This is a tale of the evolution of a book. A new kind of book. Its genesis involved no typewriters, no paper, no agents, no publishing houses. Instead, computers, e-mail, teleconferencing, the internet, a blog site, and a community of volunteers embracing a concept made it real. This is the story of how
Kosmos: You Are Here came to be, well, here.
First there was Daily Kos, a blog devoted to building and harnessing a virtual progressive/Democratic community.
Then there was YearlyKos and Gina Cooper's desire for Kossacks from all over the world to be able to share direct personal contact via a national convention.
The Trollhouse Cookbook by fans of the Daily Kos "Cheers & Jeers" diaries turned the negativity of trolls into a positive, and the funds it generated helped keep YK running. A call for donations to get the YearlyKos convention off the ground met with wonderful response, and a call for volunteers resulted in a team with wide-ranging skills in a variety of fields of expertise.
What If We...?
On November 2nd, 2005, Andy Ternay sent Gina an e-mail proposing another book to help raise funds for the YearlyKos convention--a science book to be taken from the Daily Kos ``Science Friday'' diaries by Steven Darksyde, along with contributions by other Kossack diarists of scientific bent. Being the outstanding executive she is, Gina urged Andy to contact the authors and appointed him Project Coordinator for the whole thing.
Andy initially met resistance, prompted by the hornet's nest of legal concerns involved in protecting the authors, and the copyright difficulties involved in publishing the artwork in a "book" as opposed to a web page. Steven also questioned the demand for such a book, and whether it would even be able to pay for itself. Andy persisted (foremost quality needed in a Project Coordinator!), sending Steven numerous comments from his own diaries from folks begging DarkSyde to publish his articles, and promising to buy whatever he did publish. Two weeks later, Andy got a reluctant "Well, okay, if you want to give it a try..."
Assembling the Team
Two weeks of e-mails ensued--Shanna Ingalsbee and Andy asking volunteers if they'd like to work on the project, then coordinating personnel and tasks. As people came on board, Andy's belief and enthusiasm became infectious. We set up our first conference call on December 1st to plan the book. We had Mark Sumner (Devilstower) and PastorDan on board as contributing authors.
Steven was fully gung-ho by now, saying it would be really cool to have lots of spectacular pictures in the book, which meant chasing down images and getting permission to use them from the illustrators and/or photographers. He had contacts in the scientific community all lined up to vet the articles for accuracy, and his buddy, paleoartist Carl Buell, had agreed to contribute a number of illustrations for the book, including some originals.
But there were still gaps. Someone would have to research electronic publication and delivery systems. Legal research was needed to protect the authors' and illustrators' rights to their work, even as they granted us copyrighted use of it. What about marketing the book, getting it "out there"? If the scope of the project seems overwhelming, you wouldn't have noticed listening to our first concall. We figured we'd have it out as a Christmas release!
In Production
The authors began rewrites of their diaries for a broader audience than Kossacks and began e-mailing them to me. Darksyde sent links to dozens and dozens of images on the net. I began designing the basic layout of the book and integrating the text and graphics into chapters. Samples were uploaded to YK for review and criticism by the team.
Andy Ternay began coordinating the bazillion details and people in earnest, not just for the production of the book, but also for legal clearances on images and copyrights, and marketing and sales strategies. He put T. Bruce Godfrey to work on legal, John Martellaro on marking and sales. And then he recruited Kossack artists and put them to work.
Karen Wehrstein originally signed on as an artist for the cover art, but after receiving some of her comments on the book, I begged and pleaded with her to assume the designer mantle--I have a technician's eye, not an artist's. Overworked though she was, she took on the extra burden. Over the next few days, our book went from Minnie Pearl at the Grand Ol' Opry to Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday.
Initially, posted chapters were being reviewed by everyone who was already swamped with their own stuff to do. We needed proofreaders. (We'd double-hatted the artists, but they needed the time to do their illustrations!) Shanna Ingalsbee delivered four or five within a few days, Andy a couple more. The authors would send updates as their scientific reviewers provided technical corrections. The textual content of the book was flying along nicely.
Not so the images---at least the ones we were chasing down on the net. (Our Kossack artists were great--when a couple of early volunteers couldn't make it, artists Bonnie Bergman and Lizzie Nichols did triple and double duty for the artwork we had specifically requested.) Usually too low in resolution for printing (which was our eventual goal), each net image had to be tracked down to its original hi-res source image. Sometimes we ran down a half-dozen paths that dead-ended, forcing us to find another image and repeat the process. Often we had to appeal to the original artist or photographer, both for the image and the permission to use it. Sometimes they wanted money, and we usually sought comparable art elsewhere. For a couple of critical images, we forked over the bread, praying this book was going to sell enough to cover the cost and still help fund the convention.
