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Book Project

Discussion in 'Quitters' Club' started by Boyink, Jul 5, 2021.

  1. Jul 5, 2021
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

    Tulsa, OK
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    I've mentioned working on a book - I think I'm finally ready to give a preview of a chapter.

    The content is 100 of my weekly travel columns that I've been writing for the paper. The working title is "Souvenir Stories," but I'm not in love with that.

    The content is a bit all over the map (heh) - some chapters retell a historic event, some are profiles of people we met, some are really just a travel blog post.

    I decided I wanted to do the design, layout, and production all myself, and will then self-publish in a way that gets the book listed on Amazon. I had to learn InDesign much deeper than we use it at the newspaper.

    Over the weekend I printed a couple chapters out and decided I was happy with the design, so now it's cranking through another 95 columns and reformatting/editing/adding photos for the book.

    After eight years of travel and two+ years of writing about it I hope to have the book out sometime late fall/early winter.

    page-1.png



    upload_2021-7-5_11-21-45.png
     
    Dne007, 47v6, dnb71R2 and 10 others like this.
  2. Jul 5, 2021
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

    Tulsa, OK
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    Hm, didn't notice I had used the same photo twice...:rolleyes:
     
  3. Jul 6, 2021
    Mr Vaughan

    Mr Vaughan

    seems interesting, i'd like to see more!
     
  4. Jul 6, 2021
    Mr Vaughan

    Mr Vaughan

    it is a bit hard to read in this format though
     
  5. Jul 22, 2021
    aallison

    aallison 74 cj6, 76 cj5. Has anyone seen my screwdriver?

    Green Cove...
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    I don't care for the title either. It does not portray what the book is about. I was having a hard time reading the text as well.

    BUt I think the premise of the book is way cool! You could take this lots of ways in the presentation of the stories. Personally, I'd like to read about the actual stories of the family in the book. How did they adapt? What did you guys do to keep them from being bored? How happened to the rig? All the behind the scenes stuff. I think that would be very interesting.
     
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  6. Jul 22, 2021
    Lockman

    Lockman OK.....Now I Get It . 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Silver Hill,...
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    Hey Mike......I'll buy a copy in advance ! Looks good, Sir.
     
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  7. Jul 23, 2021
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

    Tulsa, OK
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    The thought was that the stories themselves were the souvenirs from the trip, rather than various rocks, t-shirts, etc. But there are other books out there with similar titles that want to tell the stories of the physical souvenirs they collected, and this ain't that.

    The font is better on paper or in high-res PDF.

    There's a bit of all of that, save for much in the way of RV-specific stuff. There are plenty of RV how-to books out there already, so I didn't see the need to write that. I tried to focus the columns on other people's stories, things we learned, or how a particular place changed or challenged us. There are tons of "look at us and the cool stuff we do" travel blogs and YouTube channels out there - I didn't want the book to be (just) that either.

    Just to be clear, this will be a collection of independent essays. It's not a single long story that flows from chapter to chapter.

    A sample of the chapters I've done so far:
    • Meeting the last survivor of the Bataan Death March in Mobile, AL
    • How Johnny Cash grew up in an experimental socialist community in Dyess, AR
    • Meeting a 90-year old blues DJ who had the longest-running radio show in Helena, AR
    • A random comment leads to a day of kayaking with a complete stranger in Mesa, AZ
    • Seeing the sunrise over the Grand Canyon on Easter Morning in Winslow, AZ
    • Why there is one highway in America that's completely metric in Green Valley AZ
    • The now-deserted campy birthplace of winter baseball in Mesa, Arizona
    • How working in a campground entrance station taught us to see invisible people in Mesa, AZ
    • Seeing the last seasonal on-the-hoof moving of sheep through a Mesa, AZ campground
    • Driving an ex-NASCAR race car around the Phoenix, AZ Racetrack
     
  8. Jul 23, 2021
    jeepstar

    jeepstar Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Sheboygan
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    I like simple, entertaining reads like this. keep us posted
     
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  9. Oct 20, 2021
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

    Tulsa, OK
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    Update.

    Settled on a title/subtitle:

    Driven to Wonder

    8 years in an RV with kids.

