The Aardvark’s Tongue

So is this book project destined for failure? Is the Aardvark going to starve? This article by Patrica Fry indicates that this is a tough row to hoe: “According to a Jenkins Group survey, seventy percent of books published in this country do not make a profit. The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) backs this up. Their statistics show that in 2004, over seventy-six percent of all titles sold fewer than 100 copies.”

This weekend I will update the blog with how I got to this point, and the plan moving forward plus some excellent resources that I should have used from the start.

I am dying to get the main web site up and running so I can say

“Hey World - get your Sun-Dried Aardvark-Tongue Swizzle-Sticks” here!”

Sexy!

In my previous post I mentioned that I am currently evaluating different Wiki software with an eye to incorporating it in to the site so that others can contribute on future publishing projects. In particular I am interested in TiddlyWiki partially because it is a single HTML file and therefore has great potential as a personal Wiki that could be carried on a flash drive. But the program is sort of non-Wiki-esque in the sense that rather than long documents it creates short hyperlinked entries more akin to a stack of 3×5 index cards. Dave Gifford’s TiddlyWiki for the Rest of Us gives an excellent introduction to the tool.

Only one HTML file to save to your computer and you have a Wiki. It’s worth a download right?

This marks a milestone in the development of Aardvark Tongue Publishing - the establishment of the blog. You are invited to participate in the development of this publishing entity (provided that I have turned on the comment function). This is the first post. This post precedes the actual website (which is just around the corner).

I am Bob Ragsdale, I have written Sun-Dried Aardvark-Tongue Swizzle-Sticks and have created Aardvark Tongue Publishing in order to get the book into print. Along the way I have discovered that copywriting of this type is really a good thing for me. I have also discovered that collaboration on projects of this sort is a very good thing and lastly, I have discovered that I know very little about publishing. Thus the blog. Continue Reading »