be out of print, how about a solution along the lines of:
- RAW has 200 copies printed up at his local Kinko's; doesn't have
to look perfect or even like a novel.
- RAW sends them to a place like Amazon who has a program
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/partners/direct/
advantage-for-books.html/102-3571475-2631224
(paste above as one line or navigate through Sell Items button
in upper right corner of main page) for selling direct.
They will take small stocks and replenish as needed; give author
a far better cut than most publishers.
- RAW informs the newsgroup; now people can both a) get a copy and
b) know that RAW is getting direct financial benefit from it
The above plan obviously could have a number of variations, e.g.
somebody else could handle the (minimal) footwork for RAW.
If there's interest enough, I think a whole business (possibly
non-profit/oriented at encouraging authors) could be created on this
basis. There are plenty of top ranked authors and books that are
unavailable these days except by going through out-of-print book search
stores, which cost $$$$ of which the author sees $0. For example,
Richard Brautigan's stuff, or a few of Richard Condon's novels (author
of the Manchurian Candidate), etc.
I think many of us U.S. citizens in this group have gone through the
experience of walking into one of those nice large chain bookstores and
thinking they must have a good selection, only to find that two thirds
of the shelf space is dedicated to the latest hottest lawyer mysteries.
I've found so many books at the small St. Marks Bookstore here in NYC
which I couldn't find at the much larger Barnes & Nobles around town.
You will be hearing again from me soon, I am sure.
cps
Distim the framishgosses!
Stewart Smith
If you're speaking to RAW about this then tell him to write some more
fiction! We want Bride of Illuminatus.
Stew
--
Stewart Smith
Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Edinburgh
http://www.ee.ed.ac.uk/~sxs, Stewar...@ee.ed.ac.uk
Kropotkin
you are a voracious reader (I suspect most of this newsgroup are) and want
something even slightly out of the "ordinary". Second hand bookstores (unless
they're really large) don't seem to be much better in this regard. I think what
really sold me on the idea of the Internet involved a book that I had been
fruitlessly searching for for years : Mutual Aid by Peter Kropotkin. Nobody had
this book, no one could get it. I sat down at my mother's computer and in five
minutes found the entire text online...
In fact, this seems to be a key to the future of publishing. I read an article
recently where one of the big chains (I forget which) was planning to print
out-of-print books at customer request! Just ask for the book, the text will be
downloaded from the 'net, you browse the store for fifteen minutes while it is
printed out and set into a cover (paperback) and off you go. I suspect this may
be in the future for a lot of industries. As manufacturing technology becomes
more efficient and takes up a lot less space, a lot of items can be produced
"in shop" in just a matter of minutes.
And don't get me started on nanotechnology....
Cliff Stabbert
>
> The availability of titles from the big chains is unbelievably
> frustrating if you are a voracious reader (I suspect most of this
> newsgroup are) and want something even slightly out of the
> "ordinary". Second hand bookstores (unless they're really large)
> don't seem to be much better in this regard. I think what really sold
> me on the idea of the Internet involved a book that I had been
> fruitlessly searching for for years : Mutual Aid by Peter Kropotkin.
...a relative I presume? What's it about? Sounds political...
> Nobody had this book, no one could get it. I sat down at my mother's
> computer and in five minutes found the entire text online...
> In fact, this seems to be a key to the future of publishing. I read
> an article recently where one of the big chains (I forget which) was
> planning to print out-of-print books at customer request! Just ask
> for the book, the text will be downloaded from the 'net, you browse
> the store for fifteen minutes while it is printed out and set into a
> cover (paperback) and off you go.
I'd hate to burst your bubble but I've heard about this kind of thing
for _at least_ ten years now and it still hasn't happened. Xerox had big
plans for it at one point.
I say, screw 'em all. Let's do it ourselves. RAW, go have a few hundred
copies printed and sell 'em through Amazon - heck, sell them direct if
you want to get credit card processing set up at your site, that's
probably easy enough these days.
> I suspect this may be in the future
> for a lot of industries.
Again, I've heard lots of plans but have yet to see any really acted on.
I think I did actually see a "compilation CD builder" machine once but I
think they flopped - probably because of the length of time it took to
burn the CD.
But take a look at this:
http://home.clara.net/mad.dog/mp3.htm
I'm sure they're not the only ones.
Here's my take on this: once it becomes technically possible to do
things of this nature, the payment structure needs to change. You can't
copy protect everything - there's too many hackers.
And please, don't give me the "reasoning" that copying a CD is depriving
the artist of money - all illegal copies combined still represent only
the barest *fraction* of the amount the *record companies* steal from
the artists. That's why I'm with mp3.com [/self-promote on]
mp3.com/cliff - check it out! new song $46 up soon! [/self-promote off]
Todd Rundgren I believe has some sort of subscription thing going. His
fans pay $x per month, and he just keeps making music. Every y months or
so he sends out a new CD to them.
I like that idea - I would *gladly* pay $20 per month or more for RAW's
output.
A different approach: create a site like mp3.com featuring either music
or books or what have you. Artists upload their material to the site.
People subscribe to the site for $x per month and can then download *as
much as they want*. Artists get paid according to their percentage of
downloads.
Many other approaches are feasible. This obviously needs some more
brainstorming but you see where I'm going, I think.
The whole notion of technology fighting technology - such as cable tv
boxes here in the U.S., or the descrambler boxes which I believe are
used worldwide for satellite TV, are of course nonsensical wasted effort
if you can zoom out far enough.
> As manufacturing technology becomes
> more efficient and takes up a lot less space, a lot of items can be
> produced "in shop" in just a matter of minutes.
There was this pretty cool "3D printer" I saw a while back. $10,000 or
so but what it did was take output from your CAD ("Computer Aided
Design" - used in manufacturing, architecture, etc.) program and shaped
[lathed?] the 3-dimensional shapes out of styrofoam. The same catalog
that featured this printer also had a knitting or cross-stiching
printer...design your fabric and hit the print button. Nifty stuff.
> And don't get me started on nanotechnology....
Have you read The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (author of Snow Crash)?
*Excellent* book. Others on this group I'm sure would second this
recommendation.
Also, and I should submit him as a RAW-related author: K. Eric Drexler,
one of the 'fathers' of nanotech, has bunches of his writings up for
free. Fascinating stuff and all available at
http://www.foresight.org/homepage.html
Especially of note are
http://www.foresight.org/Updates/Background4.html
and
http://www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_12.html
and chapt_13.html
Kropotkin
>
>...a relative I presume? What's it about? Sounds political...
>
My favorite anarchist writer. In Mutual Aid, Kropotkin argues that competition
has been overemphasized as a survival trait by somebunall Darwinists. It is
also political as he indicates that this overemphasis is based on what
capitalist societies want to hear. Recommended.