Surprises Along the Way
Google is my friend. I was becoming expert at finding artists and photographers. And that led to some wonderful exchanges. Often an artist or illustrator would want to know how their work was going to be used. So I'd slurp them the page or even chapter, with the art in place. No one turned us down, until the last minute (more on that one later). In fact, Joel White, the high school physics teacher who took the double-rainbow picture I found via Google, liked the book so much he signed on as a proofreader, too. (His wife Jean also read the book ["I'm helping my husband, Joel White, proofread your ebook--and enjoying every word. It's fun to read--entertaining as well as enlightening. As a teacher I love having explanations for scientific thought when I conference with parents!"], and then he asked if it was OK if he passed it on to another colleague for even more proofreading.)
Some of the responses were amazing. Dr. Jim Lovell, an astrophysicist in Australia, was thrilled to be able to contribute to such a book. "Thanks for your email and my apologies for not replying sooner. I'm more than happy for Mr. Darksyde to use the still image(s) from my simulation and wish him all the best with his book. I hope everyone on the Kansas School Board reads it, and there are a few politicians here in Oz who should probably see it too!" An artist who was now with a museum couldn't give me permission for a work he'd done for someone else, so he did a brand new illustration, just for us (Jurgen Ziewe and his pikaia). In a similar vein, a couple of artists were happy to share their work, but they wanted us to have an even better version of their illustration, so they "fixed" them for us.
I knew this was a great book, but I was really getting an education on just how much impact it carried. People from all over the country and even the world were desperate to see some affirmation of scientific thought--I was unaware just how widespread and powerful the anti-science forces were until I worked on this book.
Persistence
Our optimistic four weeks turned into four months. Rewrites for image changes, posting updated pdfs for our proofreaders, getting their feedback, updating and generating new pdfs--a cycle that repeated around a dozen times. I personally owe a huge debt of gratitude to them (including Jeri Ivens, Lynn Allen and several others mentioned in this diary), And, of course, the illustrations--finding appropriate images, chasing down the copyright holder and getting their permission. I think I clocked in somewhere around 600 hours on this project, including the tedious job of indexing (boy, is that an eye-opener--there is more data per sentence in this book than in anything I've read in 30 years), but we finally finished it...all except getting permission for that one image.
The image was Ocracoke Island, by Collan Kneale. I found it via Google on OcracokeGuide.com. The image was in 48 pieces, which I downloaded and carefully "glued" together into a single image for use in the book. After looking them up in MSN's White Pages and getting their address and phone, I called and spoke to Joy Kneale. She wanted to know who we were ("the more progressive, the better!" said she) and how it would be used (I'd send a CD, since they didn't have internet access) but that I would have to call Mike McOwen, as Collan had done that art for Mike and he might own the copyright. (Ah, the twists and turns of artist, artwork and true ownership!)
I got in touch with Mike and he said sure, as long as Collan was okay with it. So great, looks like we'd nailed the last image.
Then I got a phone call. Joy had shared the CD with a group of friends on the island, some of whom have a bit of political clout. After reviewing the text, they weren't happy with the portrayal of their island as being in danger. They didn't have oversized castles, and they had reverse osmosis to handle water...
Thunk, thunk, thunk--what I felt like doing with my head against the wall. But she was such a nice lady. I was upset at the obvious hurt in her voice. I asked Devilstower if he could talk to them. He did, and they cleared up some conflicting information he'd gotten from other islanders (though Collan admitted a lot of water still came in from the mainland, in spite of the reverse osmosis plant the islanders are so proud of), and he did some rewriting of the chapter. So I slurped off another CD to Joy and we got their okay.
Epilogue
Joy called again a couple of weeks after the book was released, just to tell me how wonderful it was dealing with our crew, how much Collan enjoyed working with Mark, and how Collan wanted to do a new piece just for our book, but obviously couldn't because of the time constraints. She sent me books on Ocracoke and invited me down to visit.
That, in a nutshell, is the beauty and purpose of YearlyKos--turning virtual connections into personal connections.
And that is how Kosmos: You Are Here came to be here.
Kosmos: You Are Here is available for electronic download via eBookStore and will be available on physical CDs at the YearlyKos convention.