Toolemera Blog

Always Time For One More Tweak

A last minute tweak or two, including adding the famous Aldine Leaf at the instance of Wesley Tanner who is not to be argued with and there it is, the first Toolemera Cover replete with photograph! Don't you feel those eyes following you?

Many thanks to Wesley for the new book logo and for pushing me to use the Aldine Leaf. If you wonder who or what that is, Aldus Manutius is someone you should know of. Now. Right Now. If not for Aldus, words might not look as they do today.

Till next, Gary

Take A Moment And Consider The Gorilla

FutureBook is an interesting blog, even if you're not interested in publishing and where publishing is going. This post on that old friend of mine, Amazon, has some very juicy thoughts on what the big guy is up to and what the not so big but possibly competitive others could be doing.

We Need To Talk About Amazon

Don't fret, this is a G rated blog.

Till next, Gary

Coming Soon: Carpentry & Joinery For Amateurs

Mr. Lukin is on his way to the printer to be proofed. If you have not heard of Mr. Lukin, read on here, and here. Now that you've returned, you know a lot about Mr. Lukin.

The epitome of the nineteenth century amateur, James Lukin was IT when it came to the guy amateur mechanics wanted to read when they wanted to know how to mechanic something. Woodworking, wood turning, steam, picture framing, Lukin did it and wrote about it. People read what Lukin wrote for decades upon decades.

Starting with Carpentry & Joinery For Amateurs, we're bringing Mr. Lukin into print to be followed by other select titles as time goes on. Some have been done by other publishers over the years and that's ok. It never hurts to have some competition or to produce a better version or to simply point people to another publisher's edition if it's a good one.

Once the proof is proofed and the book goes live, the appropriate announcements will be made.

Till next, Gary

Why Adam Cherubini Should Serialize His Articles

Adam Cherubini asked a question over at his Arts & Mysteries blog as to how to fit his words into the two page space Popular Woodworking allocates to him. The comments from his readership are fascinating, informative and worthy of review by any publisher and I hope the Popular Woodworking people are paying close attention.

My suggestion is simple, follow in the footsteps of the many great nineteenth century avocational and trade journals and serialize.  It worked for Work. It worked for Woodwork. It worked for just about every nineteenth century and early twentieth century trade journal. I think it's about time Popular Woodworking followed suit and serialized important and relevant topics when it's clear that two pages is short changing the readership.

Adam feels he is too wordy. Nah. Nope. Not true. He is as wordy as he needs to be in order to make his point and in order to instruct. I'm clearly one of his readership. When I get my copy of Popular Woodworking, I first check to see if he has an article therein. Same goes for the Editors Blogs. Same goes for Bob Lang and a few others.

I subscribe to Popular Woodworking not for projects or new tricks. I subscribe to learn about woodworking and it's history, about hand work, about furniture and about people. It's one of the few magazines that offers up this mix. Not all the time, but enough times to make it worth my cash to maintain my subscription.

As such, I appeal to the powers that be to serialize when the topic calls for it instead of force fitting knowledge into a layout to meet the needs of the issue. What better way to sell future issues than to serialize? Joseph Moxon did it.

If I can't get a book written by Adam, at the least I want his articles serialized.

Till next, Gary

 

Hard At Work, As Usual

This is me, sweating bullets, pounding away at the keyboard, chopping code, moving tables, thinking great thoughts just like that man behind the curtain.

Bit by byte, step by step, slowly I swung as the websites come into shape. There's something nicely constructive about rebuilding a website or two, even if they don't really exist except as a bunch of electrical pulses. Just don't tell anyone that... it's a secret. People do get so bent out of shape when they realize it's all not reality in here.

This fellow over here to the left is one of my favorite CDV cards. Even for a posed photograph, this fellow put a lot of effort into portraying who he was and how he wanted the world to see him. Not only that, but I want a pair of his overalls.

This would make for a great picture over my desk. Something to remind me of why we work so hard, of what the end of the day brings to those who put their noses to the grind stone and why plaid doesn't look good on everybody.

Till next, Gary