Elliott Turner's Blog, page 9
June 4, 2012
Rigorous Research in Soccer Books
Almost every soccer book includes a brief taxi cab interview. For some reason, these interviews serve as the "voice of the people" and seldom offer much insight. Also, authors normally exclude the name of the cabbie, date of interview, and any means to contact the cabbie to confirm said interview happened. The result? A whole trove of research that cannot be peer reviewed. Tsk tsk.
Thus, in researching my second book, I had to just blindly follow convention. Taxi-cab research is a must. I consulted a cabbie in the US...via twitter. I asked Dmitry Samarov, author of "Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab," what he thought of Real Madrid & Barcelona. He said that "he didn't know." Conclusion? Lots of American cabbies have no opinion on the historic Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry. Surely, this is super important (even if it may not make it into the book).
Samarov's book is excellent, though. Check it out here: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/boo...
Thus, in researching my second book, I had to just blindly follow convention. Taxi-cab research is a must. I consulted a cabbie in the US...via twitter. I asked Dmitry Samarov, author of "Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab," what he thought of Real Madrid & Barcelona. He said that "he didn't know." Conclusion? Lots of American cabbies have no opinion on the historic Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry. Surely, this is super important (even if it may not make it into the book).
Samarov's book is excellent, though. Check it out here: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/boo...
May 28, 2012
Second eBook is happening!
Hey everybody,
my eBook reached its $1,000 funding goal at Kickstarter and will for sure be happening! I'm pumped, and will be blogging here at GoodReads about the book's creation. I don't want to write too much about writing, so I'll keep the posts focused and concise.
In that regards, the artwork. Erik Ebeling, the artist, has a pretty heavy plate. He's based in San Francisco, California, has enormous talent, and currently has internet start-up clients that probably share the same Angel Investors as Kickstarter back in the day. Thus, as a childhood friend, he is giving me a decent rate but can't exactly put my 30 illustrations at the top of his list. However, we've chatted and reached consensus on some basic issues.
First, I was incredibly happy with his work for An Illustrated Guide. Some of those pictures, like Pep the Philosopher statue, are simply classic. However, for this book, the focus is not a funny & simple foreign language guide, but a look at history. Thus, the pics will not be so comical. Also, we've agreed that early 20th century photographs are gorgeous. Thus, that will be the baseline for the aesthetic.
my eBook reached its $1,000 funding goal at Kickstarter and will for sure be happening! I'm pumped, and will be blogging here at GoodReads about the book's creation. I don't want to write too much about writing, so I'll keep the posts focused and concise.
In that regards, the artwork. Erik Ebeling, the artist, has a pretty heavy plate. He's based in San Francisco, California, has enormous talent, and currently has internet start-up clients that probably share the same Angel Investors as Kickstarter back in the day. Thus, as a childhood friend, he is giving me a decent rate but can't exactly put my 30 illustrations at the top of his list. However, we've chatted and reached consensus on some basic issues.
First, I was incredibly happy with his work for An Illustrated Guide. Some of those pictures, like Pep the Philosopher statue, are simply classic. However, for this book, the focus is not a funny & simple foreign language guide, but a look at history. Thus, the pics will not be so comical. Also, we've agreed that early 20th century photographs are gorgeous. Thus, that will be the baseline for the aesthetic.
May 10, 2012
Second eBook Update
The Kickstarter has only been going on for five days, but is almost at the halfway point!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3...
I don't want to count eggs before they hatch, but I've started talks with the artist, Erik Ebeling, about the 30 original illustrations that will grace the book. Right now, I have a pretty solid outline of the first five chapters and am thinking of more serious, more realistic images of the key figures during that era: Santiago Bernabeu, Joans Gamper, Ricardo Zamora, Josep Samitier, Cesar Rodriguez, etc.
The best part about the kickstarter campaign is that I've fashioned the rewards so that you can support the new book while 1) Buying my first book in a PDF/MOBI/EPUB bundle for a buck over the regular value and/or 2) Buy an advanced copy of the second book in a PDF/MOBI/EPUB bundle for probably the same value as the book's listing price.
The second book is going to be twice as long as the first, so it will probably have a listing price of $6.99. However, I'm not 100% sure yet. It will at least be $5.99. All the eBook sellers charge me per sale by file size, so we may wait and see.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3...
I don't want to count eggs before they hatch, but I've started talks with the artist, Erik Ebeling, about the 30 original illustrations that will grace the book. Right now, I have a pretty solid outline of the first five chapters and am thinking of more serious, more realistic images of the key figures during that era: Santiago Bernabeu, Joans Gamper, Ricardo Zamora, Josep Samitier, Cesar Rodriguez, etc.
The best part about the kickstarter campaign is that I've fashioned the rewards so that you can support the new book while 1) Buying my first book in a PDF/MOBI/EPUB bundle for a buck over the regular value and/or 2) Buy an advanced copy of the second book in a PDF/MOBI/EPUB bundle for probably the same value as the book's listing price.
The second book is going to be twice as long as the first, so it will probably have a listing price of $6.99. However, I'm not 100% sure yet. It will at least be $5.99. All the eBook sellers charge me per sale by file size, so we may wait and see.
May 7, 2012
Second eBook!
Hey folks,
some pretty exciting news. I'm about to start work on a new eBook about the first 100 years of the Real Madrid & Barcelona rivalry. There's just one catch: I'm kickstartering to cover costs. One of the "rewards" is an advanced copy of the book. Check out the details here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/33183621...
I'm really stoked about this project and look forward to moving on it.
some pretty exciting news. I'm about to start work on a new eBook about the first 100 years of the Real Madrid & Barcelona rivalry. There's just one catch: I'm kickstartering to cover costs. One of the "rewards" is an advanced copy of the book. Check out the details here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/33183621...
I'm really stoked about this project and look forward to moving on it.
