Book Update

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CuttingEdge
2010 crawler
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Book Update

Post by CuttingEdge » Tue Jan 28, 2020 7:18 am

Lavoy was really a motivator in getting me moving again on my book called "Greater than Gold, which is a memoir about me finding the second motherlode here in Maine, as well as my struggles through an intense personal trial including ill-health, financial run, treachery and even human death.

Just as an update for him, as well as others, I am pleased to say that on Saturday I finished the book: a year long project.

It is a book that is 380 pages long, standard size for a paperback book at 5" x 8" in size roughly, and contains 72 photos, with a chapter on my beloved John Deere 350D, but mentions other bulldozers in my life, like our old 1965 John Deere 1010 growing up, and a John Deere 850C throughout the text. While not about bulldozer's, there are several photos of John Deere bulldozer's throughout the book.

The direction the book takes now is: Katie is going to start reading it, and make her adjustments to it, as she is my wife and as a couple our struggles have thus been struggles together. She will edit it as she goes, then I will print three copies of it. I have three people that I hope to get to read it, then do 50-75 words about how they liked it, then I can add that to the "In Praise for Greater than Gold" section. Then I will print it out for "sale". Katie and I plan to print and bind the books ourselves. I am guessing that will take about a month for Katie to and the others to review it, then be available to read.

Sale is an interesting word because I have no interest in financial gain from it. However there are costs to make it from paper, ink and front covers for the book. Unless I can find cheaper sources of paper and ink, it looks like it will have a cost of around $15.
I have no intention of traveling to my grave in a well manicured body; instead I am going to slide into heaven with a big power turn, totally wore out with busted knuckles, jump off my dozer loudly yelling, Woo Hoo, another Shepard has just arrived!

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Lavoy
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Re: Book Update

Post by Lavoy » Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:22 am

Put me on the list for a copy, my offer still stands.
On another note, yes, you do need to make money from it. You need to take your lovely wife that puts up with you out to supper or get something for the kids, or pay the taxes, and so on. Your labor on the book is no different than mowing roads, it took time out of life, even though I am sure it is a labor of love. $19.95 sounds like a better price to me, good luck, keep us informed.
Lavoy
Parts and restoration for antique and late model John Deere crawlers.
Owner and moderator www.jdcrawlers.com

hydrogeo
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Re: Book Update

Post by hydrogeo » Tue Jan 28, 2020 2:03 pm

I'd suggest making sure you copyright it before releasing anything.

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CuttingEdge
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Re: Book Update

Post by CuttingEdge » Wed Jan 29, 2020 4:29 am

hydrogeo wrote:
Tue Jan 28, 2020 2:03 pm
I'd suggest making sure you copyright it before releasing anything.
There is no need to do anything; it is already has a copywrite, and protected by copywrite law the moment I saved the book on my computer.

A registered copywrite is a negative type of protection in that it helps the copywrite holder as they give up or sell their copywrite to others. Since I am self-publishing, I do not need that because I already have the most restrictive rights to the book there is.

Copywrites are no different than say...property rights. When a person buys land, or inherits it, with that deed comes a bunch of rights. Think of it as a small bundle of firewood in front of a gas station being sold as camp wood. One stick is the right to build buildings, another is mineral rights, another is timber rights, there is also air rights, and a host of other rights that get bundled all up in that deed. A book is no different. The moment a person writes a book and saves it on their computer, that saved book becomes the "deed"...or proof that it is really theirs.

But with a deed, a person can sell off, or give away some of those property rights. Lets say you have a neighbor that wants to build a house behind yours, and needs power. A landowner can grant that neighbor legal use of their land to run a power line to their house. I have had that happen with me, so that powerline right of way, is a firewood stick I have given up, but I still have a bunch of other sticks...other rights to my land.

It is the same with a copywrite. It really helps an author of a book retain the fact that they wrote the book, but are allowing a publisher to print and distribute the book, and get a portion of the money for doing that. In essence, the author is breaking up his bundle of rights, and selling off some of those rights...not the whole thing, just some, just as a right-of-way does to a piece of land. And so it has a separate ledger at the county deed office showing that division.

But a piece of property must be conveyed, so it needs to be recorded as a deed in the first place, where as a book is a creation, so it never existed before. That creation is intellectual property, and considered a basic human right to keep it from being stolen by others.
I have no intention of traveling to my grave in a well manicured body; instead I am going to slide into heaven with a big power turn, totally wore out with busted knuckles, jump off my dozer loudly yelling, Woo Hoo, another Shepard has just arrived!

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