The Big Meow (no spoilers)

[Kathy Li]

Go take a look at this entry on Out of Ambit (DD's blog). She's taking a straw poll about whether or not it's worth her time to try writing The Big Meow and publish it through some print-on-demand service which would probably price it out at $20-$25 bucks for a trade paperback. The e-mail for the poll is thebigmeow@youngwizards.com (automated response).

I would and I have already replied to the poll. The only problem is she said it was a trilogy so it would be the last one.

[Kathy Li]

Yes, but still, three books is better than two and better than none. And it's not as if we don't get to see the feline wizards in the YW books...

Myself, personally, the main reason I'd want to read The Big Meow is that it's set in Los Angeles.

[added later]

Hee hee hee! Neil Gaiman blogged about DD's straw poll. That should get a few responses. Getting your site linked to from Gaiman's blog is like getting slashdotted.

[added just slightly later]

Ooo! Ooo! Raetian Tales!!!

http://raetiantales.blogspot.com/

[Kes 22]

I've already replied.

I'm going to plug it on a message board and my LJ, but I'm not nearly as influential as Gaiman(!).

((SQUEE!))

[Caitlin]

ZOMG Gaiman?!?! Woah.

I'm pimping, but I can't do very much.

*awaits anymore news with extreme anticipation*

[Kathy Li]

Yeah, Neil Gaiman's blog reaches every corner of the known universe, apparently. DD blogged that she's gotten well over 200 responses. Yay, Neil!

BTW, if you haven't seen it, DD's sprouted off another blog (and RSS feed) just for The Big Meow.

I'm loving the background graphic in the lower right corner. hee hee hee

---- added later

BTW, I've moved Space Cadet's post over into a new Raetian Tales thread in Miscellaneous, since this is the forum for the Feline Wizards books.

[Kathy Li]

Bump.

OMG. She's put up a description of The Big Meow on the blog. It reads like a dream. Man, I really really hope she does write it....

[Fox]

MY GOD!! After that little part of the story how can she NOT publish the book, have to say i was one of the 200 people to email I said about haveing a order list and paying a deposit that way she knows who the reponse and how many want the book and for the chance to own a DD self published edition it would be worth it and more over it will complete the series! I love the cat wizards!!
You know i would be very tempted to give DD a percentage of the publishing costs But at the moment I'm a little straped for cash, i heard another author published his own book and it cost £2000, So if i had the money i would give DD at least £200 which is 10% of the publishing costs! all she would need then is 9 other people like me, you know what DD if your reading this I think i could just afford that What do you think? Share the cost of publishing by taking on silent partners
Fox

[Peter Murray]

I thought the whole point was to get 999* other people to share the cost . Or rather, to say that they'd buy it, repaying DD's investment (mostly by paying for her time spent writing it).

* Or more. Obviously, I don't know how much DD usually earns from a book.

Various books I looked at for family tree research years ago were published in a similar way to the way you suggest. For instance, the registers for a church in mid-Kent were published in the 19th century by having a subscription** list: people who paid in advance for the book, thus underwriting its costs before it had incurred any (apart from advertising it). The printing technology they had back then meant that the print run was limited to the copies already sold - with Print-On-Demand, that doesn't apply, so a book published nowadays wouldn't have to limit its print run in that way.

** sub + scribe = under + write.

[campsoup1988]

Here is my responce:

I would defentily buy the book if it comes out at book stores (not alowed to buy online) I just wish that it was not the last book in the trilogy because I dont want the series to end!

[nelka35]

DD has revived the question(oh, well, I asked her about it) - whether to write it. Here is her post(dated February 15, 2006) on the subject.

What I did is both - mentioned my interest(which is very high) in "The Big Meow", and bought "A Wind from the South", an e-book. (It is quite interesting, although I keep thinking that to enjoy it a lot more I should review European history.)
I did mention to DD in the comment to the Live Journal post she made on this subject(same as what I linked to above, just at LJ), that "The Big Meow" I would rather buy at a hardcover price as a book on paper. Interestingly(not that I am surprised, but still), most other comments mentioned their dislike for e-books, and preference for books on paper...

What I also want/plan to do - mention this issue at other book-related forums I visit.

[Peter Murray]

This post by DD settles it, for now; the short version is that there will be ten chapters if she gets enough money for each chapter as she writes and releases each one.
If that works out, and all ten chapters are written, then there will be a paper version of the whole book available.
So, now we just wait and (for forum members who don't have a credit card or whatever) work out if you have a way to pay DD for these chapters via PayPal.

[Kathy Li]

Interesting. Veddy interesting. I am, however, wondering what the "put it up on the website for free" portion of the equation is going to do. Why pay for it, if you can just get it for free by waiting for three days? An excerpt would be good, but the fact that the entire book could, theoretically be copy & pasted into a file and then printed out, so that a leech/moocher could still wind up with a hardcopy even without paying at the end of the day is, well, bad from a controlling-the-copyright standpoint.

[Peter Murray]

Yes. I was thinking three days is too soon, but... of course, if each chapter goes up to convince people to subscribe to the next chapter, there's no reason to put the tenth chapter up, and the leech/moocher doesn't know how the story ends without handing over money.

I wondered if DD only meant the first chapter would go up, but it doesn't read that way.

I hope your post doesn't set off a leech/moocher ship...

[Kathy Li]

I hope not, either. But I figure on this board the chances of folks wanting to pay rather than not would be higher than the average.

The thing that sort of cracks me up about this whole situation is that there was a similar situation with Donna Barr--where there was this particular collection of stories she wanted to finish up, round out, and publish, but she couldn't figure out how it would make financial sense, until one of her fans volunteered to underwrite the project for (you guessed it) $1,000.

SF fans often work in high tech. High tech pays well. This is the factor some marketing folks forget.

Anybody else wonder who the "angel" (to use the theatrical term) is...? (Or would that be abdal?)