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May 1, 2010
I've started work on the first draft of my Tasmanian book-----it is still untitled. I've been writing the preface and the introduction today and selecting and post processing the photographs. It looks as if it will combine photography and philosophy about the domination of nature, critiques of wilderness photography, plus bits and pieces of text on the modernist aesthetic and beauty.
I don't have enough photographs for the book. So more trips are needed to make the DIY book or self-publishing worthwhile and to justify the marketing.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Gormanston, Tasmania, 2010
The aim of this exercise in self-publishing is not just to have a printed book sitting on the coffee table (or the bookstore)--ie., vanity publishing. I do recognize that the old publishing paradigm, where gatekeepers (editors) restricted access to the means of publishing, is on its way down the toilet, but a bookstore would have no interest in my (unprofessional) photography book. I'm talking about a book that for whatever reason is not feasible to publish in print in the traditional sense.
Nor am I doing this for do it yourself publishing on demand (POD), in which you send a print-ready Adobe Acrobat PDF file for the book and its cover to a POD printing company, and let them print and mail individual copies as orders trickle in and send you your cut. I'm a nobody in the long tail and there would be few orders.
It is more an exploration of the possibilities offered by a digital or e-book. I presume that I will have a free ebook so that people can read the book on their computers…free because a present, they aren’t willing to pay for an e-book. My assumption here is that electronic books substitute for print books and that an e-book would help the sales of a printed book. The Cory Doctorow route is give away the e-books and offer the POD as, basically, a cheap printing service for those who want hard copies of my photography books.
I'm just groping my way here with few maps to guide me. Junk for code, my blog, has replaced my journal in my life and it is illustrated with lots of hyperlinks. There is the template:--- my blog already is a hyperlinked e-book. It could be wrapped up into a single file with photo-quality resolution that takes on more the quality of a photography/art book and it could be dipped into online by those interested.
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It is young people who will make the current stigma about self-publishing obsolete, as people who have grown up knowing nothing but the internet will see self-publishing as a just another way of using the web.