Re: Generational Dynamics World View News
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 3:58 pm
I have discussed the book idea with John privately in more detail. What it comes down to is that it takes a lot of time/effort to write even a rudimentary book, and I (and I think John is in agreement with this) do not want to spend roughly a hundred hours (my rough estimate for a simple draft book on what to do and how to do it) and get almost nothing in return.
I have written a book before, and it ended up with me spending probably a thousand hours on a quality product, spending about $10K on printing, and getting basically nothing in return. I am not going to repeat that mistake.
I also have published military simulations, and came out quite well there. The publishers in this niche field have a system for ensuring they don't lose their shirts. They require customers to commit to a product and put the money up front before they produce it.
I figure it would take about 400 people putting up $20 apiece to make this worthwhile for myself and John. The target would be $8k, and if someone wanted to put up a lot more than $20, that would be fine. (I once published a part of a work and someone was so anxious to see the rest, that they paid me thousands just to have a hard copy of the draft of the complete work - so I think something similar here might be possible). If the product doesn't happen by some deadline, you would get your money back (minus the transaction fees).
John could set up an account on Paypal or GoFundMe or something similar to take the funds, and periodically report back how it is going.
The end product would need to be distributed in some electronic format that hinders sharing and posting. I once bought an ebook that came in some unusual format that I could only read on my computer using a key. John could look into how to do this. But this would take Amazon or similar out of the equation and allow John and myself to keep the vast majority of the proceeds.
Bottom line for me is that I don't want to waste my time on something that has no benefit to me. And I think that $40 an hour or so for my time is reasonable to expect.
If this appears to be viable I could post an outline of the ebook here in about a week.
I have written a book before, and it ended up with me spending probably a thousand hours on a quality product, spending about $10K on printing, and getting basically nothing in return. I am not going to repeat that mistake.
I also have published military simulations, and came out quite well there. The publishers in this niche field have a system for ensuring they don't lose their shirts. They require customers to commit to a product and put the money up front before they produce it.
I figure it would take about 400 people putting up $20 apiece to make this worthwhile for myself and John. The target would be $8k, and if someone wanted to put up a lot more than $20, that would be fine. (I once published a part of a work and someone was so anxious to see the rest, that they paid me thousands just to have a hard copy of the draft of the complete work - so I think something similar here might be possible). If the product doesn't happen by some deadline, you would get your money back (minus the transaction fees).
John could set up an account on Paypal or GoFundMe or something similar to take the funds, and periodically report back how it is going.
The end product would need to be distributed in some electronic format that hinders sharing and posting. I once bought an ebook that came in some unusual format that I could only read on my computer using a key. John could look into how to do this. But this would take Amazon or similar out of the equation and allow John and myself to keep the vast majority of the proceeds.
Bottom line for me is that I don't want to waste my time on something that has no benefit to me. And I think that $40 an hour or so for my time is reasonable to expect.
If this appears to be viable I could post an outline of the ebook here in about a week.