Re: [HOE] Some announcements

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

> > That's right. After the releases I mentioned, there won't be any
> more > dedicated sourcebooks--unless something really great deserves a
> book and > we decide to do it. You might see one or two dedicated
> books a > year--MAYBE--but mostly the Epitaph takes the place of
> these.
> 
> I know I'm late in saying this, but I said it when this came up the
> last time: I think this is a really, really bad idea.

We've been through this, but you have to look at it from Pinnacle's
perspective (this is all me pulling stuff out of my ass BTW, but I think
the points are valid):

1. There ain't that much more to write about. Other then going into more
detail Pinnacle's covered most all of the biggies. If they try to put out
more big books they'll wind up being full of fluff and having no substance
(try writing up 128 pages on... the Hekants). Now 20-30 pages on the
Hekants, that's do-able and should cover everything. But you can't publish
a 30 page book in pinnacle format and make a profit. There's too much
overhead. I guess they could do it in dime novel format, but then 2-3 dime
novels would cost the same as an epitath, and you'd have the other end of
the spectrum "I'm paying too much for all these dribs-and-drabs, can't you
guys just consolidate it all into one book?"

2. Pinnacle's pretty small. There's what... 3-4 writers? Making one of
them crank out big book after big book is going to burn them out. But if
they can do "short stories" they can probably crank out 128 pages of
material over many months/issues. Which is point 3:

3. You can have 3-4 people working on different parts of an epitath. You
can't have 3-4 people working on a sourcebook. People don't agree,
schedules don't match and the writing style won't be consistent.

Let's see anything else in there...

4. This one's pretty minor, but source books are pretty... final. If you
write up 128pages on the Hekants that's it. They ain't getting anymore
room. There won't be any time or publishing "room" to go back and add
something. But what if Phil the Copyguy comes up with a great idea? "Sorry
Phil, we've already done the Hekants, we're trying to work on the Great
Maze now. Good idea though."

Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab, Safety Warden (Bldg. 85)

   	Reason #173 to fear technology...

           o      o     o    o     o    <o     <o>    o>    o
          .|.    \|.   \|/   //    X     \      |    <|    <|>
           /\     >\   /<    >\   /<     >\    /<     >\   /<

	Mr. Asciihead learns the Macarena."