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TidBITS#332/10-Jun-96
=====================

This issue comes to you despite a plethora of SCSI problems and
   includes articles miraculously retrieved from the jaws of complete
   data corruption. This week we bring you news about the latest
   System software update from Apple, a review of Gif*gIf*giF (a
   utility for making animated GIFs of onscreen actions), and a long
   look at the computer book publishing process, complete with lots
   of advice for aspiring authors.

This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- <[e-mail]>
   Makers of hard drives, tape drives, and neat SCSI accessories.
   For APS price lists, email: <[e-mail]>
* Northwest Nexus -- 206/455-3505 -- <http://www.halcyon.com/>
   Providing access to the global Internet. <[e-mail]>
* Power Computing -- 800/375-7693 -- <[e-mail]>
   PowerTower 180 MHz - the fastest Mac OS system ever made.
   Win a PowerCenter 120! <http://www.powercc.com/>
* America Online -- 800/827-6364 -- <http://www.aol.com/>
   The world's largest provider of online services.
   Give Back to the Net -- <http://www.aol.com/give/>
* EarthLink Network -- 800/395-8425 -- <[e-mail]>
   Providers of direct Internet access for Macintosh users.
   For eWorld refugees: no setup fee! <http://www.earthlink.net/>
* DealBITS: Hardware, software, and CD-ROMs at great prices!
   <http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/> -- <[e-mail]>

Copyright 1990-1996 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
   Information: <[e-mail]> Comments: <[e-mail]>
   ---------------------------------------------------------------

Topics:
    MailBITS/10-Jun-96
    Hold It Right There, Buster!
    Go for the GIF: Gif*gIf*giF
    The Process of Publishing

<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/1996/TidBITS#332_10-Jun-96.etx>


MailBITS/10-Jun-96
------------------
  It has been a hard week for TidBITS. I'm barely keeping my head
  above water while in the final throes of finishing the fourth
  edition of Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh, and if that wasn't
  enough, both Geoff and I have had major disk problems (at one
  point, four of my five main machines were causing significant
  trouble simultaneously, and Geoff's problems destroyed several
  MailBITS and articles he was working on that day). As a result of
  all these problems, distribution of this issue, particularly to
  some of the online services, might end up being slightly delayed.
  Times like these make me wonder what I could have possibly done to
  offend the computer gods, and if a ritual tofu sacrifice might
  help. [ACE]


**Email Woes Update** -- Geoff is still recovering from his hard
  disk problems, and asks that you note that replies to email sent
  to him or to <[e-mail]> are likely to be delayed. I
  have never seen Adam work so hard in the ten years I've known him;
  needless to say, replies to email sent to him are also likely to
  be delayed. I'm digging my way out of some 400 messages in my In
  box that I didn't get to while working on my part of the Internet
  Starter Kit, so I'll be replying to my email, albeit not as
  promptly as I'd prefer. [TJE]


Hold It Right There, Buster!
----------------------------
  by Geoff Duncan <[e-mail]>

  Last week, Apple released a patch to System 7.5.3, called System
  7.5.3 Revision 2 and code named Buster. Unlike the mammoth System
  7.5 Update 2.0 (which shipped on some 14 floppy disks, contained
  major updates to the system architectures and introduced new
  technologies like Open Transport 1.1), System 7.5.3 Revision 2
  contains only a small number of improvements for a specific range
  of machines. See TidBITS-318_ and TidBITS-325_ for more
  information about System 7.5.3.


**Who's Affected** -- Apple stresses that the update is intended
  only for users of the following Macintoshes:

* The PowerBook 5300-series and Duo 2300-series, along with
  PowerBook 500-series and Duo 200-series machines upgraded to a
  PowerPC processor using an Apple or third-party upgrade.

* Power Macintosh 7200, 7500, 7600, 8500, and 9500-series
  machines.

* _All_ PowerBooks using Connectix RAM Doubler 1.6.1 or earlier.

