John
Bums have been kicked. I did report this problem earlier and was told it had been processed as usual (i.e. a reply/receipt had been sent to you), so it was assumed it was just a matter of you being patient till the mail arrived.
I don't why there has nevertheless been some sort of derailment. The issue of the new database coincided with a major leak in my daughter's roof, which caused panic for a while. But that's been fixed so minds should be clear again. I have (metaphorically) also used my brogues to administer said kick as I was wearing them for a Ball last night and they have Blakeys fitted.
You are right about Shuei. It's been a millstone round my neck. But today is a nice sunny day and I'm working on proof-reading the last four games. The next stage is that they go to Tom Koranda for a final proofing. But I have a question (for everyone) that has left me feeling like Buradin's ass.
The book will be physical huge, and by far the densest go book ever in English (133 game commentaries; I can't really imagine anyone wanting to try to beat the record - if you are thinking about, I advise you to preserve your sanity).
It comes to 528 pages, "letter size" (close to A4). Theoretically that should be printable as a single Amazon book, I gather. But it may need a crane to lift it, or at least few visits to the gym.
It is possible to divide into two volumes, but that will increase the expense considerably. It will already be expensive anyway. A big reason for the extra expense is that it will be necessary to include the Go Wisdom appendix/index in both volumes for those who just buy one volume. That would add some 40 pages. For those who buy both volumes there will be some resentment, I imagine.
My personal preference is a single book. I rather like the idea of having a coffee table book that makes the table worry about its future
Income for me is hardly the issue. The deadline for my tax return was 31 October, so figures are fresh in my mind. I don't mind revealing that my income for ALL my go books on Amazon last year was £180.76 (that a bit over $200 or 200 euros), all of which was probably
more than wiped out by buying printer cartridges and proof copies from Amazon. So switching to 2 volumes instead of 1 and
possibly getting a bit extra profit that way is not an argument that carry any weight with me.
Pirates are the problem. By chance I came across a site recently that was offering my Meijin of Meijins (Shuei's biography) for free download. Illegally, of course, despite apparently being backed by a major American newspaper. I wrote to the address given for those who felt their copyright was being infringed. Of course I got no reply, as is usual with such sites. The Wayback Machine or whatever is called is similar. They all make you go through a million hoops to make your case, so I haven't bothered to try in most cases.
In the case of M of M, there were apparently over 5,000 downloads "so far" and I got a 5-star rating. There were gushing comments posted by users: "I've been waiting for this book for ages!" OK, so why didn't you buy a copy, young lady? I long gave up counting how many copies I've sold over the several years it's been out, but I think it's only barely crept over the 100 mark.
I imagine Robert must have a similar problem as I've seen his books offered in various places, and I do know Richard Bozulich/Kiseido has the same problem big time.
It didn't seem to matter quite so much when western go players were an identifiable community and you could take the attitude of letting the sharing suffice as the guerdon. But the modern mass of go players is too diffuse for my taste. Even here, my old bugbear of anonymous handles eats away at my inclination to do anything. (Yes, I know it's a generational thing.)
PS As I type I have just been beeped with the following message:
His emails went into my spam folder so have fished them out and will email him to apologise. His order was showing as complete so I presumed he had gone away happy. I think he just needs to try and download it again so I’ll re-send the receipt.
I hear from elsewhere that spam seems to be becoming more and more erratic (as big internet companies try to take more and more control of our data???). But that's a generational thing, too. I used to eat Spam, and didn't regard it as junk.
