Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I was afraid to guess.
  

    


Oh goody we're talking about ME.  I want to do a fashion tip book, vard.  Do
you think you can swing this for me?
  

    

Perhaps I can sneak into plum chat and mention "Shotting The Boh" by Tracy
Johnston now in its 13th printing still going strong after 5 years, which is
nothing like plum record but still, worth your while. One woman's journey
down the wildest river in Borneo. i make a cameo appearence as the cowardly
husband.
  

    
Is that ever a fine adventure tale.  Don't read it on a river trip, however.
  

    
_Shooting the Boh_.  Not shotting.  A fine book, with more than a cameo
by jrc.
  

    

Steve speaks truth; i type badly.
  

    
*Shooting the Boh* is a great book, and it is an adventure tale plus
more.
  

    

Plus they are going to mangle it into a movie!  It is an awesome book.
  

    
Riding the Internet Highway, which isn't in print but it's still in Amazon,
I think it is, so it must still exist.  And I still hear from people who
bought it second hand or whatever.

I have a book that's been sitting on the precipice of getting published for
months now, which is The Beginner's Guide to Netscape Communicator 4.  Dunno
if it made it out yet.
  

    
Sharon, I noticed a 2nd edition of Riding the Internet Highway, by you and
someone else. Did you collaborate on that, or did your co-author do all the
updating, or what?

I remember coming to your first booksigning. You signed my copy something
like "Thank you for buying my book."
  

    
Collaboration is one way to put it, I guess.

When they asked me to update it, they suggested several additional chapters,
some of which I agreed to and some of which I felt weren't appropriate or
necessary.  We had a discussion about that, and I thought we had come to an
agreement.  Just before deadline, they hired someone else to write those
chapters -- and paid the guy out of *my* royalties, which is what my
contract said.  Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten in writing that those
particular chapters were to be left out.

The other guy in the author line was the editor, who wrote the chapter about
how to use the crappy software included in the book, which had nothing to do
with what the book was about.

My first and only booksigning.  But it was quite the event, if I do say so
myself; <maya> joined the Well because of that, if I'm remembering
correctly.

Eventually sold 55,000 copies and got some very nice reviews.
  

    

that is excellent!
  

    
The 55,000 part was.  I wasn't so thrilled about the collaboration effort.

What did make me happy is that the guy they approached to do the additional
chapters contacted *me* and let me know what's up -- they didn't tell me --
and he basically apologized (it wasn't *his* fault) and I was able to
explain to him the sich.  We're still friends, and he's given me work since.
 Computer freelancers are good that way.
  

    
Wow Sharon, I am impressed. Now, I'll have to go search for a used
copy.
  

    
Riding the Internet Highway : Deluxe ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
             Sharon Fisher, Bob Tidrow / Paperback / Published 1994 
             Our Price: $24.99 
  

    

If you're so impressed, why not buy it new?
  

    
Because it's out of print, despite what some of the online places say.

It probably would have sold a lot more if the publisher's distribution
wasn't so screwed up.  I got email from people all over the world telling me
how much they liked it, and email from people all over the U.S. saying where
the hell could they find it?

The most interesting aspect of the sales was the notable spike in sales the
month after Jerry Pournelle gave it a one-line plug near the end of his
column.  The man had power.
  

    

so who is he?
  

    
Science fiction author who had a column for years in Byte about the
computers he had, and the stuff people sent him, and his sons, and the
interactions between all of them.  Some people didn't like the column, but
it also offered a very nice real-world view of a high-end user -- at least,
as real-world as it gets when people are falling over themselves sending you
free stuff.  There were also complaints about nepotism, and I am not in a
position to complain because I benefited from it.
  

    

Ah, okay!

So a folksy kind of writer.
  

    
In that context, yes.  (Folksy is not how one would describe his science
fiction, except maybe _Fallen Angels_, which he cowrote with Larry Niven and
is a very silly pastiche about SF fandom.)  I'd sure as hell trust his 
recommendation on computer stuff.

Caveat -- Jerry is an old buddy of my husband's and I'm rather fond of him
myself, even if our politics are a study in contrasts.
  

    
Ohhhhhhhhh yes.
  

    
Oh VERY yes.
  

    
You should have been around the time he told a dinner table full of female
editors that a woman's job was to stay home and do the dishes.

On the other hand, he let me try one of his sweetbreads.
  

    

You ate his entrails?