  Power Computing hasn't finished evaluating System 7.5.3 Revision 2
  and does not currently have a recommendation for its customers.
  However, I think it's likely that owners of PowerCurve, PowerWave,
  PowerCenter, and PowerTower models will want to install the patch,
  due to the architectural similarities between those machines and
  models Apple is recommending for the update. I don't know if the
  patch should be installed on DayStar or UMAX clones; however, it's
  likely that earlier clones from Radius are exempt.

  The System 7.5.3 Revision 2 installer does not have a Remove
  feature, so (as always!) back up your data before installing.
  Also, though the update ships on two floppy disk images, that's
  purely to accommodate different installations of System 7.5.3 -
  many users will never be prompted for the second disk.
  Unfortunately, I don't know whether you can successfully use
  System 7.5.3 Revision 2 with non-U.S. versions of System 7.5.3.


**What's Fixed** -- The most notable fixes in System 7.5.3
  Revision 2 involve PowerBooks. First and foremost, PowerBooks
  running versions of RAM Doubler prior to 1.6.2 now wake up
  properly - formerly, these machines would fail to wake up from
  sleep mode unless MacsBug was installed (see TidBITS-325_). The
  update also fixes problems associated with using and formatting PC
  disks in PowerBook 500 and Duo 200-series PowerBooks with PowerPC
  upgrades. These disks should now be readable on DOS and Windows
  computers. Overall performance on PowerBooks with PowerPC upgrade
  cards should also be improved.

  In addition, a rare problem with PCI Power Macs failing to start
  up from the drive selected in the Startup Disk control panel has
  been fixed.

  Finally, the most subtle change in the update (which Apple vaguely
  characterizes as "improved reliability") involves the Dynamic
  Recompiling (DR) 68K emulator used in recent Mac models. The
  emulator is highly reliable, but the update fixes a problem that
  happened in an obscure set of circumstances and sometimes caused
  data corruption. Because the problem occurred so rarely and at
  such a low level, it's impossible to point to any specific
  symptoms it might have caused; however, because the 68K emulator
  is used so extensively, it's better to have the problem resolved
  than lurking in the shadows.


**Acquiring the Update** -- You can download System 7.5.3 Revision
  2 from the usual Apple servers, as well as from most online
  services and a few third-party sites.

<ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple.Software.Updates/
US/Macintosh/System/System_7.5.3_Revision_2/>

  The update includes two floppy disk images; to use them, you'll
  need a version of DiskCopy or (better) ShrinkWrap.

<ftp://mirror.aol.com/pub/info-mac/disk/shrink-wrap-201.hqx>

  If you use an AppleVision monitor on your Macintosh, you must
  install the AppleVision Fix 1.0 for 7.5.3 _before_ installing
  System 7.5.3 Revision 2.0.

<ftp://ftp.support.apple.com/pub/apple_sw_updates/US/mac/system_sw/
System_7.5_Update_2.0/AppleVision_Fix_1.0.hqx>

  Needless to say, you must have System 7.5.3 installed before you
  can install the update. System 7.5 Update 2.0 (which updates any
  version of System 7.5 to 7.5.3) is available online from Apple for
  free; however, Apple is now charging for CD-ROM or floppy disks
  versions of the update to System 7.5.3.

<ftp://ftp.support.apple.com/pub/apple_sw_updates/US/mac/system_sw/
System_7.5_Update_2.0/>


**Who's Not Affected, What's Not Fixed** -- Do you need this
  update? I suggest that you follow Apple's advice and install the
  update only on the Macs recommended by Apple. Though many power
  users insist on having the latest version of the system software
  no matter what, the fixes in this patch are so specific that
  there's unlikely to be any benefit to users of other machines. So,
  if you use a 68000-based desktop Macintosh, a 5000 or 6000-series
  Performa or LC, or other model not mentioned by Apple, you can
  forego this update.

  However, as notable as the fixes in System 7.5.3 Revision 2 are,
  it's interesting to note what's not included. Owners of 5200,
  5300, 6200, and 6300-series Performas and LCs are still waiting
  for Open Transport, and there's still little information available
  from Apple on the reported hardware handshaking problems with the
  serial ports in those machines.

