I haven't been following this thread, so this may already have been mentioned. But in case it hasn't: Springer has a free-book publishing <https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/campaigns/celebrating-1000-open-access-books/promotion?sap-outbound-id=43C5094BD42094009CD4B6B1EB91145503C604AB&utm_source=hybris-campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=000_RPR7473_0000003054_BBKK_AWA_CE02_GL_1000_OA_books2_Springer&utm_content=EN_internal_9962_20200705&mkt-key=42010A0550671EDA9BA9C3DA42DDB9EF> promotion.
-- Russ Abbott Professor, Computer Science California State University, Los Angeles On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 9:35 AM <[email protected]> wrote: > Russ, Jochen, > > Thanks for what you wrote, below. I have never managed a book-length > exposition of my ideas, so I particularly appreciate what you have > accomplished. Perhaps the incentives are coming to be where they should > be. > Why should it be that others pay to be infected with my ideas? I don't > share Glen's distaste for books, as opposed to papers. I think I have > learned the most, over the years, from lengthy arguments, such as > Williams's > NATURAL SELECTION AND ADAPTATION and Sean Carroll's ENDLESS FORMS MOST > BEAUTIFUL or even (I hate to admit it) Dawkins's THE SELFISH GENE, where > the > author has space to organize the papers we all know from a well developed > point of view, or books like THE BEAK OF THE FINCH, or Waldrop's > COMPLEXITY, which present biographies of a research program. I grant that > leaning heavily on such works for one's understanding of the world makes > one > vulnerable And I would hate to live in a world in which everybody I talked > to was reading only such works. (I need the Glens of the world.) But > still, I think, such works give a perspective that cannot be obtained in > any > other way. > > So keep writing them! > > Nick > Nicholas Thompson > Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology > Clark University > [email protected] > https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Russell Standish > Sent: Sunday, July 5, 2020 3:48 AM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Book publishing advice needed > > Being self-published hasn't stopped my book "Theory of Nothing" from being > cited. According to Google Scholar, it has 22 citations, 9th on my list in > terms of citation count, just after "Why Occams Razor", a peer reviewed > paper on similar topics. It got a bit of a boost from Max Tegmark's book, > as > he singled it out as inspiration, kind of ironic when it was one of Max's > "crazy papers" that inspired me to write "Why Occams Razor" and then > "Theory > of Nothing". > > I think you need to have a reason to publish a book. Making money is not > one > them - almost nobody makes money from writing books. Vanity publications > ("it looks good on the CV") is another one to avoid. Best bet is if you > have > a story or a topic that needs telling, and you think would be interesting > to > other people, then go for it. Marketing then becomes telling other people > about it, advancing arguments from it in fora like this. With a bit of > luck, > it goes viral. > > One good reason for writing academic books is that it gives you expanded > scope to explain your ideas more fully, and in less technically forbidding > terms. Allows you to expand your readership beyond the narrow circle > reading > your peer revieed articles. But you probably want those peer reviewed > articles to back up/draw upon your book work. That's probably the reason > why > old academics write books, and young ones write papers. > > In my case, I've self-published 3 books so far: "Theory of Nothing", which > has sold over 1000 copies, and perhaps 2-3 times as many free downloads > from > my website and the usual pirate websites, but in no way does the royalties > cover the time I put into it (unless being paid less than a Calcutta > rickshaw driver was a career ambition); "Amoeba's Secret", a translation of > a semi-autobiography by Bruno Marchal, which was about the clearest > exposition he gave of his ideas, and "Magic Cottage", an Anthology of my > son's writing, which was quite exquisite, and sadly something he's not > really doing now. Magic Cottage proved to be more of a vanity publication > than I thought it would be - but partly because he never took up my > suggestion of leaving a copy around his college room, now apartment, where > it could act as a conversation starter. I also envisaged him using the book > when going for jobs that might require writing skills, but it seems he > hasn't needed to do that to date. > > > Cheers > > On Sat, Jul 04, 2020 at 10:25:03PM +0200, Jochen Fromm wrote: > > Thanks. Yes, self-publishing is an option. I am looking for an > > official publisher mainly for one reason, namely that other scientists > > and researchers can cite it, since I still cling to the illusion that > > someone would actually do it. Normally self-published texts are not > > considered