Vanity press can work if you find the right printer, have the right subject, and encounter demand. On the other hand, authors entering the publishing world face a nasty business of contracts with myriad stipulations, protections for the publisher at the expense of the author, and sometimes hidden clauses that can come into play during the course of one or work's lifespans. You'll discover "cross-linking" of titles, where any monies you earn on a popular title will be applied to losses on other titles, "reserves for returns," where the publisher retains up to 25 percent of a title's monies to cover any returned items, and the ability of the publisher to keep any earned monies for a title (to cover their mistake in overprinting), which effectively kills any income from a title. Authors rarely earn 10 percent of 50 percent of a title's cover price. New authors can be offered at little as 2.5 percent royalties, meaning that a book that sells for $25 cover price will cost Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Borders, or B. Dalton's only $12.50. The author would then receive 31 cents for each book sale. However, foreign sales only pay one-half of the rate, book club sales perhaps only 1 percent, and lot sales nothing. Publishers in technical fields also typically retail *ALL* copyright ownership, so the author cannot use any material for residual articles or other content unless granted permission. Advances, or payments given to an author to cover expenses while working, aren't really advances at all, but are paid as work is turned in; rarely are advances paid in lump sums, and the monies are generally in the low- to low-middle class salary range. Combine these factors with the fact that publishers typically want books prepare in 90 days, and you can begin to see why some of the content and quality of the technical books about Linux is somewhat lacking - there is a lot of garbage out there (some publishers have been so cheeky as to re-publish man pages, not as blessed by linuxdoc, but as original, hacked content!). Self-publishing may be a good pursuit, and having the time to craft, revise and update content is a good idea. Also, note that not all publishers play "follow the distro version" game, and some, such as O'Reilly, will also allow authors enough time for an update, revision, etc. I also believe O'Reilly is the only publisher to publish its authors' contract on-line - this is commendable.
sat down the other night and ended up running VTOS, Linux-Vr and PocketLinux, all on the same PDA! what is nice is having the choice of operating system to use on a handheld... I don't hold out much hope for the 160x160 crowd, but then again, you get an 8MB Linux box in your Palm for less than $200(US)... the real attraction comes in when you have a 32MB unit, color, 240x160, and a 64MB flash card... then you can slap in a different OS and interface at your leisure..
after i emailed a question on Intervideo's support page in the last week or so, i rec'd a reply stating to the effect that "LinDVD has been sent to OEMs for evaluation, and I can't tell you much more than that."
so at least i got a reply, but that's not helping me with playing DVDs under Linux...
anyone have a simple, step-by-step procedure with software that works under 2.2.15, 2.2.16, or 2.2.17?
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Vanity press can work if you find the right printer, have the right subject, and encounter demand. On the other hand, authors entering the publishing world face a nasty business of contracts with myriad stipulations, protections for the publisher at the expense of the author, and sometimes hidden clauses that can come into play during the course of one or work's lifespans. You'll discover "cross-linking" of titles, where any monies you earn on a popular title will be applied to losses on other titles, "reserves for returns," where the publisher retains up to 25 percent of a title's monies to cover any returned items, and the ability of the publisher to keep any earned monies for a title (to cover their mistake in overprinting), which effectively kills any income from a title. Authors rarely earn 10 percent of 50 percent of a title's cover price. New authors can be offered at little as 2.5 percent royalties, meaning that a book that sells for $25 cover price will cost Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Borders, or B. Dalton's only $12.50. The author would then receive 31 cents for each book sale. However, foreign sales only pay one-half of the rate, book club sales perhaps only 1 percent, and lot sales nothing. Publishers in technical fields also typically retail *ALL* copyright ownership, so the author cannot use any material for residual articles or other content unless granted permission. Advances, or payments given to an author to cover expenses while working, aren't really advances at all, but are paid as work is turned in; rarely are advances paid in lump sums, and the monies are generally in the low- to low-middle class salary range. Combine these factors with the fact that publishers typically want books prepare in 90 days, and you can begin to see why some of the content and quality of the technical books about Linux is somewhat lacking - there is a lot of garbage out there (some publishers have been so cheeky as to re-publish man pages, not as blessed by linuxdoc, but as original, hacked content!). Self-publishing may be a good pursuit, and having the time to craft, revise and update content is a good idea. Also, note that not all publishers play "follow the distro version" game, and some, such as O'Reilly, will also allow authors enough time for an update, revision, etc. I also believe O'Reilly is the only publisher to publish its authors' contract on-line - this is commendable.
sat down the other night and ended up running VTOS, Linux-Vr and PocketLinux, all on the same PDA! what is nice is having the choice of operating system to use on a handheld... I don't hold out much hope for the 160x160 crowd, but then again, you get an 8MB Linux box in your Palm for less than $200(US)... the real attraction comes in when you have a 32MB unit, color, 240x160, and a 64MB flash card... then you can slap in a different OS and interface at your leisure..
after i emailed a question on Intervideo's support page in the last week or so, i rec'd a reply stating to the effect that "LinDVD has been sent to OEMs for evaluation, and I can't tell you much more than that."
so at least i got a reply, but that's not helping me with playing DVDs under Linux...
anyone have a simple, step-by-step procedure with software that works under 2.2.15, 2.2.16, or 2.2.17?