    Information from:
      Power Computing
      Apple Computer
      Pythaeus


Go for the GIF: Gif*gIf*giF
---------------------------
  by Tonya Engst <[e-mail]>

  Look around on the Web, and you'll see Web pages that experiment
  with video. Although much of this experimentation leaves much to
  be desired, I believe that movies on the Web will eventually
  improve. Files sizes will decrease and the appropriateness of
  video to the topic on hand will increase. Also, we'll see more
  tools that make it cheap and easy to create movies. One such tool,
  awkwardly spelled Gif*gIf*giF, creates animated GIFs of actions
  that occur on your Macintosh screen. Gif*gIf*giF is a $28
  shareware program from Pedagoguery Software. It comes in 68K and
  PowerPC versions (as well as Windows 3.1 and 95 versions) and the
  download weighs in around 150K for either Macintosh version.

<http://espresso.cafe.net/peda/ggg/>


**What's an Animated GIF?** GIF is a graphics format universally
  used on the Web, and usually GIFs appear as simple graphics. The
  GIF 89a specification includes details on how to create a single
  GIF file that contains more than one image, sort of like a movie
  flip book, but with timing controls for how quickly frames go by.
  Web browsers (primarily Netscape Navigator 2.0) can interpret the
  animation portion of the GIF 89a specification and display these
  movies. GIF animations have their pros and cons: on the plus side,
  they compress well, they don't require a plug-in, and the software
  for creating them is becoming widely available (an excellent
  choice would be Yves Piguet's friendly, freeware GifBuilder). On
  the minus side, poorly conceived, gratuitous GIF animations tend
  to clutter Web pages, turning them into visual distractions and
  causing endless hard disk clatter as the movies loop endlessly.
  (If you want to know more about animated GIFs, check out Royal
  Frazier's excellent GIF Animation on the WWW home page.)

<http://iawww.epfl.ch/Staff/Yves.Piguet/clip2gif-home/GifBuilder.html>
<http://members.aol.com/royalef/gifanim.htm>

  Gif*gIf*giF helps you make animated GIFs of things happening
  onscreen and thus may encourage the creation of genuinely helpful
  animations for tutorials on Macintosh use. To use Gif*gIf*giF, you
  define the screen area in which you wish to record and then start
  mousing or typing. Your actions are recorded in the movie.
  Gif*gIf*giF offers a few controls, including the ability to set
  whether the animation will loop and how many frames you want to
  record per second.

  If you need Gif*gIf*giF, I think you'll find it an effective tool.
  I have two monitors attached to my Macintosh, and Gif*gIf*giF 1.0
  insisted on recording on my secondary monitor, the one that does
  not show the menu bar. Jeff at Pedagoguery Software sent me a beta
  of Gif*gIf*giF version 1.01, and the problem went away in that
  version. Gif*gIf*giF enforces its $28 shareware fee by putting an
  "unregistered copy" banner across animations created in an
  unregistered version.


The Process of Publishing
-------------------------
  by Adam C. Engst <[e-mail]>

  Many of you have probably seen my email signature recently,
  modified to warn that my email responses may be short or delayed
  because I'm working on the fourth edition of Internet Starter Kit
  for Macintosh. People are generally quite good about reducing my
  email load when I ask like that, but afterwards I often receive
  questions about what I was doing, and how a technical book gets
  converted from bits to atoms. Since the process is fresh in mind
  (and not quite over yet, to my consternation), I thought I'd pass
  on some of my experiences with computer book publishing.


**The Idea** -- The first step in any book project is figuring out
  what you want to write about and developing a proposal, complete
  with a full outline and probably a sample chapter. This process
  should help you focus on the topic of the book, which is necessary
  when you start talking to publishers. You might also consider
  whether you want to work with a literary agent, since an agent can
  make finding a publisher easier and aid in contract negotiations.
  I haven't worked with an agent before, so I can't comment
  personally, but based on my experiences with contracts, I think a
  first time author without good negotiating skills would do well to
  contact an agent. I know of two literary agencies that work with
  technical authors - Studio B and Waterside Productions. It's worth
  checking out their Web sites, since both contain plenty of
  information for potential authors.

