Showing posts with label Books worth a Look. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books worth a Look. Show all posts
FREE Princeton EBOOK: Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service Through Architecture
Learning all the ins and outs of self-publishing a book, especially an over-sized full color book like Hacking the Earthship, is such a crazy adventure. I spent the better part of a year researching self-publishing so I could try and make all the best choices in regard to printing and distribution.
When I sent the first proofs out to print on my 42nd birthday in February, I had decided that the best course would be to publish in 5 formats so we could reach the broadest audience possible. I made a Smashwords edition so that I could submit the various formats of e-books to the chains in one fell swoop. I was going to do an epub edition with Bookbaby so I could reach more stores abroad, but they only do paid plans now and it's not likely it would ever make the $200 to justify the investment so I dropped that idea. I made a pdf edition that's the real book (not the ebook) so people can have a digital copy onsite during their build. After all the research I had done, I was sure that having a dual-print-version at both CreateSpace and Ingram, with two separate ISBNs (for tracking), was the right move. All the successful self-publishers were doing it, and the pricepoint of their standard paperback 6x9 inch books was about the same on both platforms. So, I did my main print through Ingram Spark because they are one of the largest publishers in the world and people trust their high quality. They also have access to libraries and many small mom-and-pop stores that will not deal with Amazon. It cost me about $150 to upload, code, proof, and change the files. Then I made a CreateSpace/Amazon edition so I could always have books in stock on Amazon and enjoy a better, faster worldwide distribution. That was "free" to upload. But then I discovered that version was going to cost buyers an additional $10 for their base but slightly higher grade paper. Which gave me pause, but I decided to go ahead with it for the sake of access.
Until I got to thinking about it. I totally stressed myself out for 5 days while I wondering why my gut was NOT OKAY with that decision. I couldn't figure out why. Then, I got the CS proofs in and realized that edition is not as good of a product. Then came the dealbreaker: the base price for the printed book was 2.5 times what Ingram's was. FOR THE SAME BOOK! So if I buy my own book from CS, I pay 2.5 times what I do when I buy it from Ingram?! I will have to do that regularly to have enough copies for bookstore signings, for consignments to mom-and-pop bookstores, for friends who want a copy, and for people who want signed editions. Paying 2.5 times the price for my own book is just not smart business. And I cannot seem to find out why there is such a big difference, excepting that CS uses 60 lb paper instead of 50 lb paper. But REALLY?
So... today, despite the fact that the book is selling, I decided to something I may well regret.
I removed the $50 CreateSpace version of the book on Amazon. I just think that pricepoint is absurd, especially when I get $1.70 a book from them and I get $4.00 a book from Ingram, who priced it at $40. I'm not out to make money on this but maybe someday paying off what cash I put into it would be nice.
Self-publishing is insane.
And only for the most diligent do-it-yourselfers.
Would I do it again? Not from scratch. It's too painful and the lessons are too frustrating.
I'm really hoping I didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one.
*crossing fingers*
Evidently I still had some things to learn.
When I sent the first proofs out to print on my 42nd birthday in February, I had decided that the best course would be to publish in 5 formats so we could reach the broadest audience possible. I made a Smashwords edition so that I could submit the various formats of e-books to the chains in one fell swoop. I was going to do an epub edition with Bookbaby so I could reach more stores abroad, but they only do paid plans now and it's not likely it would ever make the $200 to justify the investment so I dropped that idea. I made a pdf edition that's the real book (not the ebook) so people can have a digital copy onsite during their build. After all the research I had done, I was sure that having a dual-print-version at both CreateSpace and Ingram, with two separate ISBNs (for tracking), was the right move. All the successful self-publishers were doing it, and the pricepoint of their standard paperback 6x9 inch books was about the same on both platforms. So, I did my main print through Ingram Spark because they are one of the largest publishers in the world and people trust their high quality. They also have access to libraries and many small mom-and-pop stores that will not deal with Amazon. It cost me about $150 to upload, code, proof, and change the files. Then I made a CreateSpace/Amazon edition so I could always have books in stock on Amazon and enjoy a better, faster worldwide distribution. That was "free" to upload. But then I discovered that version was going to cost buyers an additional $10 for their base but slightly higher grade paper. Which gave me pause, but I decided to go ahead with it for the sake of access.
Until I got to thinking about it. I totally stressed myself out for 5 days while I wondering why my gut was NOT OKAY with that decision. I couldn't figure out why. Then, I got the CS proofs in and realized that edition is not as good of a product. Then came the dealbreaker: the base price for the printed book was 2.5 times what Ingram's was. FOR THE SAME BOOK! So if I buy my own book from CS, I pay 2.5 times what I do when I buy it from Ingram?! I will have to do that regularly to have enough copies for bookstore signings, for consignments to mom-and-pop bookstores, for friends who want a copy, and for people who want signed editions. Paying 2.5 times the price for my own book is just not smart business. And I cannot seem to find out why there is such a big difference, excepting that CS uses 60 lb paper instead of 50 lb paper. But REALLY?
So... today, despite the fact that the book is selling, I decided to something I may well regret.