    I also hired an illustrator to do the cover - he did my last book too. His portfolio site is Scott Thigpen Art. The vibe I'm wanting for is something like this Steinbeck cover:

    [​IMG]

    The cover work will cost a pretty penny, but when I thought about all the time I'm putting into this project I'd hate to short change it with a crappy cover.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2021
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  10. Dec 9, 2021
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

    Tulsa, OK
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    Update here.

    I finished formatting all of the "guts" of the book (my technical term for the content chapters without the preface, forward, index etc). I took them to a local print shop and had them printed/bound so I could experience it all as a "book."

    My intent was to cut 120 chapters down to 100.

    I had intended to print it at 8.5 x 11 landscape (landscape due to the ~300 landscape photos it contains).

    But off the laptop screen and in my hands it feels too big. Like it's a large print edition.

    And costs of publishing and print on demand in that size are high because there's only one place that will do it. The street price would have to be nearly $40 to make any money.

    I have two options - try to find a publisher to work with instead, or reformat the book to be smaller.

    I want to own the entire thing, so I'll reformat. That'll open up other options for printing that will get my per-copy print cost to like $10.

    Guess I know what I'll be working on over the holidays!
     
  11. Dec 9, 2021
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

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  12. Dec 9, 2021
    Lockman

    Lockman OK.....Now I Get It . 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

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    Mike...... I can see why the 'Landscape' format is so costly . Other books in that style are typically up there , correct?
     
  13. Dec 10, 2021
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

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    I haven't shopped other books of that size...but...I don't think it's just the landscape format.

    It's that I want landscape and color. And print-on-demand where I don't have to be schlepping books from boxes in my garage to the post office...;)

    The one provider that will do color landscape in a 11.5 x 8.5 trim size will only do high-quality color. The offering is targeted to children's books and comic books.

    If I size down to 8.5 wide I can use Amazon KDP, which has two color options. The "standard" color is a decent enough compromise between color and cost. I think I can even have >100 chapters and still be able to price the book at a sellable cost (shooting for ~ $20 - $25).
     
  14. Jan 1, 2022
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

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    I finished all the reformatting work this morning (re-laying out 120 chapters with probably 350 photos).

    I've a question I'd like some potential reader input on.

    This isn't a book that tells one story that flows from chapter to the next. All chapters are a self-contained story of one sort or another.

    I have the book organized alphabetically by state, then city. The idea was if you were planning a trip to a certain location it would be easy to find and read what we'd experienced there.

    But it's kinda odd if you want to just read it front to back.

    I'm wondering if I should re-organize the book and order the chapters chronologically. Reading it front to back you'd get some sense of our movement. And I can add a second index at the front that would list the chapters alphabetically by state/city if you wanted to quickly find a specific location.

    Any thoughts?
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2022
  15. Jan 1, 2022
    hudsonhawk

    hudsonhawk Well-Known Member

    North Texas...
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    Personally, I would prefer the chronological layout with a location index for specific places.
     
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  16. Jan 1, 2022
    jzeber

    jzeber Well-Known Member 2022 Sponsor

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    Agreed. I read a couple of books about John Muir that were similarly laid out and it was a good read.
     
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  17. Jan 1, 2022
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

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    I agree with chronological order too.
     
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  18. Jan 1, 2022
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

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    By date seems to be be majority vote.

    I went through and dated all the events to get a sense of the new order. There are big gaps in time and location, some of it won't make immediate sense, but the book isn't meant to be a complete retelling of our travels. Our blog is still out there for that purpose.
     
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  19. Feb 12, 2022
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

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    Still chugging along on this. I've written more content, edited a bunch of photos to remove trademarks and obscure faces, and pursued permissions to use other photos and quotes.

    Everyone has been receptive until today - I heard from DC Comics and they won't allow the photo of the 15' Superman statue in Metropolis, IL. Strikes me that they've become the very sort of thing that their characters fight against. Ah well, gonna cut bait on that chapter and the one featuring the Kermit museum in MS.
     
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  20. Apr 12, 2022
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

    Tulsa, OK
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    You guys are the first to see the cover design - done by an old friend who is a professional illustrator:

    driven-to-wonder-cover-800.jpeg
     
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