<http://www.studiob.com/>
<http://www.waterside.com/>


**Acquisitions** -- Whether or not you work with an agent, the
  first person you talk to at a publisher is likely to be an
  acquisitions editor. Most people contact the acquisitions editor
  with the proposal; in some cases, like mine, an acquisitions
  editor may contact you with a book idea. My impression is that an
  increasing number of acquisitions editors spend time on mailing
  lists and newsgroups, looking for potential authors. Why is this?

  You've probably noticed the incredible influx of computer books
  over the last few years. For instance, when Internet Starter Kit
  for Macintosh first appeared in September of 1993, it was one of
  five or six Internet books. A friend recently checked the Barnes &
  Noble (a large bookstore chain) database and found over 1,000
  Internet-related books. With so many books out there, the
  competition is fierce, which requires that publishers quickly
  release lots of books in a continual effort to find a best seller.

  (An aside - the term "best seller" doesn't mean much in the
  computer book industry. The term could apply to both Internet
  Starter Kit for Macintosh, with its several hundred thousand sold,
  and to another book that's sold 30,000 copies. Studio B has posted
  a few lists of the current best selling books at certain
  distributors or bookstore chains.)

<http://www.studiob.com/roundtable/bestsellers/index.html>

  As a result of this fast-moving competitive world, publishers
  continually seek new authors who can write well, write quickly,
  and who know their subject matter. Many book projects these days
  seem to happen in two to three months, and that's not much time
  unless you research and write fast. It's especially hard if, as
  Tonya did with her first book about Word 5, you are attempting to
  hold down a day job as well.

  The job of the acquisitions editor is to find authors, work out a
  basic idea for the book project, and get a contract signed. Be
  careful with those contracts! Publishing contracts often contain
  non-compete clauses that could prove problematic in other jobs you
  do, and have clauses that govern how little you receive for
  subsidiary rights (translations, book clubs, that sort of thing).
  I think agents are the most useful at the contract stage, since
  it's easy to sign over your first-born child if you don't pay
  attention, and - let's be honest - if this is your first book,
  you'll sign almost anything. Read the contract carefully, and
  don't be afraid to negotiate on specific clauses.

  Perhaps the major part of the contract, from your viewpoint, is
  the compensation. Publishers offer two basic forms of
  compensation, "work for hire" and royalties. Work for hire means
  the publisher pays you $10,000 or whatever and nothing more, no
  matter how well or poorly the book sells. The main reason to
  accept work for hire, in my opinion, is if you think the book will
  be an utter flop (and then you shouldn't be writing it). I far
  prefer the royalty system, where you get a percentage between 5
  percent and 20 percent (that's only for top authors, and even
  then, not necessarily). 10 percent is probably a standard rate,
  although it's also common for there to be a sliding rate based on
  sales, so you might receive 6 percent on the first 10,000 copies
  sold, 8 percent on the next 2,000, and 10 percent on all copies
  sold after 12,000.

  Along with royalties, you usually get an advance against
  royalties. That means that the publisher gives you some money up
  front (since you won't earn any royalties for at least three to
  six months after you start the project). Pay attention to the
  words "against royalties." They mean that as the book sells and
  starts earning royalties, you don't earn anything until the
  royalties have paid back the entire advance. Advances generally
  range from $5,000 to $20,000, with the occasional top author
  getting more than that. Interestingly, although it could happen,
  publishers apparently never ask for advances back, even if the
  book doesn't sell well enough to make back the entire advance in
  royalties. A large advance is thus generally a good thing, since
  you have the use of the money and, even if you don't spend it, the
  money can earn interest for you rather than for the publisher.


**Development** -- Once the details have been ironed out, the
  development of the book begins. You're generally assigned to a
  development editor, who works with you throughout the rest of the
  book. That person sets the schedule for handing in chapters and
  other materials and offers structural and conceptual comments on
  the text as it comes in. Now's when you start writing for real,
  although it's often a good idea to start writing sooner or else
  you may find that you don't have enough time, often due to
  prolonged negotiations over the contract.

