Good morning everyone. I thought I would put the contents of the email I sent yesterday here so that anyone else interested in charting our progress could see what we are up to.
"Hi everyone, it is time to start moving again with the RFF Book, Vol.
1 perhaps. I would like to point out a couple things, then recap what
we are doing and what we have completed, and then talk about what we
need from you.
First of all, Gene has opened a new account at lulu.com, the book
publishing site, which we will use to submit our book. He has also
opened a new email account to which we will from now on use for all
correspondence. Please address your questions and submit your photos
and info to this address. Both Gene and I have access to this account
and will be reading it regularly.
The address is:
rff.forum@gmail.com
So, lets look at where we have been. Back in September we decided to
pursue Richard's idea to publish a book of our photographs. I look at
this decision as a public extension of our community at RFF and
another way for us to enjoy the works we see regularly posted in the
gallery. We decided to self publish this book, using the services of
the online printer,
www.lulu.com. This allows us the option to
publish our book with no upfront costs, sort of. I will discuss the
ISBN options later.
We also made a number of decisions about the format of the book. We
chose a glued back binding over a spiral binding, color instead of
black and white, 8.5"x11" rather than 6"x9". The biggest decision I
think was the number of pages and participants. Our book will be @60
to 65 pages long which gives us room for 50 photographs, two each from
25 participants.
The purchase cost of the book will be the lulu printing charges, plus
the premium lulu adds as their revenue. Though we have an option to
add to a personal profit to the cost, we decided not to do this.
Personally, I can't see how we could generate any profit and
reasonably manage the distribution of these revenues. This is for fun
guys, fun and community.
So, participants were chosen, a title, front and rear covers were
decided on, and photos were submitted with the other data needed as
content for the book. What we have can all be seen in a gallery at
Pbase.com. Do remember that the password to access the actual photos
is:
hcb
http://www.pbase.com/rsilfverberg/rf_boook_project
So, where does this leave us now? Well, we have most of the
information that we need from 20 of the 25 participants (21 because I
know Todd has his ready to go). The attached spreadsheet is my best
attempt at naming the participants and listing what you have already
submitted. Please look this over and start working as fast as you can
to complete your assignments if you need to. Also, correct any errors
that I have made.
What am I specifically looking for? Good question;
1) Two photographs taken with a RF camera scanned at 300 dpi for which
the long side measures 7".
2) A title for each photograph and a paragraph or two of text about
each photograph.
3) Your full name as you would like it to appear in the book.
4) Your country of residence.
5) Film and exposure information for each photograph.
6) A short bio paragraph about yourself and your work for the back of the book.
7) A photograph of your RF camera. This may not be needed at this
time. Todd has designed and did the lay out of the back cover and it
may be done at this time.
For the primary participants who need to submit information, at this
time I need to set a strict deadline for completion of this request.
We simply need to get this done and published. Therefore, please
submit your stuff to this address:
rff.forum@gmail.com
No later than:
Sunday, February 6
I hope that this does not result in anyone being excluded from the
project, but we really need to get this part of the process completed.
In the next couple days I will be sending a note to each of you who
need to submit data to personally inform you of what we need. I think
it is only fair to make every effort to complete the project with
those who started with it.
For the alternates it may be an imposition, but I will ask
nonetheless, even though you may not end up being included in the
book. I would request that you start compiling this same information
and be prepared to submit it as soon as possible if notified after 2/6
that we need you. If you wish, feel free to submit this to us before
2/6 and we will hold it in the ready if needed. We will call on the
alternates in the order that you see them on the spreadsheet soon
after 2/6 if necessary and have a deadline for you at that time. As
far as this order goes, I apologize if it is incorrect, it is the best
I could figure with the info that I have looked over in the past few
days. Note: if your material cannot be used for this book, you will be
first in line for inclusion in the next book.
Everyone, I am very excited about getting this project completed and
seeing the book in print. I look at some of the photos with which
mine will be displayed and wow, it makes me feel good (if not
incompetent with my camera). Lets stay on top of this, all of us, and
get to finish line together."
