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Post by Menalaus on Jun 7, 2004 4:36:31 GMT
I was just thinking about how Joe won't give us any details for what might happen in the next four books because he's hoping for a publisher, but I'd beg the question... why doesn't he publish them himself?
Now I realize that actually getting paper pulp with his writing on it on bookshelves is something not so easily done... but I wasn't thinking of printed editions of future books. I was thinking that Joe could publish the next few books in an on-line friendly fashion (HTML or PDF) and then sell copies directly to fans in a fashion very similar to how the Legends books are available on-line. We get the books we love, he gets to publish and finish his series (and gets a little extra $ directly, no publishers cut to worry about). Everyone wins with that solution. And if he needed a little help getting the book into a net-ready format, I'm sure there would be dozens of able and willing people to help out.
What do you guys think?
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Post by Storm Dancer on Jun 7, 2004 7:42:21 GMT
Nice idea in theory, but it takes a hell of a long time to write a coherent book, and a more again to edit it halfway decently... For someone who's sold something like 15 million books, the few $s he'd get for sticking them online would be a bit of a kick in the teeth - even assuming that he was capable of self-editing to a decent degree or could find someone to do it voluntarily.
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Post by Relenoir on Jun 7, 2004 11:42:39 GMT
Nice idea in theory, but it takes a hell of a long time to write a coherent book, and a more again to edit it halfway decently... For someone who's sold something like 15 million books, the few $s he'd get for sticking them online would be a bit of a kick in the teeth - even assuming that he was capable of self-editing to a decent degree or could find someone to do it voluntarily. Well, the Project Aon people would certainly be willing to edit the books; I know I would. Nobody at PA gets paid for any of the work they do here, but the editors could be effectively rewarded with a preview of the book, and a free final PDF version. The people here are doing this for the love of Lone Wolf and the desire to share it with others. As far as the "insult" of selling them online, I would beg to differ. I can guarantee you he is still involved in promoting LW books, and although he may not be selling them in the quantities of old, it certainly doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, the books are few and far between, and are usually used copies. Not to mention that they sell for big dollars on Amazon. I'd love to see Joe finish the series. If Joe ever reads this, I hope he'll give some thought to this idea!
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Post by Storm Dancer on Jun 8, 2004 5:59:22 GMT
I'm not sure you realise how difficult and painstaking a task editing is...
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Post by outspaced on Jun 8, 2004 7:50:22 GMT
I'm not sure you realise how difficult and painstaking a task editing is... Some of us do. Why else do you think it's taken so long for the release of Beyond the Nightmare Gate? And that book had (allegedly) already been edited! That said, the fact that Project Aon has developed an ever-expanding Manual of Style would help immeasurably with regards to multiple editors. Sadly, poor Jon Blake would be up to his eyeballs in extra work if we ever did have to edit the raw text!
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Post by Black Cat on Jun 8, 2004 23:50:17 GMT
I was wandering if Joe could publish a short story (50-100 sections) on the Aon Project, something too short to be publish as a regular book but still long enough to please the fans? It could be something original, a kind of gift, given to the hardcore fans that we are. It just a suggestion, I don't expect it to happen, but, hey, this is a forum where we can share toughts, right, so that's what I'm thinking.
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Post by Storm Dancer on Jun 9, 2004 5:19:44 GMT
'Manual of style?' Pff... down with pointless passive voices! Outspaced, is it online? I'm just finishing off an editing course, so I'd be interested in seeing it.
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Post by outspaced on Jun 9, 2004 8:42:51 GMT
'Manual of style?' Outspaced, is it online? I'm just finishing off an editing course, so I'd be interested in seeing it. Oh, yes! It's on the main Project Aon webpage. [Checks links . . .] You can find it here: www.projectaon.org/sanctum/style-manual.htmI'm currently trawling through a proof-reading/copy editing course myself, but I keep getting distracted by other things; primarily (though not exclusively) this forum! Still, I'm not complaining.
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Post by Storm Dancer on Jun 9, 2004 14:12:09 GMT
What format has yours been?
Mine was a 12-week uni course which had a fairly liberal approach, insofar as the teachers believe in fairly liberal editing (wanting me to too, which I don't mind - except that I'm more liberal than them in certain ways).