  The most important piece of advice I can give is to set realistic
  deadlines, work by a schedule, and set yourself up to work quickly
  and efficiently. Writing is a lot harder than it seems when you've
  got an entire book to finish, and writing about technical subjects
  can prove frustrating if the program you're writing about is
  behaving unpredictably, or, frankly, if you don't know your topic
  all that well. Be as prepared as you possibly can, and think ahead
  about related materials such as a disk or a Web site. You should
  work on all parts of the book simultaneously, at least to a
  certain extent, because otherwise it's too easy to think that
  you're 90 percent done because you have 18 of 20 chapters done,
  when in reality those are the two hardest and longest chapters.
  Oh, and did you forget about the disk?

  If you work with other people, be prepared to take on the project
  management, and try to keep lines of communication open via phone
  and email. There's nothing worse than being limited by someone
  else's part of a project and not knowing what's going on with
  them.

  It's common to turn chapters in to your development editor as you
  finish them, rather than all at once at the end of the project.
  The development editor has to read each chapter, pass it back to
  you if necessary, and if not, pass it on to a copy editor, who
  does the picky copy editing. Another piece of advice: turn in as
  clean copy as you can. My experience is that copy editors catch a
  percentage of errors, so if you turn in a chapter with 100 errors,
  and they catch 90 percent, that leaves ten errors. If the chapter
  only has ten errors to begin with, though, the copy editor will
  probably catch all but one. I personally rely on some simple Nisus
  Writer macros to catch some common problems, like double spaces
  and improper curly quotes.

  After your chapters have been copy edited, your development editor
  usually sends them back to you for author review. Author review is
  often your last chance to fix problems introduced in editing or
  add last minute details. When you finish author review, you send
  the chapters back to the development editor, who sends them on to
  a production editor, who in turn shepherds them into and through
  the production department.

  (Another aside - almost everyone in a publishing company is an
  editor of some sort, although the titles and job descriptions vary
  between different publishers. I wouldn't be surprised if some
  publishers even have sanitation editors instead of janitors.)


**Production and Finalizing** -- Once in production, you might
  have the option of seeing the actual pages, but since you can't
  transfer them back and forth via email it might be too much work
  (some publishers do everything via email and all should - in this
  day and age it's expensive and wasteful to print everything just
  to submit it). My experience is that after author review, I never
  want to see my text again, having stared at it far too many times.
  The publisher does have proofreaders look at the pages of the book
  as it comes out of production, so they'll pick up typos and other
  minor errors, but nothing factual.

  If you have a disk or CD-ROM with your book, it must be turned in
  as well. Although less production must be done on the publisher's
  part with the disk or CD-ROM, you'll be scrambling to make sure
  the book and the disk or CD-ROM are in synch. It sounds easy, but
  if one little thing changes, you have to make sure the book
  reflects that change. Maybe it's easier if you're not a
  perfectionist.

  Also, no matter what level of disk or CD-ROM you do, you must test
  it. Make sure it works on as many computers as you can try, and
  have friends test it as well. Make sure the windows appear
  properly on smaller screens, make sure the icons are positioned
  right, and double-check all the details. A CD-ROM is even more
  troublesome since it can hold so many more files than a floppy
  disk, not to mention the complexity (which I won't address here)
  of burning a CD-ROM properly. One tip: if you have thousands of
  files on your CD-ROM in hundreds of folders, use free utility
  called Align Folders to regularize the window positions.

<ftp://mirror.aol.com/pub/info-mac/gui/align-folders-20.hqx>

  Obviously, you can't email CD-ROMs, but if you only have a single
  floppy disk, I've had good luck with sending my editor ShrinkWrap
  and a disk image via email. In the last few days, even an
  overnight delivery service can be too slow.

<ftp://mirror.aol.com/pub/info-mac/disk/shrink-wrap-201.hqx>

  Once all is handed in, your job is mostly over. The main task that
  remains is making sure the development editor lets you edit the
  cover of the book. It's not all that common for publishers to do
  this, I gather, because many authors throw fits about the look of
  the cover. Don't stress over the aesthetics since you don't have a
  lot of control (although you can make your opinions known).
  Instead, focus on the cover text. Make sure it's correct and not
  misleading, since that will cause a lot of bad will on the part of
  potential readers. Often the covers are designed and written by
  marketing people who haven't the foggiest idea what's inside the
  book. I have yet to edit a cover and not find text that needed
  fixing.

