just an idea..........

[shadowfalcon]

heres an idea ive just had im not sure if its been put forward or not before but here goes

the publisher puleld the publishing right

well why doesn't he still write the book up and well sell it online in a similiar format to the downlaoded books on this site hey i'd buy them

[Dusk Fox]

There are three dots in an ellipsis.

To actually answer the question, however, self-publishing online via a vanity press is expensive, and sees very little wide release for a given work. You're essentially asking Joe to put more into the project than he'd get out of it. He'd have to do all the work of writing and editing and double-checking the work himself, then put up the money to publish it and advertise it himself. While there are plenty of people here and in similar communities who would buy the books, you can't count on everyone to do so, and gathered together we don't really account for very many people.

In short, it's not worth the cost/effort, as much as we wish it were.

[outspaced]

What DF said, basically. Self-publishing is great if you're out-of-work or want to get published despite having your manuscript rejected by every publisher in a 10,000-mile radius. It is, however, surprisingly costly, despite what self-publishing companies may claim, and unlike regular publishing where you receive an initial cheque before starting, with self-publishing you're "writing blind" for the joy of giving.

Self-publishing may well work if you're writing mainstream fiction that is likely to sell, and you can get a very good % per-ebook sold, but gamebooks are unlikely to recoup their outlay as ebooks. Joe Dever is well aware of this, which is why he allowed Project Aon in the first place.

In the future, things may change. Perhaps self-publishing will become so popular that the companies will be capable of subsidising more niche work, but it's currently unviable. Sad, but true.

[Black Cat]

Well, maybe Joe can write the last books and then allow PA to publish them for free! ;D

[outspaced]

Yeah, maybe we'll even have finished putting all the New Order books online by then!

[North Star]

I think he would at least try to publish them first. He could make a killing, but then allow PA to put them up here after the print rights revert to him

NS.

[shadowfalcon]

well im just saying write it up and put it online for sale basicaly or sell them via cd to so as to avoid the publishing costs and well there are a lot of us who'd still pay for it.
that was just my idea

[outspaced]

But even trying to avoid the printing and advertising costs Joe would end up severely out of pocket. It takes him about 2-3 months to write a book from scratch, so he'd effectively have to take a year off work to write the four books--with no income, because there's no 'forward' from the publishing company. I wasn't even imagining that he would pay for printing on top of that; I was assuming the books would be released as PDF ebooks.

[Zipp]

Also we really do have to take into account that Lone Wolf has a cult following. And since it hasn't been in print for so long, it's not likely that Joe would be able to make much money outside of the already established fan base.

[Al]

I think Zipps point really hits the mark, there is simply not enough interest in it to be economical...

Al

[KaiLord]

There are three dots in an ellipsis.

Unless you want a reallllllllly long pause.

All I ask for is an outline of what was supposed to happen...even just a one sentence summation of each book.

At least then we'd have something concrete on the debate as to where the GM went and what ultimately happened to LW and the world.

KL...wondering why elliptical and ellipsis have common spellings--time to check etymologies