Hi James and Nontheist Friends,
Here are some of my recent experiences last autumn with publishing "Naked Harbin Ethnography" to Kindle:
I created a Kindle version book in the Academic Press at World University and School (as an imprint) for my actual-virtual Harbin Hot Springs' anthropological book - http//bit.ly/HarbinBook (and https://twitter.com/HarbinBook
My paper book is is 354 pages long, on 8.5 x 11 inch paper, and has about 180 photos. In that I was doing publishing bot the paper version myself in CreateSpace, and the Kindle version in KDP direct (both subsidiaries of Amazon, I think) the Kindle version cost around $139, and expanded to about 650 pages in the Kindle - and not many copies have sold. The paper version costs 64.95 US and the Kindle version, without a large ~23 page paper index, costs 24.99.
I worked on the phone with the very friendly and helpful Amazon/CreateSpace and separate Kindle representatives in developing first the paper version, and then the Kindle version. After the Kindle people eliminated the index - which they seem to do with some regularity - they then formatted my Kindle edition with a few links. And the price came down significantly for what is a very substantial academic book in many ways, in both versions. I think the photos transferred from digital paper (print on demand) to the smaller Kindle format well, and I didn't use any tables.
In developing this Academic Press at World University and School (where WUaS is Friendly/Quaker-informed in a quite a few ways), I find myself wearing a number of hats. I'm author, academic, editor (Rose helped greatly in editing about the first 2 chapters of my Harbin book - thank you, Rose C!) ... and especially publisher (and in a bunch of other roles too). (Friend Mark Helpsmeet just last week did a great interview conversation podcast about World University and School here - http://northernspiritradio.
My Harbin book may also be one guinea pig for machine translation into multiple languages for the Academic Press at WUaS in a few years as well - in both paper and Kindle.
World University and School would eventually like to hire a Publisher, with an eye not only to producing academic books, but especially selling them, moving them, sharing them - and eventually in multiple languages. This latter aspect of being publisher and wanting my book to circulate, but not being very sales oriented (it may partly involve "lining up one's ducks" - with reviewers and academic libraries, as one grows a list of books and a reputation, as I see it from an inexperienced perspective), is something I'd like to plan for for both the paper and Kindle versions.
Carefully hiring an organization to publish to the Kindle, also with an eye to a successful track record of selling to one's book's target audience makes much sense - and Kindle does much/some of this automatically in their software, so engaging their software over time makes much sense too. But a publisher (and author) and online Kindle publisher organization still probably would do best knowing the target Kindle audience for, for example, "Godless for God's Sake." And I wonder with NtFs are moving into the role of becoming Publisher for NtF books re this email. Might this be the situation?
Congratulations on this upcoming new printing of the aptly-titled Godless for God's Sake.
Regards,
Scott
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(By way of comparison, and if the NtF Planning Group could be beginning to put on a "Publishers' Cap," the cost of academic books is in a different sphere than that of religious / irreligious / atheist or Quaker books. For example, a recently published book by the Cambria Press on 'Contents Tourism' called "Contents Tourism in Japan: Pilgrimages to “Sacred Sites” of Popular Culture" by Japanese academics/researchers from the north of Japan - I went to this conference in the UC Berkeley anthropology department recently - is selling for $119. Textbooks are even higher - both paper and Kindle, I'd imagine - partly because I think they lead to careers, and income. Translated academic books and textbooks probably cost even more, although machine translation will probably alter this math substantially).
I wonder what NtF Planners think about eventually reaching out to the NtF main list inquiring about editors and translators et al. for subsequent NtF book publishing, if the NtF group could be beginning to be un-doffing its "Publishing Hat" - again for subsequent NtF books?
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Hi David and NtFs,
Since your Dales Historical Monographs account is now defunct, is the "Nontheist Friends Network" nominally the publisher of "Godless for God's Sake"?
In what ways could NtFs best reach out actively to Quaker libraries+ in the US, the British Isles, Canada, Australia, South Africa and other English-speaking countries, with both Friendly- and non-theistic friendly presences, with the paper version of "Godless for God's Sake", beyond, for example, Quaker Yearly Meetings, the FGCs of these countries, Quarterly and Monthly Meeting email lists, other online Quaker and non-theistic groups (Zac?), and similar? And how can the Kindle version be accessioned in online Quaker libraries in all countries?
I wonder, further, whether NtFs, with "Godless for God's Sake" on the Kindle, could identify a nascent Artificial Intelligence strategy, and particularly re pricing and sales?
NtFriendly cheers,
Scott
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Dear David, James, Margaret and NtFs,
Would World University and School's libraries planned online in all 7,099 living languages (where CC Wikipedia/Wikidata is in 358 languages) receive donations of the Kindle version of "Godless for God's Sake" in English? Yes.
I think WUaS's planned libraries in all 7,099 languages - http://worlduniversity.wikia.
Margaret and NtFs, WUaS now has 2 committed prospective undergraduate students this autumn, one who has Quaker connections in Pgh and SF, and who, in a new development in WUaS planning, will be a transfer student having two gotten AA degrees so far. (Admitting transfer students has been off the table in WUaS planning for accreditation for years now; she should be able to finish in a year and get a free accrediting CC MIT OCW-centric Bachelor's degree online from WUaS). Another prospective student is from the Sudan in north Africa, and English is not his first language; he'll be matriculating studying as a first year student - hopefully he'll have video wi-fi bandwidth 24/7 in Sudan by the autumn. For thinking and planning purposes, here's the developing WUaS Course Catalog - https://docs.google.com/
I support trying US$8,99 for Godless for God's Sake if that's the question at hand.
Apologies for the many-to-many hat metaphors.
Friendly greetings, Scott
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... but in terms of price lowering to US$8.99, I think I'd do it experimentally for a year comparing sales with only the previous year (or 2 or 3, since the title has been around for some years now), and if no marked increase in sales occurs, I might raise the price again (- my further two cents' worth, and not engaging I.T. the way which might add great value here). (What are the best medias for loving bliss neurophysiology generation - http://worlduniversity.wikia.
Not so much of a hat juggler, Scott
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(As a further continuation of brain-storming - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2017/04/cleidoic-egg-open-nmt-neural-machine.html (April 16, 2017) - with a Publisher's Cap on and concerning an Artificial Intelligence strategy, here are some ideas. This thread inspires me re thinking about publishing "Godless for God's Sake" and "Naked Harbin Ethnography" in other languages, - perhaps re both Dale Historical Monographs as well as the Academic Press at World University and School, and re the Kindle. The Kindle actually gave rise to A) a piece of Kindle proprietary reader hardware, and B) a file format, probably loosely akin to a Word document or PDF - Portable Document Format (https://en.wikipedia.org/
So keeping publishing "Godless for God's Sake" simple on paper and in Kindle makes sense, but anticipating new forms of publishing information technologies in multiple languages also makes sense, brainstorming-wise, and possibly with RDFs as a new kind of basis, is something the Academic Press at WUaS is doing.
As a kind of FYI, here is "Naked Harbin Ethnography" in paper and for Kindle in U.S. dollars ~ http://amazon.com/author/
Happy NtF Easter All, Scott
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