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Metallicman Books
A month or so back I asked MM if he minded if I turned his articles into book format and he gave me the go ahead. I have since gone through and copy and pasted most of his Majestic/ Domain Index into word and have been editing it for paperback publication. You don't realise how daunting it is trying to copy everything until you go to do it as there are so many sub headings within sub headings, soo what I basically did was break each heading out into it's own volume, and have been working on each in my spare time. Guys there is a substantial amount of work here - well over a million words, as I am sure some of you already realise, equating to over 10 volumes. I currently have the training and retirement volumes finished - all that is missing is a cover page, which I am working on getting.
Anyways I figured I would open up this thread and upload each volume (the two completed ones and the others in their raw, unedited format) to save you guys the hassle of spending hours copying and pasting them, and navigating through sometimes broken links. Keep checking back regularly as Updates will be added to future volumes (things such as the Domain Q&As that are churned out regularly obviously cannot be added until they are out).
That way if the internet does shit itself you guys at least have most of MMs Index. Oh and if anyone knows how to properly embed fonts into PDFs please let me know as I could use your help. If the internet does go down, remember snail mail will still likely work ;).
ahh damn they are all bigger than the 5MB limit. @congjing yu would it work if i send them t you instead?
MM there is absolutely no reason that you should ever feel the need to be sorry for providing humanity with such a copious amount of important information.
I can't work out what is going on with this embedding thing. I went into the options menu of MS word and checked off everything to embed them but lulu still says it has fonts that need embedding.....of course it doesn't tell me specifically which ones. I might have to go back through and change to a basic font. I don't want to do that though, because I want your books to look nice and professional 🙂
for anyone who is interested, keep an eye out for this
Uploaded files:
@dori2190 That is a very nice cover!
Concerning the pdf font issues: Did you copy & paste the content from the website directly into Word? If so you probably have imported hidden formatting and style definitions such as fonts. The source code that website text editors produce is usually not very pretty and the hidden mess could cause problems later on. The proper way to copy & paste the content is via a program such as Notepad as a middleman to remove all hidden formatting and leave only pure text. Of course this also removes the images which you would have to save, name and insert into Word one by one... I know it is a lot of work. I have done that before.
Volume assembly and editing: If we split up the indexes we could work a little faster together... I can offer my help and for example send you a sub-index of cleaned up word files for you to do the final editing. By the way have you tried using Scribus for desktop publishing instead of Word?
Printing & Distribution: If there is ever interest in having a small batch printed & shipped, feel free to reach out to me. I run a small printing company with a business partner. We could even get proper ISBNs.
So this is my offer of help. Let me know if I can be of use.
In regards to the fonts, this was a problem I was experiencing in lulu. I have swapped over to Ingram Spark, so now it no longer seems to be an issue. But thank you for tip all the same as that was probably what was doing it. No haven't used scribus
I had about 8 ISBNs left over from a recent 10 pack purchase from Thorpe and Bowker (I only used 2 of them for paperback and ebook versions of my book - had plans to publish other fictional novels I am working on, but this is more important in my opinion) so I have started allocating them for each volume of the MM work.
The editing itself is not so bad as it means I am getting through the articles I haven't yet read. Even in the couple of hours since I posted that I have learnt a few things. In saying that though I still need to copy the affirmations index
In regards to printing and distribution, I was just planning on leaving it with Ingram Spark's print on demand division and going from there. I don't know what @congjing yu wants to do in this regard, ultimately it's his call. If you can get it into brick and mortar stores without having to allow returns that would be a big help, as I am aware of this being a big setback with Ingram. The last thing I want is for me or MM to be hit with $3ks worth of expenses in returned books because a store was unable to sell them. What sort of reach do you guys have with distribution? Do you do print on demand or more of a minimum limit batch run?
Guys. I know NOTHING at all about publishing. Nothing. But I do see the need to disseminate my writings. Anything that you can offer would really be a great help.
Desktop Publishing: Scribus is an open source desktop publishing software. It produces nicely formatted printable pdfs with all the color and font settings a printer needs. I can recommend it.
Distribution: First off we are more into printing than distribution. Our own business has very limited local reach in Germany (My business partner, a master book binder is in Germany, I am in Finland). However we can do basic book printing in small batches starting with a minimum of 1 book ;-). Of course more is cheaper per piece but as long as it is a standard book, producing 10 or 100 books is no problem. We can also do highly customized super fancy leather bound books with engravings, gold letterings, premium paper, you name it. Real on-demand printing like Lulu we cannot offer.
Reach: In my opinion reach is not very relevant in our case. The MM story is so special and niche that it probably won't appeal to the mainstream masses. What I see in my mind is more of a Collector's Edition for serious MM followers. A collection I would like to see on my book shelf from which I can pick a volume to read next to the fireplace with a nice glass of red wine and muse about the essence of our being and the universe.
Costs: The Collector's Edition could be sold via reservation ("Reserve your edition until [date]"). We gather the reservations through a nice page here on the MM website, calculate the printing&shipping costs, add MM's margin and once it is done, ask for pre-payment. When the money is there it goes into production and is shipped out to everyone. So it is kind of on-demand but also in batch. That would also exclude the return problem.
A rather mainstream spin-off could be the affirmation index alone. Seeing how much attention the law of attraction can generate this could probably be edited and produced to be a stand-alone well selling book. But you know you have to sell your soul when you do something purely for the money...
A note about copyrights: When doing a really public book you would probably not be able to use most of the images within the blog posts. You would have to check the copyright on each and every one of them, also you cannot just reprint large excerpts from other sources without permissions... That alone is a huge pain in the ass and opens you up to enemy fire. Another reason for a closed group Collector's Edition.
What do you, DM and MM, think about a pre-ordered Collector's Edition for the serious MM follower?
@vainamoinen yeah man I'd definitely get it in collectors edition. As it's ten + volumes though, I think it would be more economically viable to have the standard editions print on demand. Even a ten unit run would equate to 100 books. And yeah, I agree with the copyright, hence why I have been deleting most of the pictures and leaving only the ones that are completely relevant and don't appear to be someone elses copyright. Same with the excerpts. It's a monumental effort, that's for sure.
@congjing yu honestly mate publishing is a pain in the arse, I only know what I know after researching for the sake of my own books, and even then what i know isn't that much