as reliable or trustworthy sources. I didn't expect that > > finding a decent publisher would be so difficult. > > > > -J. > > > > > > -------- Original message -------- > > From: Tom Johnson <[email protected]> > > Date: 7/4/20 20:10 (GMT+01:00) > > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > > <[email protected]> > > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Book publishing advice needed > > > > Jochen: > > The deal being offered strikes me as a bad deal. > > > > Background: I have been practicing and teaching about "Be Your Own > Publisher" > > for nearly 15 years. There are, in my opinion, some major problems > > with all publishers today. It starts with control of the copyright. > > I think YOU should want to maintain control of the copyright to your > > work. It will depend on the contract, but many or most publishers > > will try to lock down the copyright in their favor for all -- ALL -- > > forms of your work in perpetuity and throughout the universe. Sometimes > quite literally. > > > > Second, you should assume -- especially with a small publisher and > > you, not being as well known as Stephen King or Daniel Steele -- the > > publisher will do little if anything to promote your book beyond a > > mention in its catalog and, maybe, some promotional links on Amazon. > > Given that, a 5 percent royalty should be seen as a con. > > > > Third, given your computing experience, you should find it easy to > > format and produce the book yourself. I have used Lulu.com for years. > > It is especially good if you want to have both hardback, paperback and > > PDF editions. Again the > > advantages: you keep the copyright, you can set (and change) the > > prices and to a degree the royalties. Also, Lulu and Amazon handle > > all the backend financial arrangements and administration and pay > > directly and quickly. I also use a very good, high quality digital > printer in Albuquerque for paperback editions. > > It is Lithexcel. It handles all the printing (one copy to any number) > > quickly, along with all the fulfillment and accounting. The folks > > there will also, for only $25, set up your book in the Amazon > > inventory search engine. Finally, there is Amazon's self-publishing > > arm. While Amazon might take a bigger slice, the control over all > aspects > is in your hands. > > > > Here's the problem/challenge with all of these. YOU have to do the > > marketing/ publicity/promotion. But so what? If you today sign with > > any publisher of any size you will have to do the same thing. > > > > Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me with questions. Also you > > might want to see https://bit.ly/2ZvihKc Tom > > > > ============================================ > > Tom Johnson - [email protected] > > Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA > > 505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h) > > NM Foundation for Open Government > > Check out It's The People's Data > > ============================================ > > > > > > > > [icon-] Virus-free. www.avast.com > > > > > > > > On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 1:29 AM Jochen Fromm <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > At one end of the spectrum there are the 5 big commercial publishers > > Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & > > Schuster. They only publish stuff their agents select to make a lot > of > > money. There are also the big academic publishers like OUP, CUP, HUP > and > > MIT Press, which preferably publish strictly peer-reviewed content > from > > professors at Ivy League universities who made their PhD at the age > of > 20. > > > > At the other end of the spectrum there are "predatory publishers" who > > publish anything you submit as long as you pay enough money for it. > Open > > access books can also be very expensive. Publishing an "open access > book" > > at De Gruyter for example costs up to 8000 $. You pay for it so that > other > > people read it. It is basically some kind of advertising of your own > work. > > > > For my own new book I finally have an offer from a small publisher in > > Washington D.C. who is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. They > are > > really small and offer 5% royalties. Should I accept this offer or > wait for > > a better one? It is the only one from more than 25 publishers I have > asked, > > and the publishers at the moment are flooded with submissions. :-/ > > https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/mar/26/ > > novel-writing-during-coronavirus-crisis-outbreak > > > > -J. > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > > > > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn > > GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe > > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > > > -- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders [email protected] > http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >
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