The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Henry Wessells:

NJ, work in NYC, family of 3 (filing joint return)

wages plus small business (minor loss in 2008)

32.7 %
federal, state, local property taxes & SS & Medicare & employee paid portion (one-fifth) of health insurance costs
would be around 42% if had to pay all heath insurance costs

no major out of pocket health care expenses in 2008
N.B. local taxes paid are more than 50 % of actual federal tax paid

Getting ready to cut my hair -- unshorn since before the 2000 election -- and thinking of world peace

Robert Sheckley's humor and imagination and mastery of the short story are what brought me to science fiction. Levity of tone (and form) disguises a profound understanding of trends in the evolution of human society. Reading Sheckley aloud is to gain insight through joy. (And surely he invented reality TV with "The Life of Anybody" and even before that with "The Prize of Peril".)

He remains without equal.

Department of literary-industrial archaeology:

Sarah Skwire wrote:
>Actually, someone's written a novel that is only available as cell phone text messages.

Back in 1986 I wrote and produced (with musical accompaniment) a dozen episodes of The Novel-in-Progress as thirty-second thrillers, the length determined by the outgoing answering machine tape. I probably have the typescripts in the attic, but I am quite certain that I did not save the cumulation tape I made.

HW

I was reading at KGB yesterday evening and thought to make a science-fiction nod to JJ, and so recited James Blish's "A Prayer for James Joyce" (1970):

Poolybacky, soofleshing dimily o'er whalepath, kenning our nighsride to ashehrnities, grant him his day our mournfille newmare; typette us not in darkling kittifishies; and lave us lightly ni ogs annirate; not lent ere curite this airiwohning crepusquus.  Gull his travails swiftly to wrist; he connicht alpemore.  Wiss brunt offliction.  Yrs navely, Apselorse (his chronic exegete).  Uhmn.

It helps to pronounce the W as V in a couple of spots.

Apologies for any sidetracking of this thread. The definition of terms from TNH's most recent comment, "predatory universe of vanity publishing," has greatly clairifed my understanding of this discussion.
A useful issue was noted by John M. Ford, "never passed an actual editor" -- the degree of editorial intervention is readily apparent from the first paragraph, or even the blurb. (I am now remembering the stacks of books from certain vanity publishers that were routinely excluded from the books received column of AB Bookman's Weekly -- and the imprecision of the prose.)
I'll go back to lurking.

Self properly chastised for including current market indicators as well as the titles of self-published books of acknowledged or enduring literary merit. Publisher grumbling at author for ill-advised candor akin to opening a vein while swimming in a shark tank. Self concedes rashness, will try to restrain impulsiveness (ultimately will not be able to do so).

Self-publishing has an entirely legitimate and necessary place in American literature: the aim of the author to ensure that the work 1) is published in the intended form and 2) reaches the intended audience, while 3) allowing the author to retain control of design and production processes.
There are also some notable precedents:
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, [Paris], 1782 [i.e., 1784]. 200 copies printed. Recent retail price approx. $375,000 (fine copy with presentation inscription).
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, [Brooklyn], 1855. 500 copies in first binding. Recent price at auction $187,200 (fine copy).

To contribute personal experience to this thread:
Until June of last year (2003) I had been discussing a book project with the prime mover of an ambitious small press imprint (to whom I was referred by a sensible professional editor). When, after some weeks of indecision, he reported, I like your book but cannot publish it until 2006, I understood that I could produce the book more quickly, remain closer to my authorial intent, retain control of the design of the book, break even, and make a modest surplus. Another professional editor (equally sensible) said, you won't sell lots of copies.
I calculated a print run I thought viable, enlisted the assistance of a professional designer to accomplish nuts and bolts typesetting goals beyond my own skills, used a top-notch printer, found a hand binder for the fifteen special copies and a short-run binder for the two hundred copies in cloth. Uncorrected proofs of Another green world were distributed at World Fantasy Convention in October.
The book was published as announced in late December 2003 (physcially in the hands of subscribers and recipients of presentation copies); clothbound books were shipped to fill orders about five weeks later. With a little work I expect to be out-of-print before the first review appears.
The aims of the author were fulfilled through the timely appearance of the book. The amount of net profit is about what one might have expected to receive as an advance against royalties from a generous small press publisher (perhaps a little more when one or two deadbeats pay up -- but that is the publisher's concern).

Thanks, Teresa, for the Posy Simmonds link -- funny, good use of panels, and acutely observed.

(Though there were only _nine_ people at my last reading on a rainy evening . . .)

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