Traditional book publishing. The reality.

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Traditional book publishing. The reality.

Similarly to self-publishing, the traditional publishing of my book on cryptography is for now out of question. I made good enough research on the publishing business to know what my chances to succeed are. The main reason to abandon the project, for now at least, is that the book Advanced Handwriting Cryptography has been available online for free for the last eight years. To the traditional book publishers it would make no sense to print the book when after the first push to the market people will quickly realize there’s a way to find the book for free. Maybe I’m wrong and the printed book could be a success anyway, but that’s one of the absolute conditions by publishers — a proposed book must have been never self-published, let alone shared online for free for almost a decade as it is the case with my book on cryptography.

For me personally it is a must, having at least one source to access the book for free — I do want to keep it free online, on my website. It’s difficult to have it both ways — to deliver the knowledge for free and to make some income with it. But I have an idea how to do it. Receiving donations is one way — it requires work from my part, to approach the potential donors, perhaps thousands of them, before any success. Time is the precious resource which I don’t have much at this point, to seek out potential donors and to approach them with personalized email each.

The traditional publishing of the book is not completely out of question, after finding the time to rewrite the book sufficiently enough. The rewritten book must be more complete, with different and more detailed chapters. Then I could give it a try, to approach literary agents and publishers.

By my latest research on literary agents there are some who are actively searching for original books to publish, including in the topics where handwriting cryptography could fit in.. but even writing a book proposal professionally is like writing an entire book. To write the proposal less than professionally would make no sense — after a rejection there is no chance to propose the same book again to the same publishers or literary agents. Thus, when I do will rewrite the Advanced Handwriting Cryptography book, and will write the book proposal for the updated book — which could happen in years from now — I could think of publishing the book in print with traditional book publishers.

The reality is that I live literally inside a cave at a mountain side, in a tent. In my living conditions, when half a day goes to the routine of staying alive and clean and in reasonably good health, there are not so many possibilities for lengthy writing projects. Promising to deliver a book which takes a lot of collaboration on editing and later promoting, is something I cannot do at this point.

Thus, keeping the book free and approaching potential donors, one letter at the time, is the somewhat realistic option for me to earn some income with the cryptography method.

Of course, if there will be a large enough investment, for me to buy time, space and equipment for recording professional videos, then that will be another way to potentially earn something. To do it in a cave is a bit inconvenient, especially when the cave is on an abandoned land where at any moment I could be asked to leave, starting again from zero, in tent on street in random locations. Also in the cave there is no electricity, no running water for drinking, no kitchen to cook or place to keep the food safely, and so on — only a place to sleep well which is a big bonus already, after several weeks of short and constantly disturbed sleep in random places.

Actually I like this cave. The temperature in the cave is cooler than outside, under the blazing sun. But it is not an office. I don’t even bring ready made food to the cave, to avoid animals and bugs having an interest in my things. That means for each meal and for a coffee I must go out somewhere, taking with me the things I cannot afford to lose to intruders.

Basically, not to carry all my valuables up and down the hill several times a day, I’m leaving in the morning with almost all my things, and coming back later when all my daily tasks are done — eating, taking shower, washing clothes, charging devices and power banks, buying necessary things, repairing broken things, filling bottles with drinking water somewhere, going to places where I can use free bathroom with my charged hand truck of 40-50 kg, deciding when and where to brush teeth, shave, etc. etc. Fun of routine for an entire day.

Thanks to some savings I don’t need to ask for money on the street yet, but the little savings are rapidly shrinking. Soon I may need to begin asking for coins again, like I did it in Paris for few years. For now I must only cut back on coffee, for the savings to last, because all the urgent things I have already purchased, some of them quite expensive. Regardless of an economy, the reserve money will not last forever — phone bills to pay, some unavoidable expenses for hygiene, occasional reparation tools and materials, also bank account charges and so on. Regardless of having free and good food on social places, one day I may need to ask on street for some coins again, for basic needs. That will mean even less time for working on my research, projects, and writing.

To really understand it, to feel the life I live, I must post some photos, but that will be in a separate article, not here where the topic is a long excuse why I have abandoned the idea to approach traditional book publishers.

Here’s just one photo..

handtruck8123593012761736116.png Download

.. the stuff needs to be unpacked for use every evening, and packed again every morning, to move around. Few extra hours of work every day. When there’s a hurry then I could pack it all in half an hour, and unpack it with the same speed, but that would be a waste of precious time. I rather do it in slow pace while practicing the so important meditation at the same time, during some of the daily routine.

Also the works around house are unavoidable. The jungle around the cave grows fast, really fast — it needs to be cut back weekly or it will take over the place. Yet another thing that reduces my free time for writing. Depending on which part of the ‘garden’ needs to be cut back, it may take anything from few hours to entire weekend.

That said, literary agents are still welcome to contact me, if they see the potential and can get me a significant financial advance, for my work on rewriting and updating the book.

So, that’s the reality.

Apart of that, my health issues with back, injured knee, and now also with one shoulder — hopefully just a temporary issue with a muscle — require visits to clinic to get prescription medication, to make tests etc. Nothing special as everyone has issues, but in my condition of life it takes more time to get everywhere. The result is not having too much time for working on my books. Anyway, enough complaining. I’m happy to have decided to come to Madeira. It was one of the best decisions in my life, besides getting married, and getting divorced. While living every day a life in paradise, in the beautiful nature, it makes even the routine tasks a pleasure.

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if you find my articles/posts with shared knowledge by different authors interesting, and easy to understand, you may also like to read the book Advanced Handwriting Cryptography, completely free and permitted to share. you will definitely get value out of spending your time on reading the book.. the knowledge gotten from it may save you from troubles in many situations in life. a must read for everyone ..