It's been a really good course, though I wish I didn't have to do it full time (ie. with 3 other courses) - it hasn't left me with as much time as I'd really like to memorise the irritating details. Plus my native language is UK English, and we're learning Australian English, which has thrown me a few times.
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Post by Storm Dancer on Jun 9, 2004 14:20:42 GMT
Just had a glance over the (grumble) Manual of Style... Most of it seems fairly familiar.
I notice it doesn't cover punctuation in quote marks, though. Are you just going for all in?
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Post by Storm Dancer on Jun 9, 2004 14:22:56 GMT
I really should just login and edit posts Anyway, just caught something else - 'visious-looking'. C'est quoi? Hope that wasn't used in the text Also, why all the 'ize' endings? They're not standard British, are they?
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Post by outspaced on Jun 9, 2004 15:28:18 GMT
Argh! So many questions!! This is what I get when I don't check the site regularly--like, every 10 minutes or so! Home Study course . . . which is why I'm taking so long over it. It fits around both work and unemployment very well, though. The course is run by ChapterHouse, who are apparently very well-respected in UK publishing circles. I passed the first half of the course--the 'Better English Course'--(thereby proving that you don't need be a major etymologist to become a proofreader!), and have embarked on the Proofreading and Copy-editing modules. I have one more exercise in copy-editing to work through, then it's on to the final piece of coursework, then the big, bad final exercise, where I need to get at least a B to pass and become certified. I'll probably get a C+, knowing my luck. Yes, one of the things this course emphasizes is that the editor is not the author, and should edit as invisibly as possible. The idea is to enhance the author's work, not make it conform to your own idea of how things should be written. It's a hard lesson! One of the pieces of coursework was a butchered section from Pride and Prejudice, and I was marked down for introducing too many superfluous edits. I did better on the non-fiction piece, however, and seeing that there are far more non-fiction books published than fiction, that could bode well for me actually getting (and holding down) a decent job that I don't feel like quitting after a couple of weeks. Ughghghghghgh! That's almost as bad as using these forums and having to use codes like 'color' and 'center'. I hate writing those words because they're wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong! UK English rules! Likely it's being done on a case-by-case basis. Due to the nature of the Lone Wolf gamebooks, these instances are very few and far between, so making an entry in the MoS is rather redundant. The necessity of quotes and punctuation rules is more for non-fiction, since issues seem to occur with annoying regularity in such. D'oh! Someone will fix that now it's been mentioned. That said, it could be a typo of either 'vicious' or 'viscous', though I'd imagine the latter is more likely. If the original editors and proofreaders had a similar Manual of Style for working on the Lone Wolf series, Project Aon would be having to make far fewer edits in their editions. ;D IIRC, it's because the books mainly use -ize. Since there is no actual reason against using '-ize' over '-ise', we opted to stick with the original rule, though we've had to alter some words here and there to keep things consistent throughout an individual book and also throughout the entire series. Obviously, some words only end in -ize, and other words only ever end in -ise so we have to be careful about making unnecessary changes. Fortunately, we have a very knowledgeable Project Coordinator in Jon Blake, and he's not led us astray so far!
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Post by The Tagazin Poodle on Jun 9, 2004 16:17:43 GMT
I guess size and merchandise would cause a few problems.
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Post by Peregrine on Jun 10, 2004 4:44:18 GMT
Ughghghghghgh! That's almost as bad as using these forums and having to use codes like 'color' and 'center'. I hate writing those words because they're wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong! UK English rules! Hey now. Australian English does have some variations in spelling from the mother tongue (and quite a few more in usage), but it's hardly American. In fact it's closer to the Queen's English than most variants within Britain. ;D It may be terribly off topic, but I'd be interested to know just what's thrown you about Australian English, Storm Dancer. (Language is something of an interest of mine...)
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Post by Storm Dancer on Jun 10, 2004 8:18:09 GMT
Hard to say - I'd never studied grammar in England, but I have a reasonably good intuitive grasp of it; now I'm having to learn the ins and outs of it in another country thinking that I can rely on my instincts, but never being quite sure.
That said, I think a few of the 'ise's become 'izes,' and I've never been 100% what the UK English convention for punctuation in quotes is, but Australian English doesn't seem to have a set one.
I also have a vague impression that some editing conventions in England are just different, though I can't think of any examples at the mo.
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