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Publisher's Forum: the place for serious discussion of publishing issues, and a whole lot more. Pub-Forum is a
thriving community of publishers and publishing-related professionals. You will find us both knowledgable and
willing to give advice. You may also find us rambunctious and free-wheeling. Don't let that throw you.
The list culture on Pub-forum assumes a certain level of knowledge about the publishing industry. If you don't know
how to get an ISBN for instance, we recommend you read a book such as "The Self Publishing Manual" by Dan Poynter, "1001
Ways to market Your Books" by John Kremer, "The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days" (self publishing);
"The Publishing Game: Find an Agent in 30 Days" (literary agents); or
"The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days" (book promotion); see
http://www.PublishingGame.com) or at least visit some of the many excellent websites (like
www.parapub.com, http://hometown.aol.com/catspawpress/ToolShed.html, http://www.execpc.com/~mbr/bookwatch/) that
have lots of good information.
We also have an iron-clad anti-spam policy on Pub-Forum. Spam the list once and you're banned for life, in addition
to being reported to your ISP. Just don't do it.
See www.pub-forum.net for additional details about Pub-Forum.
Publisher's Forum is jointly managed (not moderated or owned) by:
Marion Gropen
Mayapriya Long
Michael Thompson
All three of us (known as the List Moms) have complete administrator privileges
to manage the list and have publicly vowed that we will not take any action
that is not unanimously agreed upon by all of us, and that none of us will
change the list specifications to exclude any of the others. Our foremost
desire is to have a free and open forum for discussion. Please
contact us with any questions or concerns.
Philosophy and warning: Publisher's Forum is about publishing, and
publishers, and the things that are important to publishers, such as freedom
and justice. We are not Random House or Houghton-Mifflin. We are small publishers,
most of whom are in this business because we care deeply about something.
Only a select few of us are getting rich in this business. Most of the rest
scrape by or work other jobs to pay the bills. We are publishers because
we care. And we care about a variety of issues. When we discuss publishing,
we don't limit it to the mechanics of how to select a good printer, or how
Ingram is screwing us again. Freedom and justice and social order and the
like are vitally related to publishing, even if they are not directly involved
in the production of a published item. This list was founded on a charter
of free speech, and largely in response to the censorship practiced on another
list of which many of us were members. That means we take a pretty open
view of discussion, and pretty much anything can be considered to be related
to the topic of publishing. However, in consideration of those who don't
care to wade through such a deluge of messages, we have requested that political
discussions and other items not directly related to the business of publishing
be limited to the weekends, so that the work week is free for more mundane
issues. It's not a hard and fast rule, it's a guideline and a request, and
it's intended to be enforced by the list members, not the administrators. (If you want to discuss political issues at other times, you may want to investigate an alternative list that was started by some of our list members, called Pub-Pol-Forum .)
Free speech isn't just an abstract concept on Pub-Forum. It's part of our
cultural identity as a list, because we have experienced the cost of upholding
it firsthand. We get criticism once in a while for having such a hard stance
on this, but we believe there is no issue so central to publishing than
the freedom to express unpopular ideas. A publishing list that censors or
excludes some of the publishers is hypocritical. There's a reason that freedom
of the press is in the very first amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and
our example is followed by so many other countries, and that is that without
that freedom, it is so much easier to infringe on our other freedoms with
impunity.
So if things get a little raucous around here, and you find yourself yearning
for a politer, saner world, just remember that with that chaos comes a depth
of discussion that goes far beyond how to get an ISBN or choose a cover
stock. We have a proud and meaningful history and we mean to remember it.
NOTICE: All posts to Pub-Form are the express property of the poster. Relevant
parts may be quoted for re-post in a reply or in a different thread on the
forum. However, the material should not be given or sold to any party or
non-pub-forum media or medium without the express consent of the originator.
If people DO wish that their posts be shared, they are encouraged to put
a notice on the material giving permission for the post to be shared. This
sharing can only be done on the original posting and not on postings that
contain replies by other subscribers.
To see the collection of prior postings to the list,
visit the Pub-Forum
Archives. (The current archive is only available to the list
members.)
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