  After production ends, the book goes to the printer, where it's
  printed, bound, and sent to the warehouse. That process can take
  anywhere from three weeks (uncommon) to six weeks or longer,
  depending on other schedules. Publishers like to release books at
  the time specified on their original schedules because that's when
  bookstores expect to receive shipments.


**Sales** -- Computer books are sold well before they exist - this
  is called the "sell-in" and is based on the sales person quickly
  describing your book to a book buyer. The sales person may also
  have a mock-up of the cover to display, but it's safe to say that
  much of the description is hypothetical (since you haven't
  finished writing at this point). Large bookstore chains like
  Borders and Barnes & Noble play a big role in the success of a
  book because they can help significantly with the sell-in.

  Once the books ship to the stores, real people can buy them. Two
  things are possible here. If your publisher has done a great job
  of marketing and selling the book, it will appear everywhere, and
  people will buy it because they see it. This is called "push-
  marketing." If, on the other hand, your sell-in is low, but word-
  of-mouth causes lots of people to visit the bookstores and request
  the book, the bookstores will slowly realize the book is good and
  continue to stock it in ever-increasing quantities. This is called
  "pull-marketing" and is what happened with my Internet Starter Kit
  for Macintosh (never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth on
  the Internet!). Of course, there's a third option, which is that
  the books don't appear in stores much and no one much buys them.
  I've heard that the average computer book sells about 12,000
  copies, which isn't much and very well may not be enough to make
  it worth your time.

  When you see your first royalty statement varies by publisher, as
  does how often you receive royalty checks. Hayden sends me the
  first royalty statement for a book in the month after the third
  month after the book was released. Subsequent statements come
  every month, as do subsequent royalty checks. Other publishers may
  send a statement every month, but only send checks every three
  months or even every six months. Cash flow is an issue with
  royalties, so be careful when doing your financial planning if
  you're thinking about writing a book.

  Perhaps the weirdest things about the book publishing market is
  that bookstores can and do send back unsold books. You receive
  royalties on everything sold to the bookstores (and your royalties
  are based on the price to the bookstore, which is usually about
  half the price of the book). When a book is returned, you have to
  give back the royalty you earned on that book. Publishers often
  withhold a reserve against returns, so you may not see any effect,
  at least until the reserve is exhausted. If you write more than
  one book for the same publisher, you might see the returns on one
  be paid for by the royalties on the other; check for clauses about
  this in your contract.

  At the end of the life span of a book (after it's been returned,
  or not sold at all), the publisher remainders the remaining books,
  often giving you the chance to buy as many as you'd like first at
  the remainder cost, which is about the cost of creating the book.
  Most computer books probably cost under $4 in materials, although
  there are plenty of other infrastructure costs in the final price.
  Warehouse and discount stores buy the remaindered books and sell
  them at incredibly low prices - someone once reported seeing the
  first edition of Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh selling for
  $2.19. Remaindered books stick around for a long time. You might
  have a second or a third edition out, but the remaindered first
  editions could still be available, which can cause some sticky
  situations on occasion when people try to use obsolete software or
  instructions.

  Don't take what I've said above as the gospel about book
  publishing. I've been doing it for over three years and a number
  of titles now, but I've only worked with one publisher. My
  comments about other publishers come primarily from talking with
  other authors.

  Would I recommend that someone jump into the computer book
  publishing market? The answer is probably no, unless you
  understand what you're getting yourself into. I've seen a number
  of people, including Tonya, write excellent books that sold badly
  for reasons that the author has no hope of controlling, and I've
  seen other people get way in over their heads on a book project
  that they have no hope of completing by the deadline. On the other
  hand, I know some successful authors who make a fine living by
  writing book after book, supplementing them with the occasional
  magazine article, and generally enjoying the process. Either way,
  go in with your eyes open.


$$

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