I removed the $50 CreateSpace version of the book on Amazon. I just think that pricepoint is absurd, especially when I get $1.70 a book from them and I get $4.00 a book from Ingram, who priced it at $40. I'm not out to make money on this but maybe someday paying off what cash I put into it would be nice.
Self-publishing is insane.
And only for the most diligent do-it-yourselfers.
Would I do it again? Not from scratch. It's too painful and the lessons are too frustrating.
I'm really hoping I didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one.
*crossing fingers*
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| buy the book here. |
Premise of the Book:
An intuitive sense of Form is available to everyone.
Light and Shadow help to determine this form - and a visual pattern emerges.
When the building is seen as a composition, it can be also informed by proportion.
The understanding of form may be conscious or unconscious.
Shifting the paradigm of "building" can give direct access to the universal principals of form.
Notes from the Reading:
Charm, or pleasure in the thing itself, was lost approximately in the 1830s. Repetition and reproducability became the mode of the day. Before that time, design was about Pattern, as you can see in the Pattern books of previous years. After that, function won the battle over form, and 'use' became king. Harmony became ruled by the grid, and the flowing villages that were once the bastion of our independence (and collaboration) became outmoded, much to the dismay of the people. This was the beginning of the change in our consciousness that was perfected, ultimately... in the automobile.
What was lost: Our senses!
...of LINE - connecting the roof to the windows to the doors, and so on...
...of SCALE - spaces no longer respond in scale to the women and men whom use them.
... of PROPORTION - its impossible to appreciate something that is all weirdness. Rather, weirdness can be celebrated only when it is unusual, when it is juxtaposed to that which is orderly.
... of LIGHT and DARK - to grasp the beauty of the light, one must know the dark. A suggested reading for this would be the Parable of the Cave as told by Plato in the Republic.
... of IMPERFECTION - too much symmetry makes tension, play, and delight impossible. Without these things, we are but robots in the factory.
My favorite quote from the book:
"A designer is a master of playing; master, most of all, of listening. There can be a moment of fear just as you let go, when you first become afraid of the modern silence. The silence is daunting, if you don't try to fill it up. But such a moment passes. The silence is unreal. It is the voices - of shadow and light and pattern - that are real."
Food for thought:
What are you going to create today? Will it be full of life - of light, of dark, and pattern... will it be infused with your own brand of magical charm?
An intuitive sense of Form is available to everyone.
Light and Shadow help to determine this form - and a visual pattern emerges.
When the building is seen as a composition, it can be also informed by proportion.
The understanding of form may be conscious or unconscious.
Shifting the paradigm of "building" can give direct access to the universal principals of form.
Notes from the Reading:
Charm, or pleasure in the thing itself, was lost approximately in the 1830s. Repetition and reproducability became the mode of the day. Before that time, design was about Pattern, as you can see in the Pattern books of previous years. After that, function won the battle over form, and 'use' became king. Harmony became ruled by the grid, and the flowing villages that were once the bastion of our independence (and collaboration) became outmoded, much to the dismay of the people. This was the beginning of the change in our consciousness that was perfected, ultimately... in the automobile.
Image of the Golden Section from the book
What was lost: Our senses!
...of LINE - connecting the roof to the windows to the doors, and so on...
...of SCALE - spaces no longer respond in scale to the women and men whom use them.
... of PROPORTION - its impossible to appreciate something that is all weirdness. Rather, weirdness can be celebrated only when it is unusual, when it is juxtaposed to that which is orderly.
... of LIGHT and DARK - to grasp the beauty of the light, one must know the dark. A suggested reading for this would be the Parable of the Cave as told by Plato in the Republic.
... of IMPERFECTION - too much symmetry makes tension, play, and delight impossible. Without these things, we are but robots in the factory.
My favorite quote from the book:
"A designer is a master of playing; master, most of all, of listening. There can be a moment of fear just as you let go, when you first become afraid of the modern silence. The silence is daunting, if you don't try to fill it up. But such a moment passes. The silence is unreal. It is the voices - of shadow and light and pattern - that are real."
Food for thought:
What are you going to create today? Will it be full of life - of light, of dark, and pattern... will it be infused with your own brand of magical charm?
Just a list of great writers and philosophers that I think everyone should know about. Google them to learn about them and if you can, at least try and read a few quotes, if not their writings. (I'll be constantly adding to this list as I remember people I've enjoyed)
Aristotle
Avicenna
Camus
Joseph Campbell
Bruce Chatwin
Einstein
Emerson
Epicurus
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Ben Franklin
Buckminster Fuller
Steven Hawking
Herodotus
Ghandi
Jefferson
Immanuel Kant
Nietzche
Palladio
Plato
Carl Sagan
D.T. Suzuki
Thomas Aquinas
Thoreau
Tolkein
Twain
Vitruvius
Aristotle
Avicenna
Camus
Joseph Campbell
Bruce Chatwin
Einstein
Emerson
Epicurus
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Ben Franklin
Buckminster Fuller
Steven Hawking
Herodotus
Ghandi
Jefferson
Immanuel Kant
Nietzche
Palladio
Plato
Carl Sagan
D.T. Suzuki
Thomas Aquinas
Thoreau
Tolkein
Twain
Vitruvius
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