by Jon Konrath
This page contains major changes and milestones concerning The Necrokonicon, especially having to do with me getting this web site published as a book. Check back frequently for updates and new information!
I've also decided to retire the print version of The NecroKonicon. It was a good run, but I need to move on. I am not sure why I'm leaving the remains of this site here, but I'm pretty sure nobody's reading this anyway.
I've decided to remove the online version of The NecroKonicon. If you're still interested in reading it, the paper version is still available. This wasn't some shrewd decision to screw people out of money; I just don't want to maintain it anymore.
I've closed off commenting for the journal, now that it is "set in stone" (or at least paper). If you have any additions or comments, please feel free to use the contact link to send them to me.
It's here! I got the
proof today, and everything looks great, so the book is now live and
ready for orders. You can find it at http://www.lulu.com/content/309317.
At Lulu's site, you can preview the first ten pages or so, and see the
front and back cover. The book will only be available from Lulu, so
there won't be any Amazon/B&N or other sales. So check it out! (And
look at all of my other Lulu books at www.lulu.com/jkonrath.
I've finished the text and the cover, and I've sent the whole thing to the publisher and ordered a proof. Everything's done, provided the proof comes back looking correct, but I'm a little scared it won't, given the trouble I had generating a PDF in this new weird size.
Provided it checks out okay, I will post the info here on how to get a copy. And I probably should redo this web site somehow, and also update all of the other stuff on my site about my books, and so on.
I'm done with the internal images. If I ever do something like this again, I really need to name and store my scans better, because this was like sorting a warehouse of pins and needles by thickness. I ended up dropping a couple of images due to copyright paranoia, and adding one or two more. Total book length is about 190 pages.
Next, I will be cutting up comments and adding in facts and figures and other assorted useless-stuff-boxes to break up the flow a bit.
All of the HTML conversion stuff is done (but unedited.) Now I have to get all of the images in. This is a huge pain in the ass, because the images on the web pages are tiny thumbnails, resized from some other source picture. And since I've been adding pictures over four years, the sources are all over the place. For each picture, I have to dig around for a scan or digicam shot, resize them, and then place them in the manuscript. And I'm not 100% happy with how the images are going in, either. So this is a very frustrating procedure, and may take a while.
I'm still playing around with how the cover will work, and I messed with a mockup in photoshop. There will be a jillion tiny pictures scattered all over the cover, and I'm messing with that. I think it will look cool, though.
Busy busy busy converting HTML to Frame and doing the layout. Busy enough I had nightmares about doing search and replaces last night.
I should back up a bit and clarify what I mean about "publishing a book". I'm taking all of the HTML and images, plus some extra stuff, and using FrameMaker to make a pretty PDF that I will then send to lulu.com, who will make books out of it. Actually, they don't print the books until you order it. They have a store online, you order the book, and it shows up in your mailbox, pretty and paper and with a nice glossy cover and all that crap.
The book will be a 7"x9" perfect-bound b&w deal with a color cover. Right now, it's looking to be about 200-ish pages, but it's still early and I haven't even started messing with images. Price? I don't know. Between $10 and $20, probably like $15 or so. The book will not have an ISBN and won't be available on Amazon or on other online bookstores, and you can't order it from stores, just the Lulu site. No plans on how to sell the thing or what promo will be done, I'm just worrying about that pretty PDF step for now...
Okay, I started a news page. This is partially to let you know about a few things going on, but the alterior motive is to keep me on track on getting everything done here. So here are a few updates.
Some of you have noticed that a bunch of new topics have been pushed out on the web site. (A couple were removed too. Nothing major, just ones that didn't have a lot of linkage or relevancy.) But, as of yesterday, the web page is FROZEN. I will not be adding any new topics, or doing any major work. If a meteor hits Elkhart and takes out the Concord Mall, I won't be writing about it. (Well, maybe in my journal, after I stop laughing.) One of the reasons that I decided to freeze is that I needed to copy everything into FrameMaker and start the layout. And the big reason is that something like this is never "done". There are always changes going on, and I always want to add to the glossary when they happen. But the past doesn't change, and that's what I'm really covering, so I needed to pick a convenient stopping point, and that happened to be May 7, 2006.
Likewise, I am at the beginning of the huge process of getting all of the HTML blown apart and put into a layout in FrameMaker. It's tedious work, and it's underway. I'm taking my time to get the layout to look good, so it will take a while. I hope to have some rough cut of the book by the time I leave for vacation at the end of the month, so I have something to do on the plane.
Commenting is and isn't broken. For some reason, the tally of the comments doesn't work all the time. That's HaloScan's fault, and I've done everything they told me to do to fix it, and it's still broken. But, commenting still works. I am kinda-sorta thinking of a way to incorporate some comments into the book, so please keep leaving your stories and memories about the topics. Just remember I'm not going back and rewriting any topics.
And for a similar but completely different project having to do with Bloomington, check out www.bloomingpedia.org, which is a wikipedia-type reference about the city of Bloomington.
Last updated
Thursday, 09-Feb-2017
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The Necrokonicon