I posted this a couple days ago. I've already gotten some enthuiastic
responses, so hopefully we should be having some new contributors soon
(and perhaps introduce a few new people into the general conlanging
community). :-)

 - Sai

http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-3082.html

Hello, everyone.

The Conlang Books Project has recently started. Its goal is to produce
two
books about language creation.

The first is a linguistics textbook, beginning/intermediate level, to
teach
linguistics implicitly (and explicitly) by guiding the reader through
the
creation of a new language of their own. The target audience is: intro
linguistics & general ed college students; creative writing students;
general linguaphiles and linguists; professional novelists & game
designers; and of course conlangers.

The second is a book of advanced essays about language creation
(conlanging), encompassing philosophy, technique, and artistry. The
target
audience is about the same, but assumes an existing knowledge of basic
linguistics (as taught, e.g., by the first book).

This is a call for contributors & authors.

If you are interested, please see
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/conlang-books/web/links and read
the
Overview and Style Guide for a concise summary of our approach (as it
differs significantly from the standard version); you can join the
discussion group from that page as well. Of course you are welcome to
contact me at the email below with any questions.

Some specific topics that we want to cover:

For the textbook: linguistic universals, sound systems, signed systems,
writing systems, morphology, syntax, semantics, vocabulary generation,
language change & acquisition / diachronic linguistics, pragmatics,
some
cognitive linguistics; etc.

For the essays: history of conlanging; Sapir-Whorf applicability /
testability; fluency; popularization & spread of new languages;
sociology
of conlanging; advanced sign language techniques; semantic primes;
advanced
diachronics & language families creation; review of unusual linguistic
features ([split] ergativity, trigger systems, etc); advanced
phonaesthetics & other linguistic aesthetics; differences between
necessary
linguistic universals and universals-by-happenstance; nonlinear
language;
etc. These are not absolutes, and other suggestions for essay topics
will
certainly be considered.

As a side note, you may also be interested in the Language Creation
Conference; more info on that can be found at
http://conlangs.berkeley.edu
or by contacting me.

Thanks,
Sai
CLBP & LCC coordinator