[Sigia-l] The Menace

[Patrick Neeman]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thomas Vander Wal [mailto:thomas at vanderwal.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 7:50 PM
> To: Patrick Neeman; Sigia-l at asis.org
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] The Menace
>
[snip]
> Patrick, oddly (and I say this truly as a Thomas that grew up doubting and
> believe in that trait to lead to the right answers too) I think you will
> find the intentions to be 100% (possibly more accurately 99.9%) altruistic
> as the case.  I know Christina and Jesse took time off from their jobs to
> work on their books, which will likely never pay them back for the time they
> took off from work.  They like the rest of us, believe in IA strongly,
> passionately, and want to see the profession grow.  The best way to see it
> grow is to share what you know and offer critiques to make IA better.
[/snip]

This is where I disagree, slightly. Unless any author is donating the proceeds from his or her book to charity, then in some way
they hope the book makes money. Getting a book deal is a big deal, because taking the time to build as reputation is someone who is
known as an 'expert' (I put quotes around it beause of a previous statement I made in an email), writing the book, editing the
book -- it's a lot of work. Profits are a form of validation because it means that 1) people like your work and 2) you get back
something for the time invested.

Running an organization and selling your books as part of that organization could be thought of as similiar to the teacher that
'encourages' the students to buy the teacher's book. (I know I ran into that in college...).

At one point or another I would like to write a book about something (I don't think it's going to be about IA, probably about cheese
whiz), but I do agree there is a certain enjoyment in finishing a book.

Just my two cents worth.

P@