Commodore Book

[Harrison]

Having members who speak so many common languages, it would be great to be able to do translations. French, German, English and Norwegian versions would be great.

I know quite a bit about the printing process and how to layout pages ready for being sent to the printers, as well as pantone colour selections and other related things, so that's not a problem. If we did seriously all consider trying to do a book then I could find out some more realistic costings for publishing a book.

Of course there is an alternative. We could create a book, but publish it in PDF format and charge for it to be downloaded. If that proved popular then it could go into physical print. You can also protect PDFs via copyright, as well as verification keys to confirm the person viewing the PDF is the legal owner.

But, equally I don't think we should even consider a book until the site content is more complete. Otherwise we will end up with a split between the projects which would be hard to manage.

Although having a topic we can all post ideas for the book in would still be a great place to make initial plans and ideas.

[Demon Cleaner]

But, equally I don't think we should even consider a book until the site content is more complete. Otherwise we will end up with a split between the projects which would be hard to manage.

That was my first thought. I think we should concentrate on completing most of the main site, then look for other things.

[Demon Cleaner]

The guys at Golden Years are already releasing their second book. The idea is as follows:

IMPORTANT! Before you click on the link, please be aware that this is a PRE-ORDER. The idea being that - in a very similar way to the ZX Spectrum book - we will use the pre-orders to fund the printing. The book itself will not be ready for several months, and in fact may not ever get printed if not enough pre-orders are received!
However, in the event that not enough preorders are received to cover the bulk of the printing costs, anyone who did support us with a pre-order will have their money refunded (MINUS PAYPAL FEES!) and be sent an electronic copy of the book as a thanks for their support!
Note that this system worked very well for the ZX Spectrum book, which was printed in December of 2006.

ALSO IMPORTANT! There will be a limited number of copies of the book printed. First come, first served!

Is a good idea IMO, if it worked fine with the previous one.

[Submeg]

So crazy....but if you have everything done on the site...theres this option called Ctrl + A, Ctrl + C.....Ctrl + V....

[AlexJ]

Chances are the prose will be terrible with a copy/paste method. It'll just be facts and figures + reviews with no flowing through each section.

[Harrison]

Exactly. The site can be used for the reference and the facts, but to create a book we would all need to write articles that explored the history of the Amiga, Amiga gaming and the Amiga demo scene. Basically what made the Amiga so loved by everyone. If we were to just stick to the main site content we would end up creating a very big encyclopaedia of the Amiga, something the site will end up being anyway.

[Submeg]

Yea I guess that would be right, it would have to be more of a flowing piece. Sounds interesting....

[Tiago]

I never saw this topic before, i just read it now!

the Commodore book "On the Edge : The spectacular rise and fall of Commodore",
it was also in other topic.

The book is on Amigakit:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=368

So do you think it will be easy for me to read it in english? I dont have it here in Portugal.
In the past i read about 4 or 5 books in English, but they where adventure or novels, with no difficult language with no difficult terms. Does this book have difficult tecnical terms in english?

[toomanymikes]

I think we should do this! I have really good writings skills and stuff and I can talk 'word' with the kids of today.
In all seriousness tho, I think its a good idea - maybe I could contribute a cover image or two as thats all I'm really good at!

[Zetr0]

I keep meaning to treat myself to a copy of "On The Edge"